"Creative Spark" - Research Paper Example

How to Build Creative Confidence How to Build Creative Confidence The talk we analyze in this paper is d how to build your creative confidence by David Keller. Creative confidence is the skill to come up with new ideas and have the self-belief to pursue them. The speaker, David Keller, is the founder, chairman, leader and managing partner of design company IDEO. His managing partner at IDEO is Tom Keller. David Keller is also a professor at Stanford University and has received several credits for his contributions to design and design education. David gave the talk “how to build creative confidence” on May 16th, 2012 (Ted Summaries, 2014). Through the talk, we are able to gain an in depth perspective on creative confidence while engaging in a number of matters surrounding it.
David begins by mentioning that people more often classify themselves as the creative and not creative type. However, according to David, people are born creative but over time the creativity in them is eroded by judgmental persons around them (Kelly & Kelly, 2012). He advances to illustrate his theory using an example of his friend Brian, who at a young age was discouraged from pursuing his artist ambition by a fellow student. He goes ahead to say that many people similarly opt out of thinking and viewing themselves as creative during their childhood and this is attributed to remarks made by teachers and fellow students. Remarks made when they try to be creative dent their confidence.
David further tries to present tips on how to eliminate this negative energy. He equates the process of building ones creative confidence to that of overcoming a phobia. He clearly outlines how Albert Bandura, who David terms as the fourth most important psychologist, used a series of step by step procedures to help people overcome their fear of snakes. One needs to overcome fear of the messy unknown, fear of judgment, fear of the first step and fear of losing control to gain creative confidence (Ted Summaries, 2014).
The speaker in yet another in depth illustration describes how creativity makes the world a better place. He discusses a technician who by all means is at first deemed not creative but due to a problem he notices at work decides to come up with a solution (Kelly & Kelly, 2012). The solution involves him being creative and developing something that solves the initial problem. He remodeled the MRI by painting it in bright colors with a pirate ship theme so kids would not be terrified of scans.
According to David, regaining creative confidence is crucial. It helps one gain a totally new view point towards what really matters to them; being creative. This improves their productivity and abilities. The topic of discussion may seem to relate to imagination and curiosity in every way. Building creative confidence is an essential ingredient if one is to develop their creative imagination. Imagination is the ability to visualizing or forming images in one’s mind whereas curiosity is the desire to discover more about something. Simply put to grow in both imagination and curiosity one has to have become confident enough that no amount of negative words would put them down (Ted Summaries, 2014).
On a daily basis, people face challenges in their endeavors to grow creatively. The speaker mentions at one point or another that our creativity have been judged in ways more than one. As a result, our creative confidence is crushed. From the talk one could directly apply the step by step process to boosting their creative confidence (Kelly & Kelly, 2012). This would benefit society as creative, confident individuals with innovative ideas that may be applied in different industries would be available.
David concludes by saying being creative is beneficial to society in every aspect. Just as the technician made the children’s lives comfortable during the MRI scans we also can impact our society positively. Our personal experiences enhance our ability to become better and rectify what might have hindered us from achieving the very best. It is not that we are not creative just the lack of creative confidence.
References
Ted Summaries. (2014). David Kelley: How To Build Your Creative Confidence. Retrieved from http://tedsummaries.com/2014/08/27/david-kelley-how-to-build-your-creative-confidence/ 25th April 2015
Kelly Tom and Kelly David. (2012). Reclaim Your Creative Confidence. https://hbr.org/2012/12/reclaim-your-creative-confidence 25th April 2015 Read More