Comments on: Increasing Creativity

By: Mark Nebesky

Mark Nebesky — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 00:42:26 +0000

Is it me or does it presume that Americans are the ones that need to be more creative? Does the same study hold true for the Mercedes manager that needs to work in Detroit for a bit of creativity boost?

Its still an interesting idea. My brother is an INSEAD grad who works for his small American consulting company in Prague. So it is a marketable career move idea.

By: David J Edery

David J Edery — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 01:52:15 +0000

Before I say anything else: people who have strong opinions about the article, but confess to not having read it, should probably read it. ;-)

By: Geoffrey Long

Geoffrey Long — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 17:07:47 +0000

I dunno — like Kim, I also haven’t read the article, but my knee-jerk reaction is to suggest that:

1. People who find solutions to innovative problems are open to innovative solutions.
2. Innovative solutions are new ideas.
3. People who find solutions to innovative problems are open to new ideas.

Then,

4. Traveling to new countries provides new ideas.
5. People who find solutions to innovative problems are open to traveling to new countries.

It’s a little bit of a jump from 4 to 5, but you see where I’m going here. Isn’t it highly probable that companies who start to found programs to send stodgy employees to foreign countries will wind up with nothing more than stodgy employees with tacky souvenirs in their cubicles? I’m inclined to suspect that the common element isn’t having traveled to foreign countries, but having really *wanted* to go to the foreign countries in the first place.

Oh, and FWIW, I spent my junior year at the University of Exeter in England, and from there went to Italy and France… :)

By: Kim

Kim — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 06:39:05 +0000

Let me, not having read the research, be the first to say, “well, DUH!”

Isn’t part of finding creative answers to problems largely a matter of being able to draw from many experiences, draw parallels, and abstract problems at their root?

Many of the worlds great discoveries & inventions were ones had by Renaissance men (and women) who were able to draw on experiences from different fields and areas of study. Living abroad just seems to me to be one more place to draw such experience from.

Much of James Burke’s work was focused around a historical perspective of such discovery, and underlining the concern that increasing specialization in society & academia was going to increasingly rob us of such opportunity. Not too many Ben Franklin’s around anymore, right? (Know anyone running for office that spends evenings in laboratory? :-)