520 journal#2

Find a reading on the topic of creativity that is not in the textbook. Read it and discuss it with someone if possible. In your journal, write about the article and mention the following: the subject, what interested you about this article, what some of the important ideas are, and why you think it is worth reading.

Today I found an interesting article " HOW TO KILL CREATIVITY" written by Teresa Ambile. It seems to eliminate our creativity. However this article only use this title to attract our attention and discuss how managers can activate their employees to be creative.

Firstly I admit I was allured by this intriguing topic. " How to kill creativity" this is not a regular article. Normally , all people's discussions and their attentions are about increasing creativity. And with this special title I am sure there will be a outstanding idea in this essay. However, the author does not illuminate different measurements to kill creativity. But she does list the components of creativity and what kind of qualities a leader should have to enhance other's creativity, which is still helpful a lot.
From the article, I understand that mostly business and creativity are controversy. Although business needs creativity to invent new ideas and products for sales. Meanwhile, the high deficiency and fast work rate usually do not leave employees enough time to think so that their reactivities are gradually being eroded. In this situation the leader's preeminence is crucial in showing how to bring a double-win not only to workers but also to enterprise.

In this article the author mentioned three components of creativity such as motivation, creative thinking skills and expertise. Moreover she also expatiate six skills from manager to widespread creativity, which are challenge, freedom, resources, work-group features, supervisory, encouragement, and organization.

As for my personal experience, it is really appreciated to understand the resources factor about creativity. First of all, time is one of the most important ingredient of resources. Time pressure can heighten creativity because both the time rush and the importance of the work make people concentrate. And with this increasing sense of challenge people will inspire their intrinsic motivation and do a good job. However, manager would kill creativity with fake deadline or too much pressure on employees. In this way, people feel over-controlled and being used which will definitely jeopardize the relationship between boss and fellows or even create the untrustiness and betrayal. Moreover, funds should also be considered in one of the resources. And it is also not that easy to control the balance between sufficiency and deficiency. With less funding, all the creativity such as research or project cannot continues. On the other hand, more financial support does not mean to boost creativity. Without enough inspirations and circumstances, indulging money is just one way of wasting resources. Thus combining all this factors might solves the problem of resource of creativity. Apparently it is not a easy job for manager create a circumstance for all employees and courage them for creativity.

Moreover, when I apprehend this article from different angle. I can still feel inspiration not only on business area. It is the same strategy to goal your target with freedom, challenge, resources, etc. For example, when you finish your work, you still need time to explore further. And all the discoveries or even thinking not listed are all your creativity. And we still need freedom, a freedom of self aspect that can help yourself dig the truth without misleading by someone else. Apparently when we extend this topic, we are not only seeing a strategy about business. We can view the whole structure of creativity and, furthermore , frame a blueprint for ourselves creativity.