The Fertile Unknown

Creativity in Business: My Interview with Dr. Win Wenger

Interview number seven in the Creativity in Business Thought Leader Series is with Win Wenger, PhD, a pioneer in the fields of creativity and creative method, accelerated learning, and brain and mind development. Dr. Wenger is an educator, researcher, trainer, musical composer, and widely published author. He is renowned around the world as a trainer and author of 52 books, including the widely popular The Einstein Factor and Discovering the Obvious. He founded Project Renaissance, an organization dedicated to increasing individuals' genius. Only one other living person has invented or discovered, and developed, as many techniques for creative problem-solving as he has.

Q: What do you see as the New Paradigm of Work?

Moving toward win/win/win - wins not only for both sides, but also for the greater good as well.  We must both raise consciousness AND wield incentives to bring a greater alignment of personal, corporate and general public interests or we’re in line for another major meltdown.  

The old paradigm was based on perceiving self-interests in the narrowest way. Poeple did not see how their self-interests are mutually dependent with the interests of the greater good of the whole. If your work goes against greater interests, both your work and those greater interests suffer. In the new paradigm, the whole of society is our “rope partner” on the mountain slope.

Q: What do you see the role of creativity in that paradigm? 

We have profoundly underestimated the power of understanding and creative capacity in virtually everyone's mind. There probably isn't a problem which more than half of your staff is not capable of solving, given the right creativity techniques and some inducement to use them - including the focus on how to align personal interests with corporate and general public interests. We need to remove the cost of unsolved problems and unresolved but unnecessary difficulties; also the cost of profound positive opportunities lying neglected on all sides of us. 

Also, we need to fashion substantive economic growth, for ourselves and generally, by creating new “gotta-haves” by innovating or inventing new products and services that relate, in part at least, to our world's actual needs - in terms of energy, the environment, and basic human necessities which help bring billions more people into becoming our trading partners. 

In this wonderful and ever-changing universe we live in, everything relates to and leads to everything else which means that entire new civilizations-worth of new discoveries, new science, and new practical applications are just a step or so away, just an observation or so away, in all directions. We have not even begun to really utilize any of the many creativity methods which can readily take us many steps further, many observations further, into a limitless positive human future. 

Q: What attitudes and behaviors to see as essential for effectively navigating the new work paradigm?

1) Look for or develop win/win/win opportunities.

2) Look for incentives whose inducements can replace much or most overt controls, supervision, regulation, laws and governance, within the organization and across the general public.

3) Set up regular practice of specific creative solution-finding methods on the challenges and questions you most care about and need answer to, at all levels of the organization.

4) Set up personal and mutual practice of noticing issues and opportunities, bringing them into focus and resolving them.

5) Invest in training new and broader skills, so you and your staff can navigate a changing world with broadband perception.

Q: What techniques or approaches could people start applying today to bring more creativity into their work or their business organization?

Our "Windtunnel" process can get a lot of ideas going and ingenious answers found in just about any situation. Instructions for that procedure are posted at http://www.winwenger.com/part72.htm

One of the best approaches to creative problem solving is to work on the problem of how to create BETTER problem-solving methods. This simple principle, that of re-investing your best methods into creating even better methods. If you have a good, creative, working, problem-solving method in your firm, use it to invent new and better methods.

Also, every day, notice, identify and define at least one major question or problem or challenge-opportunity that is most worthy of solving, then use a specific solution-finding method to find its answer.  Pursue and implement at least one of your good answers each week.

We need the specific steps of specific methods to walk ourselves past the usual habits, blocks and assumptions to the fresh perceptions and solutions needed. In today's complex and changing world we all need to be decision-makers and to draw upon a much broader range of our own and one-another's resources. The very specificity of steps in most creative methods will help us broaden our own and each other's competencies toward what is truly needed today.  

Q: What is Creative Leadership to you?  

1) Look beyond the vision statement and goals of your organization.

2)  We all have seen things, whether we are consciously aware of them of not, which no one else has seen, and thought thoughts which no one else has thought. Use creative processes to draw on these unique resources to find ways to make unique positive contributions to your organization and your team. And help each of your people to realize that s/he also has seen things, noticed or not, which no one else has seen and thought thoughts which no one else has thought, and that in them are also unique resources to draw upon.

3) Make time for regular frequent practice of creative processes yourself, and support regular practice of such processes by your staff. The methods only serve you well if you practice and use them consistently and often. Even in the core of the creativity movement, it is too easy for people to settle for one or two successful answers and then coast, missing even more significant opportunities.

