Creativity in Business
Creativity in Business
MBA 899 CREATIVITY IN BUSINESSLevel 1All of your work for this module should be contained within a single file.It is okay to complete the work in any order, but please keep the responses in order.Turn in work using Blackboard using the upload link associated with the assignment (as you did in the Rollcheck assignment) . Please submit your responses only or color code them to help me out as I review your work and look for ways to provide value-added comments. It helps not to have to search for your responses buried in the instructions. For some activities,  you are asked to provide an “instructional report”. This just means to include information that may be helpful to classmates so they may learn from your efforts.Many activities ask you to use a work related challenge. You can use a personal challenge from a current job or a previous job, or you may use a generic work related challenge such as given in the examples below.Hours of effort are assigned for each major section as an estimate only. Note that some activities such as the Field Assignments might be completed at work or as part of your daily routine (e.g., Dukes of Habit). I encourage you to find your own business challenges to use in this work to help tap into the important aspect of intrinsic motivation. Research suggests that intrinsic motivation is key to engaging the subconscious and maintaining the energy needed to explore new patterns and ideas.  This is a great opportunity to tie this course into your own interests and goals by developing challenges that are meaningful to you.  If you are having problems thinking of challenges, look through the Thinkertoys chapters as the author offers a number of examples from business, see the list of generic challenges given below, or  visit the BB discussion forum Challenges at Work to get ideas from classmates. If you still can’t find a challenge to use, let me know and I will be glad to try to help.Examples of Challenges to ConsiderA few general examples of challenges include: finding ways to get direct reports to solve their own problems, developing more effective onboarding strategies for new employees, improving team communication, merging cultures from acquisitions, improving managing up abilities, motivating a sales team to reach goals near the end of the quarter, improving the customer experience, starting a new business, growing an existing business, managing conflict, better time management skills, better stress management skills, becoming a better listener, improving hiring processes, improving retention rates, developing a better design for a product/process at work, and finding new ways to show appreciation to co-workers.
A.  PERSONAL CREATIVITY (~12 hours)1. This movie presents basic concepts that are supported by research in cognitive psychology, but presented at a  higher level of abstraction in a more interesting and memorable way as compared to reading the research papers. Award winning National Geographic photographer Dewitt Jones uses the metaphor of cameras and photography to make key points about creativity.  Watch the short movie (~17 minutes) by Dewitt Jones called Everyday Creativity.