Creative Thinking

To answer the first question, I had to mentally go back in time to select my most individually creative experiences. My first creative experiences actually occurred in elementary school. Each year, my school held a competition called Invention Convention, in which I was a participant in second and fourth grade. In second grade I won second place with what was basically an insulated lunch box. The only difference was that there were two compartments for your items- one for your hot items and the other for cold items. I’m honestly not sure why I even placed with that. The fourth grade was a better year because I won first place in my grade level. With the help of my father, I built a prototype for a foldable, portable table on which you could do your homework. When you were finished working, you could safely store your documents inside, fold it up and carry around the table/briefcase with you to your next location. In sixth grade I was involved in another invention competition, but this time, I was working with two other people. We developed a transparent sleeve to protect decorative flags (say your alma mater flag) from weather damage. It probably doesn’t sound like the most practical thing, but our group ended making first place in our division. It’s interesting to see that many of my innovative moments took place in grade school.

I am a member of a service organization on campus and last fall I served as one of the recruitment co-chairs. Although this is not a professional organization, I am including it because I have been able to express myself not only as an individual, but also as an officer on the their executive board. Recruitment chair is probably the most creative officer positions one could have in our organization. While the goal is the same each semester, this position allows you to have more creative freedom in the way you carry out the recruitment process. For example, the recruitment chairs decide how the big sisters will reveal their identities to their new little sisters. This process is way more exciting to see in action than to see on paper because the personalities of the recruitment chairs are reflected each semester in the execution of the process.

Space and work environments are very interesting and important components of creativity. I am a firm believer that a person or groups’ surroundings can either help or hinder the creativeness of their ideas. In the past three years as a college student, I’ve learned a lot about the way I study and complete homework assignments. I mentioned briefly in class, that when I have a lot of reading to do, I usually prefer quiet study areas because I can process information more quickly in that type of environment. When I have assignments involving numbers or for which I need to be more insightful, I look for study areas that are well lit, preferably with natural light. I can also tolerate more distractions when working on these types of assignments because taking breaks and even dozing off ironically helps me concentrate and develop more ideas. I hope I don’t get in trouble for this, but I think the Reliant productivity center in McCombs is one of the worst places to study on campus. I hate the feeling of being confined to a little cubicle inside a gloomy room. Its title seems quite ironic for someone like me.

Facebook is a good example of a company whose physical layout was designed to enhance creativity. Employees in the Manhattan headquarters are given a budget to design their own work area. Some employees have painted their own masterpieces on the walls and others have opted to work in a giant beanbag chair instead of a desk (Kovach and Goodman, 2013).

Whether it is as individuals or in groups, I think we are all very capable of creatively overcoming obstacles and performing everyday tasks. There are certainly organizations where following rules and guidelines is necessary to execute successful business operations. Accounting is just one of the many examples in which rules, or GAAP, cannot be neglected. Of course, there are also other areas that allow for rule-breaking and new ways to approach problems much like the methods we are exposed to in this course. For the majority of my academic career, I have been given a clear set of guidelines and rules to abide by in order to complete the given project. In my final year as an undergraduate, however, I have been given more creative freedom than ever before. Creativity can take many forms and the number of ideas that result from such activity should be the more reason to emphasize this type of thinking in the workplace.

http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-new-york-office-tour-2013-9?op=1