4) Address your practical challenges part of the time that you practice such creative processes, but once in awhile determine the most profoundly basic questions you can be exploring, thereby getting your perceptions more broadband.

You can reach Dr. Win Wenger at the Project Renaissance website (http://www.winwenger.com). He will be a presenter at our upcoming Creativity in Business conference (http://www.creativity-conference.com) in Washington, DC on October 4, 2009.

 

Creativity in Business: My Interview with Larry Blumsack

This week's interview in the Creativity in Business Thought Leader Series is with Larry Blumsack, founder and director of Zoka Institute, a creativity and innovation consulting, training, and coaching company. Informing his work is over 40 years of parallel careers as a serial entrepreneur/business leader and as a "creative" - he has owned several businesses; worked in marketing, sales and television; is a founding member of the theater department at Northeastern University; and a syndicated critic, columnist and commentator on the arts for American radio, TV and print outlets and more. Having in depth experience with both creative and business cultures, Blumsack teaches business organizations how to build creative cultures within their organizations, and individuals how to tap into their own creativity.

Q: How does you work relate to creativity?

Larry: I use arts-for-business based activities to solve business issues, develop strategy and for critical thinking, creative problem solving and collaboration. Using visual and performing arts activities forces people to step out of their comfort zone and requires them to use non-traditional methods to address everything from strategic planning to specific business research, or silo problems.

America's educational process has strip-mined creativity - the mantras of "no you can't and here's the answer," "mistakes are bad," and "you have to be serious" have permeated both our educational and business environment to the detriment of building and maintaining of any kind innovative and creative culture.

Q: What do you see as the emerging paradigm of work?

Larry: Looking beyond linear, process-oriented solutions only. We need to encourage failure as a learning step instead of punishing it; provide employees a level of freedom and the environment to explore new ideas; and encourage cross-silo collaboration. In a work culture, everyone needs to feel that they are valued, engaged, and participating.

Q: What do you see the role of creativity in that paradigm?

Larry: I call it the "Zoka's 5 Habits for a Competitive Edge" - habits that draw from the visual and performing arts that also utilize tools of spirituality to incorporate a sense of much needed ethics in business. The habits are engaged mindfulness; look and see, listen and hear; yes and; and storytelling. Our lives are built on speed. Companies like Google, General Mills and many others are beginning to realize that speed is not the road to innovation and sustainability as a company. They have instituted mindfulness training which is based on meditation practices into their organizations to step up their creative and innovative thinking.

Engaged mindfulness is about stopping all the monkey chatter and mental multi-tasking we do throughout our day. Art and sculpture are tools to sharpen one's ability to look and see. Music opens up one's ability to really hear all that is coming into the ear. Yes and, the heart of improvisational theater, is the perfect mantra to institute at all meetings and personal.

It is said the emotion is the fast track to the brain and what better way to connect with someone that through the art of storytelling. The key is to use different art forms because some people are visual, some are auditory and some or kinesthetic - no one form serves all. It is rewarding to see senior executives, management teams and staff release and experiment through the arts to solve real business issues.

Q: What approaches and techniques do you recommend for effectively navigating the new work paradigm?

Larry: Understanding the value of managing FOR creativity - like a theater director - instead of trying to manage creativity. Learn how to think like a visual or performing artist. Learn that there is no one solution to anything. One must try and experiment with a number of approaches in all aspect of running a company or problem solving. A creative culture respects all ideas regardless of where they come from. And many great ideas come from places you least expect it if failure is acceptable.

Q: What is creative leadership to you?

Larry: The creative leader needs to be like the director in the theater who musters a variety of creative and talented actors, musicians, dancers, choreographers, lighting/costume/sound designers, authors, lyricists, etc. That director's job is to tap the creative talents of the team and mold them into an exciting, cohesive production.

Creative leadership values employees and realizes that innovative and creative ideas - when encouraged - can come from all levels of the company from the shipper/receiver and receptionist to the highest executive. Creative leadership understands Thomas Watson's (founder of IBM) answer when asked the secret of success - increase the rate of failure. Creative leadership understands the collegial, respectful culture that Edison built into his company so he could have 10,000 attempts - not failures - in creating the light bulb and numerous other lasting inventions. And Creative leadership means one understands and practices "yes and" at all times.

