Creative training is a fundamental aspect of the predisposition
phase and therefore it needs to be taken into great account. Even though
training is not always a precondition for creativity techniques, you
cannot overlook this method if you want to use more sophisticated techniques
to generate very innovative ideas.
Creative training requires will, skills and a methodology.
Will is fundamental because it is not about using your innate creative
skills but it is about trying to teach some techniques and procedures;
skills are a requirement for trainers who need to convey the logic that
underlies creativity; finally, a systematic and deliberate methodology
is required to use your creativity through formal programs for creative
training.
In particular, Edward De Bono (1998) stresses the importance of training
to disseminate a general creative capacity that he defines as follows:
“It is the creative capacity that should
be available to each organization member, with no exception. However,
the extent of creative capacity is not the same for each level.
At the management level, it is necessary to realize the importance and
the logic that underlie creativity, which must be seen as an essential
resource and not as a marginal luxury. Lateral thinking techniques and
methods must be available to managers...
At other levels, such understanding might be impracticable (yet, if
it was practicable, it would be successful). So, organization members
may just need to understand the creativity value and some basic techiques,
in order to master the creativity tools.” (De Bono, 1998)
Furthermore, training is a precondition
to provide some specific areas with creativity.
“Some particular areas constantly
require new ideas. In other words, “ideas” are the product
made in these areas. Natural creative skills (or stimulus) can be
improved only through systematic methods.
The research activity focuses on these special areas in which creativity
does not only help to solve problems but also to develop new research
fields. So research should be focused on concepts, rather than technological
progress.
[…] When you want to develop really new products, you need a
large amount of conceptual creativity...
Marketing is a combination of analysis, tradition and transfer of
creative concepts which have a wide range of uses. As participants
understand your innovative concepts, you can proceed. Traditional
working methods must be used and constantly supervised. New synergies
and ways must be devised to address consumers. Values are always changing
and therefore it is necessary to keep pace with change to turn it
to your advantage.You also need to promote new values. Traditional
products must be renewed and launched again on the market, thus finding
out or creating new market sectors...
In particular, marketing needs a solid conceptual capacity; as a matter
of fact, this sector always welcomes new concepts and alternative
methods to translate them into practice.
[…] It is not easy to train creativity within these special
areas where people give their creativity for granted and do not want
others to teach them how to be creative. Nevertheless, once they can
master creativity techniques, they are very glad to use them and enjoy
their outstanding outcomes. It is necessary to investigate both the
“logic” that underlies creative training and its related
specific techniques. Trainees should also get the opportunity to use
these techniques regularly. Techniques should keep their formal aspect,
in order to face the typical “freewheeling” working method
used in these special areas...Formal techniques provide each individual
with a “creative assistant”, who is actually the individual
himself acting otherwise.” (De Bono, 1998)
Furthermore, it must be said that
creative training is also very useful to those who need formal and
intentional creative skills to generate new ideas, even though they
do not work in the above mentioned special areas. They are for example
the participants to the regular creative sessions and facilitators
who need to show how to use creative techniques and assist participants
during the various sessions.
“The participants working in these special creative groups are
not used to creative thinking; therefore, they must be given some
creative skills that are not already included in their professional
knowledge. It is much easier to train these groups than the people
working in the above mentioned special areas, as they cannot refer
to any previous creative style and they are less self-centred. Their
training should stress the practical aspects of creative techniques.
Participants do not need to deeply understand the creativity logic
but they need to know how to exactly use formal creative techniques.
Perhaps, it is not useful to train all group members to use all creative
techniques; however, they should be trained in a way that they can
use them.
Operational creative skills can be used any time. People need to be
always ready to use the adequate creative technique. It is as if you
trained a surgeon on how to use a scalpel before teaching him the
general principles of medicine.” (De Bono, 1998)
Training can be structured in different ways:
- One-day seminars (six hours and a half): they help to provide large
groups with some general knowledge about creativity, thus awakening
companies to the importance of creativity;
- Two-day seminars (eleven hours and a half): they give space to practical
training, so that participants (up to fifty people) can realize what
creative techniques deal with;
- Teachers training (five days/forty hours): it is thought to provide
teachers with those tools and methods that they will later transfer
to their students;
- Advanced lateral thinking training (five days/forty hours): it is
thought for those people that need to be very creative in their profession.
The group can include twenty participants at most.
Finally, see the following modules developed by De Bono for company
trainers.
Forty-hour module: it is an advanced course
for people operating in special areas who need to develop creative skills
for their job.
Twenty-hour module (for managers): it addresses
managers that – even if already creative - need to be creative
in their job and promote others’ creativity.
Ten-hour module (basic capacity): it helps
to provide workgroups with some basic knowledge about creative techniques;
in particular, it deals with the application of these techniques.
Five-hour basic module: it is the most elementary
module which defines a set of tools. This kind of training might be
used by all company members.
These modules can be divided into smaller or bigger
parts, according to the kind of training applied by each company. For
example, the twenty-hour module might be broken down into five smaller
four-hour modules. In general terms, the smaller the modules are, the
more efficient the training will be, as breaks between small modules
give you time to train and think about what you are doing. Teaching
creativity in one go is risky because you might tire participants; moreover,
you could stress some processes and overlook others that are equally
important.