A blog about creativity + social change, with contributions from co-educators in the "Creativity + Social Change" course at the University of Connecticut, the nonprofit studies program at Rhode Island College, and the Healthcare MBA program at Post University.
For the past three weeks, I have shared a learning experience with global participants in the "Purposeful Creativity in Life/Work and Ethics" seminar as part of the Yale Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics Summer Program in New Haven, Connceticut. My co-learners' backgrounds include medical school, ethics, medicine, public policy, biotechnology, research, English, philosophy and more. Together, we have explored the role, impact and meaning of creativity personally in one's life and work, as well as the importance it plays in engaging people in purposeful activity in classrooms, workplaces and communities. Below are additional resources about creativity and some of the ideas we explored. -- Steven Dahlberg, International Centre for Creativity and Imagination
SEMINAR DESCRIPTION: Creativity is a human urge that seeks and deserves expression. It is about imagination and the way we think and act. Creativity is a skill that can be developed and harnessed to help us think in new ways, imagine better solutions and see creative alternatives. In this workshop, we will explore what creativity is, how to apply it to improve problem solving and decision making in ethics, and how it helps us discover purpose and engage in meaningful expression in our life/work. Come and practice the paradoxical art of being playful and serious at the same time, while we apply creative thinking tools and processes to ethics, work and life.
CREATIVITY IN PLAY: Creativity in Play explores the importance of creativity, play and imagination across society. Hosted by Steven Dahlberg and Mary Alice Long, Ph.D. Produced by the International Centre for Creativity and Imagination, in partnership with the National Creativity Network. ... 'The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.' – Carl Jung
APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY: Practical tools on Appreciative Inquiry and the growing
discipline of positive change.
Ken Robinson returned to TED earlier this year and talked about the intersection of talents, passion and education.
[May 2010 - TED] In this poignant, funny follow-up to his fabled 2006 talk, Sir Ken Robinson makes the case for a radical shift from standardized schools to personalized learning -- creating conditions where kids' natural talents can flourish. More
As he did in his first TED talk about creativity and education, he sums up in less than 18 minutes key ideas that seem so obvious, yet are so far from the practices we employ in schools and society. Some of Ken's insights from his 2010 talk:
There is a crisis of human resources -- we make poor use of our talents.
Many people simply endure what they do rather than enjoy what they do.
But some people do what they ARE and engage part of their authentic selves.
Education dislocates people from their natural talents.
We have to create the circumstances where talents show themselves. Education should be where this happens, but too often it's not.
Education REFORM is not enough -- reform is only improving a broken model.
We need not an evolution in education, but a revolution ... to transform it into something else.
It needs innovation, which is hard because it challenges what we take for granted.
Quoting Abraham Lincoln, Ken talked about "rising with the occasion" and the idea of "disenthralling ourselves."
Life is organic ... not linear.
We are obsessed with getting people to college. College does not begin in kindergarten. Kindergarten begins in kindergarten.
Problem of conformity in education -- like fast food where everything is standardized.
Human talent is tremendously diverse.
Passion -- what excites our spirit and energy -- is important.
Education doesn't feed a lot of people's spirits.
Education, which is primarily based on a manufacturing model, should shift to one based on principles from agriculture.
Human flourishing is an organic process. We cannot predict the outcome of human development. All you can do is create the conditions under which they begin to flourish.
Customizing and personalizing education is the answer to the future.
And he finished with a poem excerpt from W. B. Yeats about how we spread our dreams before others' feet -- like kids do everyday -- and askied us to "tread softly, because you tread on my dreams."
If you care about the future of children and education and society, show Ken's two TED talks (and this one, too!) to your friends and colleagues and family and talk about how you can begin to act to make positive change in the ways we educate and work. Show these clips in a public meeting at your children's school. Show them in your workplace with your colleagues. Show them at the public library. You'll be amazed who cares about these topics, who shows up and what you might accomplish together. Imagine what if ...
206 IDEAS GENERATED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT 'CREATIVITY + SOCIAL CHANGE' STUDENTS ON 6 APRIL 2010 - HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT
What's YOUR idea for how imagination might improve society? Add your ideas in the comments section below. And plan now to participate in the Connecticut Imagination Conversation on Monday, April 19, in Hartford, Connecticut ... or host your own Imagination Conversation in your community.