You can reach Larry Blumsack at the Zoka Institute website. He will be a presenter at our upcoming Creativity in Business conference in Washington, DC on October 4, 2009.

Creativity in Business: My Interview with Paul Scheele

Creativity is the key driving force behind successful innovation, and is being increasingly recognized as the new capital in uncertain and challenging economic times. This is the first in a series of posts based on interviews and dialogues with creativity and innovation thought leaders around the topic of applied creativity in business - a subject that has been the focus of my own work for the past 15 years.

Paul Scheele, founding partner of Learning Strategies Corporation, chairman of Natural Brilliance Productions, and founding member of the distinguished Transformational Leadership Council, is an accomplished author, speaker, and consultant in the area of human development, the brain, learning and creativity, transformation, and leadership. The following are his thoughts on business creativity, creative leadership, and the emerging business paradigm:

How does your work relate to creativity?

On a continuum of problem solving approaches, we often place creativity on one end and rational/analytical approaches on the other end, but we really need both ends of that continuum at different stages during the problem solving process. I work with integrating both sides of the brain and both ends of that continuum.

For example, in my second book, Natural Brilliance, I describe a creative problem solving process I originally created for Honeywell, where I taught for years a course called “Creativity and Problem Solving” as well as a course called “Managing Creativity and Innovation.” My approach uses Neuro-Linguistic Programming in a systematic way to deconstruct a rigid definition of “problem” from a static or stagnant view of a “thing” called “problem” to a more fluid and flexible exploration of internal representations and options. When we do, we permit the brain’s reorganization of parts into effective new arrangements, and freeing the mind to ultimately discover a cohesive whole that achieves “solutions” containing all the desired benefits we seek. 

What do you see as the emerging paradigm of work?

The new paradigm of work is a focus on a quadruple bottom-line. We are creating economies that practice conscious capitalism and organizations that strive to create enterprise that is socially just, environmentally and economically sustainable, and spiritually fulfilling. Employees and managers in such businesses are finding greater meaning and purpose in what they do. Their gifts are encouraged to come forward. They know that their work actively creates a better world for all.

 It is bringing about conscious capitalism - measuring results by real indicators of human progress, and not merely an economic bottom line that stresses quarterly earnings. The measures of the business also include the social capital that is being returned to the community, and the business practices are sustainable environmentally. More than just consumerism, real value is produced for customers, the employees, the organization, and the community.

 In the past, we were hired based on talent to solve problems and implement solutions to problems that were clear. But in the emerging paradigm, we are faced with extremely challenging problems. We have to do adaptive work - actively learning how to define and attend to emergent solutions in ways that do not grow out of our history. It requires embracing paradox - recognizing that whatever solution we implement can create more problems. Every solution contains problems, and every problem contains solutions - giving up the notion that we can find a lasting solution. It is a continual process of solving, creating, implementing, getting feedback, and refining.

What is the role of creativity in that paradigm?

 A lot of business activity is devoted to problem solving. And most of our problems exist as the unintended by-products of our current problem solving strategies, all of which have emerged from mental models that emerged out of our social system. Naturally, we have blinders to the fact, and think we are producing something new while we are actually busily creating more of the same. 

 The role of creativity is a full-on frontal assault of the mental models that created the messes humanity now needs to clean up. As the brilliant creative thinker and inventor Buckminster Fuller said, “Humanity is in its final exam. And I am confident we can make it if we recognize we are here for each other, that we are here for our minds.”  We need to do hospice for the old paradigm of business and begin to “mid-wife” the new. Adaptive work needs to be performed, and creative new approaches need to be birthed every day, if we are to move from the level of consciousness that produced our current malaise, into a new paradigm that creates a world that works for everyone.

What attitudes and behaviors are essential for effectively navigating the new paradigm?

 Improv Principles are a great template for navigating in a more fluid, emergent work environment. Three that are being highlighted in the Creativity In Business Conference are a great starting point: (1)Yes, and… (2) Make everyone else look good, and (3) Seek the good of the whole. In addition, two key internal behaviors that I work to help develop in people are a high tolerance for ambiguity, and the capacity to embrace paradox.

What is one tool or approach for bringing more creativity into work and business?

 The most essential tool is to pause in the problem solving process. Don’t rush to premature closure. Most people who have a problem want to get rid of it as quickly as possible. One of the first three solutions that come to mind usually get implemented. If we examine time allocation, 20% of the time is spent in problem definition and solution finding, then 80% of the time is devoted to implementation. I can virtually guarantee that the solutions will have emerged from the same problem solving approach that unintentionally put the problem in place to begin with.

