Creativity equals fun. At least that’s what PRO members and guests experienced at Roma Tile last week, led by Andy Aylesworth, marketing professor at Bentley University. Three interactive exercises challenged participants to think creatively with a touch of ridiculousness added for extra imagination. “Professor Andy” gave everyone in the room permission to be creative. He even passed out creativity permission slips!
Professor Andy explained the difference between divergent and convergent thinking: convergent thinking points us toward finding one right answer to a problem while divergent thinking allows us to come with many possible answers. When brainstorming, divergent thinking is essential. Start with every crazy idea. And then narrow it down to the plausible with convergent thinking.
In one exercise we all came up with inventive lies. In another exercise we all came up with bad ideas to rid a house of mice. And finally, he demonstrated with two groups of volunteers the difference between “yes but” versus “yes and”; yes and is about building on ideas. Yes, but is about judging ideas.
We are often our own worse critics when it comes to creativity, especially in group settings. We often hesitate to share an idea. Professor Andy says to champion diverse points of view. He calls them “dots” and connecting the dots is creativity in action.
At the beginning of the presentation, we were asked to write one business challenge on a post-it note and put it on a tile display. After the presentation, we were encouraged to find someone else’s challenge and write a suggested solution. And then to find our own and read what others had suggested for our business challenge.
The three main takeaways for being creative were:
1. Diverge first
2. Connect the “dots” – the more dots the better
3. Accept and build – “yes and”
Author: Cheryl Savit, Savvy Words
Photographer: Michael Groccia, Veronica Jay Photography / Onsite Studios