Think Different!

The final HIA Campus Creative Arts Committee Art talk of 2011 was given by Mr Troy Reid, Managing Director of I-Click, entitled ‘Think Different’ – which of course is the well known advertising slogan created for Apple Computers. As part of the Apple franchise philosophy Mr Reid has become involved with education in schools and has recently started ‘I-learn Africa’ which is a consultative body working with the Government and schools in Zimbabwe on collaborative I-learning projects.

Troy explained that he is very keen to include elements of creativity into his after school clubs and other teaching projects. He went on to say that there is a creativity crisis globally and he believes that creativity development should be taught at an early stage in schools following the lead taken in other countries such as the UK, China and parts of the EU.

He went to add that creativity and innovation are important keys to success in today's rapidly changing global village. Process improvement, problem solving, decision making, dealing with limited resources, satisfying customers, and rapidly changing technology are all examples of business realities that require creative solutions. Yet, innovative thinkers are often tough to find today.

A recent IBM poll of 1,500 CEOs identified creativity as the No. 1 “leadership competency” of the future. So it is obviously a very important skill to tap into and use. So why are there not more innovative thinkers around? Somewhere along the line, many adults have forgotten how to use their imagination to think and solve problems out of the box. We are not accessing and utilising all our brain functions. We tend to consider creativity only in the context of art in the form of paintings, music, sculptures etc and though important, art is only a small part of creativity.

When scholars gave creativity tasks to engineering and music graduates their scores (laid down on an identical spectrum) had the same high averages and standard deviations. Inside their brains, the same thing was happening—ideas were being generated and evaluated. Everyone uses creativity, in one form or another, everyday. Highly creative people are very good at marshaling their brains into bilateral mode, and the more creative they are, the more they dual-activate.

So, open your mind – both the left and right hemispheres - and unleash your creativity today!