Creativity as a Life Skill: Inspiring Tedx talk by Gerard Puccio, Ph.D.

A great intro to the rationale for developing creativity∞ as a life skill, delivered eloquently by Dr. Gerard M. Puccio, chair and professor of the International Center for Studies in Creativity at Buffalo State. This unique academic department offers the world’s only Master of Science degree in Creativity and Change Leadership.

As a seasoned alumna of the program, I’m proud to present this for your viewing pleasure, to spark a little new thinking for you on the cusp of 2013, and to provide a thought experiment to help you apply key points from the talk for moving forward.

∞Creativity means new ideas, new decisions and new actions (of which, hopefully, some will survive).

Here’s a thought activity for you after you hear Gerard’s Tedx talk:

Consider the pluses and minuses of conformity and the pluses and minuses of creativity. Devise ways to transcend both so as to allow new thinking and perspectives to come through. As Silvano Arieti wrote in The Magic Synthesis (1976):

“Creativity is not simply originality and unlimited freedom. There is more to it than that. Creativity also poses restrictions. While it uses methods other than those of ordinary thinking it must not be in disagreement with ordinary thinking – or rather, it must be something that, soon or later, ordinary thinking will understand, accept and appreciate. Otherwise the result will be bizarre and not creative.”

Happy New Year all

Marci Segal, MS, Creativity and Change Leadership, Freeing leaders’ thinking so they can create new futures.