CRI 600

How do creative ideas happen? How can we foster our creativity and the creativity of those around us? What is the nature of creativity in teams and organizations and how can it be facilitated? Utilizing readings drawn from both psychological theories of creativity and management literature on innovation, and exploring the conflicting ideas of creativity theorists such as Abraham Maslow, R.W. Weisberg, Margaret Bodin and Robert Sternberg, this course delves into the dual nature of creativity as both an individualistic process and a product of formal systems of organization, as a synthesis of subconscious thoughts and rational analysis, and as the complex interaction of divergent and convergent thinking. Case studies will illuminate the creative process within the Creative Industries in terms of the relationship of creative individuals to the commercial context in which their ideas are developed and delivered.