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Team Creativity at Work
Assess Your Creativity Habits
Identify the factors that hinder your creativity at work.
By Edward Glassman, PhD | Updated July 16, 2018
To identify the factors that hinder your creativity at work, rate the items below on a scale of 1 to 5, where '1' means you never do this, and '5' means you always do this.
____ I buffer myself from interruptions during creative thinking.
____ I exchange ideas with other people.
____ I avoid quick negative self-criticism of my own new ideas and proposals.
____ I avoid assuming boundaries that box my creativity.
____ I allocate enough time for incubation.
____ I state positive things about a new idea before I state the difficulties to be overcome.
____ I exhibit lots of spontaneity and humor.
____ I review and discuss how the climate and my habits in my work affect my creativity.
____ I engage in "thinking time."
____ I use advanced creativity techniques to solve problems creatively.
____ I use criteria to select ideas after idea generation, not before.
____ I review how advanced creativity techniques help to solve problems in my work.
____ I use bizarre ideas to spark better ideas.
____ I use creativity techniques to define problems before I generate ideas.
____ I use advanced idea-generating techniques.
____ I set quotas for new ideas before I generate and select them.
____ I postpone evaluation and defer judgment while generating ideas.
____ I set deadlines that allow plenty of time for creative thinking.
____ I seek resource help everywhere to help my creativity.
____ Performance reviews encourage my creative efforts and ideas.
____ I attend workshops on creative thinking and on advanced creativity techniques.
____ I know how to gain quick approval and resources to test and implement new ideas.
____ I fill my mind with information for new creative thinking by attending professional meetings, trade fairs, visiting customers, reading.
____ I review and discuss how my leaders help or spoil my creativity.
____ My leaders help me move toward autonomy and responsible self-direction.
____ Supervision of my work is not too tight or too loose.
____ My leaders encourage me to make decisions, to use creative thinking, and to solve problems creatively on my own, and with other people.
____ My leaders give me autonomy to determine how to accomplish objectives.
____ I dress as I wish.
____ My leaders solicit my new ideas.
____ My leaders encourage me to use advanced creativity techniques to solve problems.
____ I solve problems creatively for my satisfaction and enjoyment.
____ My incentives and rewards enhance my motivation to be creative.
____ I motivate myself to be creative by emphasizing the daily enjoyment and the challenge of the work.
____ I volunteer for assignments.
____ I have a high stability of employment to encourage risk-taking.
____ I have a wide choice of rewards for a successful creative effort.
____ I learn from failure, and do not punish myself.
____ I review how effectively I motivate myself for creativity and risk taking.
____ I have a high level of tolerance for borderline behavior.
____ I respect people with different life styles.
____ I express ideas outside mainstream thinking.
____ I decorate and individualize my work area and office.
____ I ignore differences of other people that do not relate to work effectiveness.
____ Beards, mustaches, and hair styles are okay.
____ I value the creative low-conforming and high-conforming person, and I accommodate to both.
Note especially the items you marked "0" and "1." These are major roadblocks. Define the problems, generate ideas, develop creative workable solutions, and identify sensible action plans to help solve these problems creatively.
Next: Brainstorming Isn't Creative Enough Anymore
©2010 Edward Glassman. All rights reserved.
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