Creativity: How to Find and Nurture It

I work at an innovation consulting firm, and creativity becomes a crucial asset at certain points of a growth project. We need to find employees with creativity in their repertoire, yet their formal academic disciplines must range from journalism to engineering.

I’ve often wondered if there is a simple test to help compare the creative potential in people (and exercises to build on it!).

The team at Newsweek gave me an idea today: The Torrance Test of Creative Thinking, developed by psychologists at the University of Georgia. It uses a complete-the-drawing format where the research subject is provided with a sheet of paper containing a partial image, and is asked to complete the image.

The drawing above started with just the box, the long straight edges of the hat, and the linking loop that forms the top of the hat. This drawing was made by an adult, Joshua, and was given a TTCT score of 15 points out of 18. The only weakness the scorer found was the use of a common object

−

a hat

− as the basis for the otherwise creative response.

Yes, a weakness in the system is the requirement for a trained evaluator. Still, it’s intriguing. For more on this, see the July 12 Newsweek essay called “Forget Brainstorming” (http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/12/forget-brainstorming.html).