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Creativity Management – Artists and Creativity
There is a common perception that being creative and being an artist are one and the same. That if you are one, then you are also the other. This is bad thinking:
Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation...
Many options yield better decision making
Are you option starved when it comes to making decisions? There are a lot of factors that contribute to good decisions. Problem definition, background data, situation analysis are essential elements in decision making. However, the critical element...
Reaping the Harvest: Are the weeds crowding out the fruits of your labor?
One of my highly creative clients (I’ll call her Kate) used to think she could never be organized. She had always believed getting organized meant that she’d have to give up her creativity, self-expression and spontaneity and become a rigid and...
What Dreams Are Really Made For
What Dreams Are Really Made For Copyright 2003 Mario Taillon http://do-your-idea.com Dear Friend, Now more than ever it is important not to forget that realizing your dreams is what will bring the most durable and important changes in your life...
Where Do Average People Find Business Success?
At some point, the realization becomes painfully clear. Chances are, it may have hit you at some time or another. You wake up in the night with a cold sweat... you realize it as you drive to work, stuck in a traffic jam at 9am; as you receive the...
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Systems for Simplicity: What any Business can learn from McDonald's
Open any book on the subject of building effective business systems and you are sure to find McDonald's used as a prime example. Now their food mightn't be to everyones' liking, but it has one outstanding characteristic: it is entirely predictable. And few could argue that they haven't been successful.
Consider this: in less than fifty years, McDonald's have built over 29,000 stores based on a very robust system. If you didn't like the Big Mac you had in Moscow, you can be sure you would equally dislike the Big Macs you might have in Madrid, Melbourne or Manila.
Of course, McDonalds have it easy. Their business has never been about their food - it has always been about their systems. It is the sameness of their food, rather than its originality, which is what their customers expect. So it is sameness that they deliver.
Which is hardly what most of us are looking to provide, is it? We are selling a product or a service - not a 'system'. Our creativity, our unique approach, our flexibility to customer needs - these are what we are selling. The McDonald's approach seems anathema.
The reality is that systems have a place in every business because, used properly, they can help us achieve something that every business wants: efficiency and happy customers.
Take your average plumber. He is selling his skills - certainly not a system. The plumber
loves to plumb - he hates administration. But we still expect him to return our calls, to keep appointments and to provide us with accurate invoices.
So the plumber has a choice. He can forget to return calls, turn up late and get increasingly bogged down in paperwork (both of which happen all too often). Or he can put in place a basic time management and bookkeeping system.
Either way he'll still be a good plumber, but the system will provide him with more, happier customers and greater peace-of-mind.
What your plumber can't systemise is the art of plumbing. His experience and his apparently innate ability to diagnose a problem: these can only be passed on properly over time. Becoming the plumbing equivalent of Ronald McDonald is unrealistic.
Somewhere between McDonald's and your plumber lie most other businesses. Systems have a place in every business - it is simply a matter of degree. But we need to make a conscious effort to identify those parts of our business that can be 'systemised'.
In the long run, we will be rewarded with a simpler business and happier customers.
© David Brewster, January 2002
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
David Brewster runs 'Business Simplification' and writes, talks and coaches on reducing the complexity of business and achieving greater clarity and effectiveness
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| Creativity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
| Creativity (or creativeness) is a mental process involving the generation of ... Wallas considered creativity to be a legacy of the evolutionary process, ... |
| en.wikipedia.org |
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| Creativity For Life |
| An exploration of creativity in everyday life, with articles, quotes, reviews and other creative resources to awaken creativity in daily life. |
| www.creativityforlife.com |
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| AdCritic.com: Commercial Ads |
| FROM CREATIVITY: Emerging Directors, Unite In the time it took to write this, three new directors popped up. Here are twenty to get acquainted with. ... |
| www.adcritic.com |
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| National Curriculum in Action - Creativity - |
| Ordering Creativity packs: print and video materials. This website gives practical ideas on how to promote pupils' creative thinking and behaviour. ... |
| www.ncaction.org.uk |
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| Ten Steps for Boosting Your Creativity |
| Experiments performed by the JPB Creative Laboratory show that watching TV causes your ... a weekly report on creativity, ideas, innovation and invention ... |
| www.jpb.com |
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| Category:Creativity Techniques - Mycoted |
| This is a general category of Creativity and Innovation Techniques, ... I like to think of these creativity techniques as tools in a toolbox in much the ... |
| www.mycoted.com |
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| Creativity at Work: The interplay of business, art and science |
| A resource for training and development in creativity and innovation in organizations. Has a newsletter, and some articles and essays by 'Corporate ... |
| www.creativityatwork.com |
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| Crayola Creativity Central |
| Crayola Creativity Central offers kids arts and crafts ideas for rainy day fun. We also have coloring books and pages, art and craft projects, games, ... |
| www.crayola.com |
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| Pages tagged with "creativity" on del.icio.us |
| All items tagged creativity ??? view popular ... Perspective for Creative Leaders · save this. by aromay to creativity business management ... 1 hour ago ... |
| del.icio.us |
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| Creativity Web - Resources for Creativity and Innovation |
| Creativity Web Home Page Resources for Creativity and Innovation ... The Creative Process · Multiple Intelligences · Idea Recording · Your Creative Space ... |
| members.optusnet.com.au |
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| gapingvoid: "cartoons drawn on the back of business cards": how to ... |
| So you want to be more creative, in art, in business, whatever. ... Companies that squelch creativity can no longer compete with companies that champion ... |
| www.gapingvoid.com |
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| Creativity Quotes | Creativity Quotations | Creativity Sayings ... |
| Quotes on Creativity - part of a larger collection of Wisdom Quotes to challenge and inspire. Find Creativity quotations and links to quotes on other ... |
| www.wisdomquotes.com |
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| Ideas by Creativity Pool |
| A free database with new ideas and possible inventions. Add your own, or bring an existing idea to life. |
| www.creativitypool.com |
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| CREATIVITY |
| Creative problem solving depends on using the right tools, tricks, ... Search for the latest books on Creativity (or anything else) in the Quantum Books ... |
| www.quantumbooks.com |
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| Creativity Tools, Creative Solutions & Creative Problem Solving ... |
| This page explains a wide range of techniques which can help you generate creative solutions to your problems. |
| www.mindtools.com |
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| The 6 Myths Of Creativity |
| A new study will change how you generate ideas and decide who's really creative in your company. |
| www.fastcompany.com |
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| CreativeClass.org |
| Richard Florida's "The Rise of the Creative Class" examines creativity and its effects on economic development. |
| www.creativeclass.org |
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| TIP: Concepts |
| The relationship between creativity and intelligence has been always been a central concern of psychology ( Guilford , 1950). Much effort has been devoted ... |
| tip.psychology.org |
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| American Creativity Association (ACA) |
| An incorporated non-profit organization promoting personal and professional creativity. Association membership is represented by four multidisciplinary ... |
| www.amcreativityassoc.org |
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| CREAX - Portal for creativity and innovation |
| A resource for links on creativity and innovation on the web. A selection of 690 links is divided into 67 categories for the visitors convenience. |
| www.creax.net |
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