Communicating
Open communication between groups
Stop cancer
Stop juvenile diabetes
Stop crimes within the same community
Feed the world
Improve living conditions
Respect people's sexuality
Discover or create new ways to safely and effectively mass produce food and other products
Lead to more openness, diversity, tolerance and integration of differences
Encourage creative conversations
Invest in creative education
End child abuse
Education will become an adventure that children will crave - no more dropping out
Tell them that you are happy with imagination, then they will join you
Teach the youth manners and morals so that they can grow
Create tolerance
Stop hunger
Celebrate diversity
Neighbors of the community care for each other more
Stop poverty
Be positive
Stop hate
Appreciate or accept people stepping out of the norm
I can use my imagination to encourage prisoners
Think before you act
Treat one the way you want to be treated
Providing ideas with individuals in society to solve problems
Teamwork or brainstorming in a group
Clarity of mind and soul
Respect life as a whole
Read other people's minds
Work with other people's strengths
Help those who need us the most
Fight racism -> open mindedness
Peace with others
Improve self-esteem
Encourage more active, positive citizen engagement
Encourage others to join organization
End homelessness
Creative ways to be healthy, maintain health, regain health, defeat disease
Show the society how important they are, then they will accept it
Through education
Team work
Talking things out
Appreciation of different types of beauty
Fly to new, livable planets
By laughing
Build a healthier place for my kids and other kids
Open-mindedness
Make a commitment
Love the curvalicious
Travel to new dimensions
Travel through time and space
I can use my imagination to help my own community
End frivolous spending in government
To infinity and beyond - explore the universe within and without
By coming up with different solutions for different issues
Helping neighbors, taking care of each other's children, watching out for one another
Allowing expression through art, music, theater and dance
Reading books
Give importance to all animals
Have a moment of silent (regrouping)
Live life ... one life, one blood, one love
Make batteries that never have to recharge for my cell phone and laptop
Make batteries that are environmentally friendly when disposed or recycled
Eliminate existing regulations against farmers in Connecticut
Open new doors
Greater-good technology
Warm, nurturing environment to support the development of great ideas
Through education, broadcasting
Through billboards
Playing a game on team building
Promote trust among individuals
"The world can live as one"
Live forever - never die
Don't be afraid of death
Stop discrimination among us
Say no to Botox
Play
Get kids to be more physically active and healthy
Move
I can use my imagination to improve the unemployment rate
Make sufficient information available to the community
Visiting the sick
Helping those in need (homeless)
Believing in yourself
Make veggies taste better
Build places that encourage creativity, instead of limiting it (i.e., Billings Forge and the G. Fox Building, respectively)
Encourage kids to continue with school and get educated
"Imagine there's no hunger, I wonder if we can"
Plant a tree
By communication
Travel to the past
Help third world countries
Bring out technologies that do not already exist. Similar to how real technologies can follow the imaginative, fiction-based technologies proposed in science fiction. How culture and arts can "invent" technology.
I can help the youth thing critically and explore their creativity
Creating meaningful jobs, reducing unemployment
Create/implement ways to care for and preserve the earth for generations to come
Make creativity a learning tool for society
Live Love Laugh
Have a social gathering
Love your neighbors
Less serious
Downloadable intelligence and knowledge (like in the Matrix)
It could give us new games to play
Share more with people in the community
Living for today
Spread the word by gathering with others or making a Web site for a fundraiser.
Interact with others more
Imagination can improve society through additional ideas being deposited into the "idea bank" and when there are more options, it can lead to more solutions to problems
Decrease the crimes among teenagers
Increase ideas among everyone (not just children)
Educate children to be creative
Spread the love
Encourage uniqueness
Marketplace of ideas
I can bring peace to the world
End drug abuse
Life will be interesting, stimulating, purposeful and a delight
Involve some stipends; it will bring people's interest
Ignite idea that would improve the community
Having dinner together - everyone likes to eat
Love like you haven't been hurt before
Humor - entertainment
Comedians will have better jokes and can make us laugh in different ways
Help people in the community to be more humble and to care for others
Open communication
Get some fresh air and fresh ideas
Live Love Laugh for a better me
Improve self-esteem and community confidence
I can use my imagination to create a farm
Improve or encourage people to eat healthier since one of my imaginings is about promoting organic food
Stop judgment
Improve the environment
Improve economy
Lead to healthier school lunches
Lead to healthier planet and humans
I can spread love throughout the world
Proper treatment of animals
Crime will decrease as there is openness, acceptance, a place for all
It will create jobs; many will participate
Share ideas
Hand shaking and hugging each other
Peace and love for every creature in the world
Stop greed and pointless want in society
Lead to society being more collaborative as opposed to individualistic -> solve problems together
Increase mental capacity about a problem
I can join different organizations within the community and help them resolve issues
Decrease unemployment
Accept each other
More advertisements/commercials
Through prayers
Listen to others
Less technology and more free play (outside)
"Imagine all the people, living life in peace"
Birth control that is 100% effective
Guns that are truly idiot-proof
Decrease healthy activities in kids in our community
Go shopping
By maximizing its potential
Establish better problem solving skills to introduce to children in school
By fostering problem solving potential in students and society's youth
