that was very nicely written respond, thank you very much for that. I read it several times and then I took some time and after that returned to the questions again and finally my vision of what I would love to do started to evolve. I know 3 basic things: I enjoy creating valuable things, I enjoy making people happy and I wish to have interesting job with a meaning. And I want to strive to fulfill all of them.

I thank you very much for the last sentence, which made me calm down and feel good about any decision I make.

You do really great job with this blog, I am an happy to be a subscriber of it. Thank you again!

Helena

People choose an area of study for many reasons. As such, what’s important is for you to assess what is driving your need for further education and to align your decision with meeting that need. Are you future minded? Do you have visions of what could be and how you can play a role? Are you present minded? Is making an impact important to you? Are you security minded? Do you want education that will guarantee an income to support your lifestyle? Are you people minded, interested in developing people so they can realize their potential?

The field of creativity and innovation is growing. Some organizations want to have staff with these skills and knowledge. The doors for new thinking are being thrown wide open. Others with disciplines in many other areas (engineering, IT, human resources, management, etc) use creativity methods or innovation processes without the foundations of a good creativity or innovation education. Many organizations however do not yet value this area of special expertise as they would the skills and knowledge of an accountant, business systems, information technology or marketing professional.

Are you open to experimenting and exploring, making mistakes? Are you willing to balance the confusion of failure and rejection with the elation of doing a good job? These are all what it means to be a professional. As of now, our young field lacks professional standards of achievement, a code of ethics and checklists of competencies. It is slowly developing a definition of creativity and of innovation that is globally accepted from which the roles and accountabilities of professionals in innovation and creativity can be defined, understood and communicated.

Whether you decide to study creativity and innovation or not, keep in mind, that whatever decision you make is the right one for you, for now.

I got interested in studying creativity and innovation. I would like to ask you if you think it is worthy to study creativity at the university of Malta. I know you have study creativity in the USA and you do not have personal experience at studying at the university of Malta, therefore it might be hard for you to compare or give an advice. But for me it is a huge decision to make, therefore I would be very happy for any opinion. Also do you think that on today´s job market is having creativity and innovation degree a plus or the market is still not ready for this quite unique field? (I read about your success, but there are maybe more graduates of creativity than opportunities for work). Would you then recommend studying creativity and innovation? Thank you very much for any comment and advice, I really appreciate this.

Helena

In doing a little digging, found another critique on Wikipedia of his work

In the Handbook of Creativity, Robert J. Sternberg writes, “Equally damaging to the scientific study of creativity, in our view, has been the takeover of the field, in the popular mind, by those who follow what might be referred to as a pragmatic approach. Those taking this approach have been concerned primarily with developing creativity, secondarily with understanding it, but almost not at all with testing the validity of their ideas about it.” Sternberg continues, “Perhaps the foremost proponent of this approach is Edward De Bono, whose work on lateral thinking and other aspects of creativity has had what appears to be considerable commercial success.”[9]

Still, his work has made a tremendous difference in people’s lives.Quirky field, creativity professionalism, ain’t it?

fyi Will be doing a post on the Torrance Center over the summer to let people know about the Ph.D program you took in Creativity in Athens, GA.

Only once between his NEWTHINK and SERIOUS CREATIVITY books did he ever reference one researcher, E. Paul Torrance, and that, in a backhanded way, and not even by name.

Funny thing EdB has spoken at CPSI, ACA and other similar well respected creativity organizations around the world yet he never references any members of them in his own writing.

BTW weren’t CoRT materials used in some Canadian school districts years ago?

Also I don’t recall it being Argentina (I don’t know for a fact) but rather Peru. Can’t find a reference on the www. Will ask Lynda Curtain, she should know having been a de Bono-ite for 20 years or so.

Alan