 We need to switch that equation around. Take 80% of your problem solving time in problem definition and solution finding. Explore seven, nine, or eleven potential solutions. Challenge each solution by anticipating the ways things could go wrong with implementation and build in creative approaches to maximizing the potential benefits. Then, 20% of your time will be devoted to implementation, which will also move much more smoothly and effortlessly. Spend more time in exploration of the problem – more time in creative exploration, new and unexpected solutions can emerge.

What is Creative Leadership to you?

Creative Leadership is leadership that guides a social system to look into its own blind spots. It creates containers for the emerging future to land. It holds space for rich dialog and deep listening. It encourages an open mind, an open heart, and an open will that can trust the next steps into the fertile unknown will be blessed. Creative leadership models how to surrender what doesn’t work and gives birth to the next evolutionary step for ourselves as individuals, and the system within which we interact.

You can reach Paul Scheele at www.ReclaimYourGenius.com. He will be a presenter and panelist at our upcoming Creativity in Business Conference in Washington, DC October 4, 2009.

Creativity in Business Conference ~ October 4 in DC

http://www.creativity-conference.com

Join applied-creativity thought leaders, pioneering entrepreneurs and business innovators from around the country - in the fields of creativity and innovation, organizational change, social media and transformational leadership - for a full-day event focused on:

* Harnessing and focusing individual, group & organizational creativity
* Organizational structures/business models conducive for creativity & innovation
* The integration of creativity, purpose, business & serving the greater good

New ideas, new innovations, new systems and new structures depend on accessing new levels of creativity. At this event, we will explore different facets of creativity as the key driver in navigating and thriving in the new work paradigm.

Conference: 9:00-5:30 Festival: 5:30-7:30

CONFERENCE:  - Lively, Content-rich, Experiential Break-out Sessions each with a different focus related to the theme of Applied Creativity in Business  - Engaging Thought Leader Panels explore the creativity-centered work paradigm through the lens' of leadership, social media and creative thinking

FESTIVAL:  Comedy, Live Music, Networking, Book Signings, Give-Aways and hors d'oeuvres from award-winning Mie N Yu restaurant

ALSO INCLUDED:  Arts and Business Services Silent Auction - all proceeds from the auction go to ProjectCreateDC. For more info on how to donate a work of art or a business service, email info@creativeemergence.com.

REGISTRATION:  Earlybird discount through August 21: $149 ~ Regular rate after August 21: $197 ~ Sponsorship: $500. Seating is limited - early registration is recommended. http://www.creativity-conference.com

SPONSORS: - The Center for Creative Emergence - Capitol Creativity Network (CCN) - Center for Digital Imaging Arts (CDIA) - Teratech - Timothy Flatt Studios - Mie N Yu - Over The Horizon Consulting, LLC - Associated Producers - Brandwithin - Integral Company

ALL THE DETAILS:  http://www.creativity-conference.com

Hope you can join us! :-)

The Art of Change Inaugural Celebration with DC's Creative Communities

The Capitol Creativity Network is one of the sponsors for this exciting creative event this evening:

The Art of Change is an inaugural event created by and for the nation's art communities. We intend to create a unique celebration to mark the beginning of President-elect Barack Obama's administration and the positive changes we believe it will bring to our nation.

To create this event, volunteers have come together from all over Washington, DC's creative communities to collaborate in an event that will meld together art, music, and performance to show the District of Columbia the most original and creative inaugural event ever held.

The Art of Change planning committee is an all-volunteer group of movers and shakers from the Washington, DC creative community. All planning committee members are affiliated with one or more of our sponsor or partner organizations and have put in countless hours of personal time creating this event.

> Artists devoted to exploring the world of human aesthetic to bring us closer to a greater understanding of the world around us, our fellow human beings, and the deepest recesses of the psyche
> Performers adept at coaxing the highest elation and depths of despair from our audiences with the power of word, body, sound, and movement
> Event planners tried and tested in our talents for bringing together group energies and art to move beyond the intentions of individuals to a powerful new collective potential
> A collaborative powerhouse of creative energy devoted to expressing our hopes for the future of America and the entire world in the wake of the most important presidential election in any of our lifetimes through our own unique celebration

Go to artists-ball.org for details.

