Comments on: The Imaginative Mind: Social Creativity

By: Jenny

Jenny — Tue, 12 May 2009 15:27:22 +0000

I agree with start blogging.

By: Mike King

Mike King — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 23:57:05 +0000

@Start Blogging – You nailed it! Exactly what I think when I see perfectionism. It just makes people procrastinate more and more all while believing they are justified in doing so.

By: Start Blogging

Start Blogging — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:17:38 +0000

In my opinion, perfectionism is sometimes an excuse for procrastination. People sometimes wait for all the information before makingany decisions. The problem is that they will never get all the information they want.

By: Kikolani

Kikolani — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 19:00:43 +0000

Fear of negative criticism is definitely a creativity killer. Always strive to give your criticism in as positive of a light as possible, and others will be encouraged to let their creativity shine, instead of holding it back.

Great article, and series!

~ Kristi

By: Mike King

Mike King — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 00:11:56 +0000

Arswino, yes you are right. However, it is not a problem with brainstorming, its a problem with how people participate and respond during brainstorming that makes it less creative. I think I’ll have to write an article specifically on that to to point out some good ways to brainstorm and things to watch out for.

By: Arswino

Arswino — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 06:09:42 +0000

Hi Mike, the problem about brainstorming is when we present our ideas we would worry that others won’t accept our ideas. We should get over this worrying because it makes us less creative.
Thanks for sharing, Mike.

By: Mike King

Mike King — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 22:32:57 +0000

@Jonathan – I like the concept of it being a seed for growth! Creativity is such a contagious process if done in the social atmosphere. Creativity does tend to come and go in cycles but often that is because of a lacking social influence factor or even perfection getting in the way.

@Positivity Present – That’s a great saying and an important one especially with killing creativity. Thanks for the linklove at your blog as well!

@Karl – Its great seeing that in children and how much love and curiosity they have for new unexplored things. If one our systems didn’t stifle that so much, we’d have more people with that attitude later in life like you, still asking questions to learn!

@Dicki – If you’ve stopped critism and complaining, perfectionism will be much simpler. If you focus on creative ideas and processes, you can drive yourself from perfectionism even faster. Keep at it, you’ll surely overcome!

@Armen – Great points about relating this to kids. The creative mind is so visible in children they can teach us a lot. Perfectionism really is a creativity killer if you let it interfere with getting starting on something or moving on to new things. Its funny how this is also taught and trained in society by so many of our systems yet its completely stifling to a creative culture. That fear of failure is a powerful roadblock for many people who hide or block their creative ideas.

@Dragos – Nice addition, the comfort zone is definitely a trap (just like I mentioned in my comment back to Armen) since it blocks a lot of people and ideas into repetitive cycles instead of new and creative ones. Great point!

By: Dragos Roua

Dragos Roua — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 18:53:43 +0000

I certainly enjoyed this post, especially the practical guide on how to enhance social creativity. I must add as always that potting a group / a team in unknown conditions – i.e. out of the comfort zone – is often a very quick igniter of the creative process. If you’re forced by the environment to find a solution you’ll do i usually faster than when you’re not.

By: Armen Shirvanian

Armen Shirvanian — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 18:37:49 +0000

Avoiding perfectionism sure is one that is backwards from what we would first think, but is actually helpful. In the battle between someone who puts out garbage product and the person who is still trying to perfect their unreleased product, the garbage product will actually have a chance. That should be enough to convince people to put out what they have before giving up without even making a bold release of it. Kids tend to release what is on their mind and show their creations without thinking as much about results, and that is one of the biggest strengths of kids. The minute you catch yourself slowing down because of something perfectionist-related, produce whatever comes first and continue on, because the “potential improvement value” of the slowdown is usually not substantial.

By: Dicki

Dicki — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 06:01:42 +0000

I left criticism and complaining in the past,but as for perfectionism,it is still present in my life,I realize it is a kind of extremety and must be avoided,every day I face the problems and they must be solved easily and quickly with the help of tools I have in my hands at the moment.This training helps me in finding simple solutions and feeling satisfaction from it.It really makes me happy.