Personal Creativity Assessment - Assignment Example

Personal Creativity Assessment Continuous changes, competition and an ever demanding operating environment has made the ability of companies to innovate crucial for their long-term success (Klijn and Tomic, 2010, p. 322). They explain that innovation in this context is critical and results from a desire for growth, profitability and to adapt to the ever changing needs of the customers. In addition, Klijin and Tomic (2010, p. 32) observe that some people believe that innovation results as people strive to fulfill their curiosity. However, innovation is always preceded by creativity as asserted by Wood (2003, p. 22) who describes it as a cornerstone of innovation. Innovation is not only limited to the business world but has accomplished as people try to solve different types of problems facing mankind. Given that creativity precedes innovation this paper aims at carrying out an individual assessment of my creativity and how this has influenced others towards some positive change (Mercanti-Guérin, 2008, p. 98). The paper will hence be based on personal experiences in school and a creative program I helped initiate that would raise funds for the poor students in schools in addition to motivating them to excel in their academics. Definition of Creativity Klijn and Tomic (2010, p. 323) observe that there are two main definitions for creativity. They first describe creativity as the creation of new and useful solutions or ideas. The second definition is that creativity is a mental process which allows people think up new and helpful ideas. Personal creativity is measured by assessments and questionnaires of ones creative outcomes (Klijn and Tomic, 2010, p. 323). Most theories of creativity relate emotional change as a result of social change to creativity (Klijn and Tomic, 2010, p. 324). These theories argue that positive change results in cognitive variation which invokes creativity (Amabile et al., 2005, p. 367). They argued that diverse influences can trigger a dynamic process of increasingly or decreasingly positive impact on creativity. There are three components which are relevant to the creativity process as explained by (Klijn and Tomic, 2010, p. 323). They listed the first component as the domain of relevant skills. This consists of knowledge, practical skills and talent in a particular domain. The first component is usually developed through work experience or education. The second component in the creativity process involves having the creativity appropriate skills which includes cognitive reasoning style, relevant work styles and personal qualities (Klijn and Tomic, 2010, p. 323). The third influencing factor in the creativity process is the intrinsic job motivation and it represents personal attitudes in regard to a task. They note that intrinsic job motivation interacts with the social external environment within which an individual operates (Brophy, 2001, p. 439). More recently a new model in creativity has been developed which states that cultural integration has a positive influence on the shared mental models and the performance of employees thereby enhancing creativity (Borghini, 2005, p. 33). There are various traits that have been outlined for individuals who are creative (Klijn and Tomic, 2010, p. 323). These include sensitivity to problems, wide interests, value for aesthetic qualities, and independence in judgment, autonomy and self-confidence. Rice (2006, p. 235) also added that creative persons have self direction, stimulation, persistence and a drive towards achievement. She however adds that intelligence is an important component in creativity but is not a necessity in creativity. This is also supported by a study by Sternberg and O'Hara (2000, p. 610) who found that creativity and personal intelligence are only weakly correlated. These findings are critical in that they will give hope to those people who think that they have to be at the top of the class in order to be creative. Creativity is usually an integration of various traits which can be found among most individuals (Ind and Watt, 2005, p. 63). Moreover, my real life experiences serve to demonstrate that it does not require many resources in the creativity process although one has to be objective towards achieving a certain goal in life. As observed by Schwartz (2005, p. 101), creativity mostly brings about change, a change for better. My Early School Life Having been born to a middle class family, I had the privilege of mixing with some people living in higher social class than mine and those in the lower class. In my neighborhood, there were families that could not afford to offer all the basic necessities to the kids and this resulted in these kids remaining under privileged. This may sound quite shocking to those who believe that Britain and America are nations with no economic problems. However, this is supported by a study carried out by UNICEF which concluded that indeed these two countries are the worst industrial countries to grow up in (Panic, 2007, p. 15). Child poverty in UK has grown significantly, doubling between 1979 and 1998. This was fuelled by the legacy of the 1980s in was characterized by growth of the rich leaving behind the poor people (Panic, 2007, p. 15). This was enhanced by the policies adopted by the government to cut down taxation on those who were earning more and lowering the benefits transferred to the poor (Magadi, 2010, p. 298). The current government is striving to do away with these policies although child poverty rates remain high than the 1970s and the present data shows continued increase (Conrad, 2007, p. 7). In school, I had stories of children whose parents could not afford to give them the best quality of health care and food. Moreover, these kids narrated to us how they live in insecure neighborhoods where they cannot access adequate basic amenities such as playing ground and cannot move freely at night. I also had of children whose parents were into drugs and alcoholism which I later connected could have been as a result of lack recreation facilities. These children explained that their parents could not afford a holiday for them and are lucky to visit national parks only during school tours. Consequently, these children were always withdrawn and I believe it negatively impacted their academic performance. Touched by their plight, I made a resolution that I would help change lives of such children in future through the smallest ways that I can. At that time, I was determined to study hard and prosper in my academics so that I would have a successful career in life since I saw this as my pathway to economic prosperity. I visualized that as a rich person I would be able to give some support to the kids from less privileged families. High schools I joined high school with a commitment to ensure that I did my best for I had a mission to accomplish. I was to study hard to ensure my kids enjoyed the best kind of life and to touch those lives of children born out of poor families. However, two years in high school was a clear indication that success in academics alone was not the single weapon that I could use to help those suffering kids. Moreover, I realized that my performance in academics was not exemplary. I realized that I am an average student and had to come up with ways that could help achieve my dreams. In high school, I participated in several clubs and students association that wee we discussed various issues afflicting human kind. One of these clubs was the environmental club which I helped set-up. In this club I participated in various activities such as clean-ups and environmental awareness campaigns. Moreover, we could write articles and about various environmental issues and pinning them in school notice boards for others to read. These clubs helped to open up my mind and I realized that one could achieve