Transcripts

Michael Michalko:
Creativity is the ability to look at the same information as everyone else and see something different.

Michael Michalko, author of the book Cracking Creativity, says much of creativity is all in your attitude.

At one company - we randomly selected employees from different departments and then we told these employees that we selected them because we have discovered that they are the most creative employees in the company. Well, within one month the employees that we told they were creative were coming up with and suggesting ninety percent more ideas than the other employees that were told nothing - it was a change in attitude.

Michael says real creative thinking isn't just coming up with that one great idea.

One of the most common characteristics of creative thinkers is quantity. All geniuses produce. They produce incredible quantities of ideas. And one way to get yourself to produce a quantity of ideas is to give yourself an idea quota. Whenever you're looking for an idea, give yourself an idea quota of say fifty ideas. Thomas Edison when he hired his assistant would always give him an idea quota and an invention quota. His own invention quota was one major invention every six months and one minor invention every ten weeks.

At somethingyoushouldknow.net I'm Mike Carrthers and that's Something You Should Know.