I liked the following definitions of creativity from the following website:http://www.uwsp.edu/Education/lwilson/creativ/define.htm
Defining creativity
If you had to provide a working definition of creativity, how would you define it?
Below are some quotes that offer common definitions of creativity. How do your perceptions compare to those of the experts?
"You cannot use up creativity. The more you use the more you have. " Maya Angelou
Creativity is . . .
Common definition from Webster's - Creativity is marked by the ability or power to create–to bring into existence, to invest with a new form, to produce through imaginative skill, to make or bring into existence something new.
Carl Rodgers (psychologist an writer) -- The emergence of a novel, relational product, growing out of the uniqueness of the individual.
Henry Miller ( writer) -- The occurrence of a composition which is both new and valuable.
John Haefele (CEO and entrepreneur) -- The ability to make new combinations of social worth.
Newell, Simon, & Shaw (team of logic theorists) -- A special class of problem solving characterized by novelty.
H. H. Fox (scientist) -- Any thinking process in which original patterns are formed and expressed.
E. Paul Torrance (educator, academic, creativity investigator) --Fluency , flexibility, originality, and sometimes elaboration.
Rollo May (writer, philosopher) - Creativity is the process of bringing something new into being...
Roger von Oech - Creative thinking involves imagining familiar things in a new light, digging below the surface to find previously undetected patterns, and finding connections among unrelated phenomena.
Carnevale, Gainer, Meltzer - ... the ability to use different modes of thought to generate new and dynamic ideas and solutions
Use a Metaphor:
If you could define creative in a metaphoric way, what might you say and why?
Example: Creativity is like a cat chasing its tail.
In the act of creating or in solving problems in creative ways we often go round and round in endless circles wanting to pounce on an idea. Sometimes the answer or solution is right before our eyes but we can't see it. In order to find the solution, find the missing piece, solve the problem, we need to just look at something familiar in a new and different way.