My imagination can help encourage others
I can bring a sense of joy to others
Reduce teen drug abuse
Harmony and connectedness and unity among all cultures
Do it in many different ways, even in different languages, others will enjoy
Create something to challenge the community
Don't be judgmental
Challenge everyone to be the person they were meant to be; no judgment if that person turns out to be different than you expected
Open minded
Growth
Defer judgment
Improve existing ideas
Keeping a smile on people's faces
Decrease homelessness
Develop spirituality
Make known to the society why it is important
Be creative in arts and music
Develop strategies as a team or group
Dance
"No need for greed or hunger, a brotherhood of man"
Never have traffic jams on the highway
Exploring new areas and investing tourist dollars in them
Focus on those young kids forgotten by parents and provide them with the love their parents don't give them
Free spirit
New ideas
Globalization
Defer judgment
Engage students more in their learning experience
Defer judgment
I can create a community organization to improve the community
Creative after-school programs
Being there for each other in neighborhoods
Keep kids out of trouble
Purpose and work for all
Do it with others, you will succeed
Go hiking with kids
Bring more family togetherness
The world is your family, embrace your diversity
Stop hate and war
Help globalize an economy while preventing the fall of local business
Care more for our elderly
# # #
67 IDEAS GENERATED BY THE RHODE ISLAND COLLEGE 'THE AMERICAN NONPROFIT SECTOR AND PHILANTHROPY II' STUDENTS ON 7 APRIL 2010 - PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND
What's YOUR idea for how imagination might improve society? Add your ideas in the comments section below. And plan now to participate in the Connecticut Imagination Conversation on Monday, April 19, in Hartford, Connecticut ... or host your own Imagination Conversation in your community.
By creating a bike trail that goes through the whole town
Clean-up crews for the community
Neighborhood closeness to reduce crime/increase community
Help community to produce better housing for diverse people
Imagination could show people parts of the place they live like they've never seen them before
Dig a deep, underground housing complex
Build better buildings
Make environment of community
More conducive to green technology - less polluted
Could add beauty to community art projects, music, opportunities to participate
Imagine ways to be more energy efficient
Have a community-wide BBQ
Creativity in finding solutions to health problems
Create dams and levies
Think out of day-to-day procedures -> fill someone else's shoes for a day (i.e., public/union workers and laymen)
Space travel
Off to civilization (arts, theater, etc)
Better public welfare systems
Improve different fuel sources
Renewable energy
New ways of communication
Improve transportation
Make community more fun to live in
Create another system in some part of space (zoning)
Better government system
Better transportation system
Better schools
Better cars
More ways to share resources
Increase social interaction
Thinking outside the box for creative solutions to common problems
Better land use
Imagining a better community - like better schools - imagine what we wanted schools to be filled with when we were kids - putting it into action
Children govern the adults as they have better grip on imagination
Offer community-wide movie showings
Improve arts
Find different resources - imagine possible venues
Better ways to share resources
More accessible buildings with less technology handprint
Provide creative ways for people to make social connections - community projects
Find new uses for the resources/food sources near you
Have a community garden to grow food
Improve environment
Create a center for the arts
Community cooking classes - take garden product and put in school lunches
To expand people's minds to new things
To expand the local business base of the community
Provide opportunities for people to be things they've imagined - musicians, painter, teacher ...
Have a town-wide pajama day
Improve opportunities for high school graduates
Healthier consumer products/food
"Own" a block for clean up and community pride
Time travel
Imagination can give a community a different perception of old things
Recycle old things into props; or add areas in parks with toy boxes or props
Have playgrounds on every block
Better ways toward health care
Create climate of creativity to problem solve as community
Get out of our houses and interact with people
Better transportation for people with mobility problems
New social interactions that are authentic, unplugged and involve storytelling
Have a community clean-up day
Creative activities in classrooms
Create a community center
Recycle end products to use waste in different ways
Just go clean up a neighborhood without asking for anything
Involve more people in volunteer projects for community
Organizational Innovation, Creativity & Change Management in Healthcare @ Post University
This class explores the role of imagination and creativity in adapting to and creating change and innovating in the dynamic healthcare industry.To solve complex problems and develop innovative products and outcomes in healthcare requires developing creative thinking mindsets in people, motivating and engaging employees, cultivating a culture where creativity and innovation can thrive, building a learning environment, and overcoming obstacles. Taught by Steven Dahlberg.
Creativity + Social Change @ University of Connecticut This course recognizes and practices the art of creative and critical thinking for the progressive development of both individuals and society. The emphasis in this course will be on exploring our creativity and understanding how our perceptions of ourselves and society not only construct social problems, but also can be re-imagined to invent new solutions. Taught by Steven Dahlberg.
Certificate in Nonprofit Studies @ Rhode Island College The Certificate Program in Nonprofit Studies is a 16-credit course of study that provides students with knowledge and skills appropriate for challenging professional positions in the growing nonprofit sector in Rhode Island and beyond. Creativity section taught by Steven Dahlberg.
Certificate Program in Nonprofit Studies @ Rhode Island College