great things through cooperation with others. This club still continues with the activities we initiated and its strategies have been adopted by various other institutions throughout the country. With determination to achieve my childhood dreams, I joined the university where I decided that I would achieve work towards my goal. My program of ‘’Changing lives of children from poor backgrounds’’ Halfway through my university life, an idea came up which I saw as the way towards achieving my dream. The idea was to form a group as we used to do in high school where we would mobilize resources for the children. In this case I did not require having so many resources but through ideas I could help raise enough finances to sponsor kids from poor backgrounds go through education system with a lot of ease. This would also reduce the pressure on the parents and therefore it could help deal with social evils such as alcoholism and drug abuse. I envisioned that if we could organize events that utilize the talents of kids, we could invite paying visitors to attend thereby raising finances to sponsor education of the poor children. To cut down on cost of training, I decided to talk to my colleagues who have varying talents to coach these students to participate in those events. Consequently, I talked to a few of my friends who offered to join me in the noble course. After a few weeks, I and my friends formed an organization under the banner; ‘‘Changing lives of children from poor backgrounds’’. I sort audience with several school heads who accepted to allow their students to participate in our events and to facilitate training of the kids by giving us two hours per week after the lessons. My team divided itself into groups according to ones talent and what one can train best. The initial team comprised of 25 five members and so we decided to have five events and start with three schools. Each group was composed of five members and the events we choose included drama, music, tennis, swimming and chess. Children responded with great enthusiasm that we had to select the best in each group. After six weeks of training we booked a social hall where organized competition among the schools. We advertised the event where we were charging twenty pounds for the children and thirty pounds for the adults. We also clarified that all our proceeds were to go to supporting education for the children from poor backgrounds. In this first event, 500 adults attended and about a thousand children attended. The total earnings from this event was fifteen thousands pounds from sale of tickets to adults and twenty thousand pounds from children in attendance. The money raised in the first event was used to support the very needy kids from the three schools that had participated in the event. This event also help to popularize our event and the following month we received invites from other schools to be involved in the program. At the university, more students sought to join our team which was beneficial as this would help reach out to more schools consequently leading covering more schools. The second event was a big hit with the visitors doubling the initial number. This enhanced the ability of the program to cover more children. In the subsequent events, more schools were enlisted but realized that continued coverage could pose problems in administering the events. We therefore decided that we had to limit the number of schools in the programs. We set the limit to ten schools given that this was the only manageable number given that we had to continue with our education. At this time the media had learnt of the program and sought to know about this program. I was invited by different media houses to explain the history of the program and the motivation behind it. People were left in awe after I explained that after learning that I may never be able to raise adequate resources to support education of many children I had developed an idea that I shared with my friends and the program was up and running. Currently, the program has been adopted by various universities across the country as part of the social responsibility. I always feel proud that my ideas have been taken up by many institutions and we have a board to manage the program. I head the program as the chairman to the board assisted by a secretary general. The board is also tasked with the responsibility of selecting the students who benefit from the program in consultation with school heads. Following the successful implementation of program to support needy children, I realized that there were other children who require to being motivated in order to perform well in schools. There are some children who although having come well off families, their parents are never there for them to counsel and guide them since they are too engaged in feuding for their children (Kelly, 2003, p. 11 and Khazanchi, 2005, p. 23). Consequently I proposed that we integrate a mentorship program where university students would hold sessions with high schools students to mentor and guide them in the choice of future careers. Given the near age groups of the high school and university students; high school students can discuss any issues afflicting them. This has help students in career choice, in addition to reducing indiscipline cases in schools as students are more focused to achieve their specific goals (Irving, Moore and Hamilton, 2003, p. 100). The idea of mentoring students has also received fully support from different stakeholders and has been taken up by more students. Currently, we are working on the sustainability of our programs to enhance that they will not die with our exit from the university. In conclusion, creativity as described earlier requires one to have a cognitive ability to identify a particular problem and devise solutions to the problem. For one to be creative, does not necessarily mean they are intelligent than others but must have a good analytical ability. Moreover, a person has to be persistence as this ensures that you do not give up even when your goal seems unachievable (Adarves-Yorno, et al., 2006, p. 486). From a personal assessment of my creativity, I have learnt that my driving force in my coming up with creative ideas is past experience and the knowledge of the situations in schools go through. Notes and news (2002, p. 252) explained that a person’s past experience is one driver towards innovation and having been in school with children from needy backgrounds has influenced me to strive to change their lives. Moreover, knowledge of what some children have to go through due to lack of mentors has influenced my creativity in developing a mentorship program. In UK, most parents due to the economic hardships spend more time at work and have little time with their parents (Das-Gupta, 2005, p. 2). Therefore children need to be mentored and counseled in schools. As asserted by "Charities must address stereotypes of UK poor" (2005, p. 5) creativity must always be geared towards bring positive change to the people and the society. My ideas have helped to transform the lives of many children. My ultimate goal for this creativity is to ensure the success of children in schools which will mean achievement of my childhood References Klijn, M and Tomic, W 2010, "A review of creativity within organizations from a psychological perspective". The Journal of Management Development, Vol. 29, no. 4, pp. 322-343. Schwartz, J 2005, "Creativity and the Heartbeat of a Company". Mortgage Banking, vol. 66, no. 2, pp. 101-101,118. Wood, A. 2003, "Managing employees' ideas: from where do ideas come?" Journal for Quality and Participation, Vol. 26 No. 2, pp. 22-6. Amabile, T.M., Barsade, S.G., Mueller, J and Staw, B 2005, "Affect and creativity at work", Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 50, pp. 367-403. Borghini, S. 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