Accepting vs. Agreeing

One of the core principles of improvisational theater is "Yes And" - which means accepting (the YES) whatever is given (called "offers") and adding a new piece of information (the AND). It is the cornerstone of improv, and that which help improvisers keep the creativity going in the face of the unknown - with no plans, scripts or strategies.

When I bring Applied Improv principles and practices to organizations, inevitably someone says, "But what if you really DON'T agree with the idea that is offered? Some ideas are simply not good ideas." A valid case.

There are points I would like to address to that regard: first, the practice of "Yes-Anding" as a creativity technique is used more in the divergence (expanding and generating) part of the creative process. Among a host of other things, yes-anding helps open up the "playing field" for more possibilities and novel connections that otherwise would never have been engaged by the conventional approach of finding out all the reasons an idea will not work. Once you get into the convergence (discerning and focusing) part of the creative process, then you begin to use the "no's" as appropriate to discern what will and will not work based upon the objectives and the parameters of your focus.

The second point is more subtle. It is the difference between accepting the "offer" and agreeing with it. In improv, it does not matter what you personally think about the offer - or the person offering it - you accept it. You may disagree, but you still accept it and add to it. By doing so, you are not saying, "I love your idea!" Instead, you are engaging in the experiment of taking a seed idea and creating forth something new with it. In doing so, more often than not, an entirely unexpected direction will emerge that is better than anyone could have imagined. With clear intention of purpose, a "bad idea" that is accepted and "anded" can transform into a spot-on relevant innovation just a few "ands" later. To an improviser, all offers are gifts.
 
Perhaps more significantly, the art of acceptance is profound when practiced with groups and work teams. Accepting what someone is saying creates a feeling of safety. Once the ground of safety is established, members of the group will allow themselves to take more creative risks, to experiment more, to think more expansively...which leads to more novel and workable ideas. You don't have to agree with someone's point of view to honor that it is theirs. The payoff: you get more flow from the creative well. In a time when innovation is the big buzzword, the practice of accepting - regardless of agreeing - is one more tool for the creative toolbox.

Mentioned as Visionary Leader in Fast Company Blog

I am totally surprised - and completely honored! - to be named one of the Visionary Leaders in the Fast Company Blog , Leading Change.

50 Ways to Think Creatively

This morning I was reflecting on creative thinking for my newsletter and decided to make a list of what came to me as it emerged, stopping after the first 50 concepts:

1. Give your Creative Self space, time and attention
2. Be curious - wonder about things
3. Have more questions than answers
4. Challenge assumptions and norms - your own, others, societies
5. Get clarity about exactly what you are trying to solve or envision and why
6. Turn problem statements into vision statements
7. Record your thoughts and ideas
8. Have brainstorming buddies and a creativity support team
9. Break patterns and habits - consciously do something different
10. Use the body - walk, dance, move in non-habitual ways
11. Surround yourself with diverse types of people
12. Use reverse or opposites thinking
13. Look for the story behind or about something
14. Meditate - cultivate presence and mindfulness
15. Live in terms of exploration and discovery, not just solutions or right answers
16. See uncertainty as an invitation to discover
17. See mistakes as an invitation to create
18. Suspend judgment as you explore and experiment
19. Think in terms of "What if?" about seemingly obvious things
20. Surround yourself with life-giving and inspiring people, images and objects
21. Justify why something works even before you know why - make it up as you go along
22. Tell your own Creativity Story and identify the beliefs you have about yourself as a creative person
23. Experiment without needing it to work - let go of attachment to outcomes
24. Use visual, metaphorical and analogical thinking - not just analytical
25. Thinking terms of what works rather than the one right way
26. Develop positive beliefs about creativity and you as a creator
27. Self-creation - think of yourself as a creator always recreating yourself
28. Engage all of the senses - sight, touch, taste, smell, sound
29. Use different types of music in the background while thinking
30. Think of your vision or challenge in terms of attributes: shape, size, color, texture
31. Use the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. technique with your ideas
32. Read up on creative thinking techniques and DO them the get practice
33. Learn to listen to your intuition to follow hunches and discern ideas
34. Be wiling to break rules, and then break them again
35. Cultivate your inner bon vivant - have fun, laugh, play
36. Embrace, rather than avoid, ambiguity as an essential part of the creative process
37. Allow time to stay immersed in the question
38. Take improv theater classes to feel more comfortable creating in real time
39. Animate concepts and ideas - endow them with human or other characteristics
40. Write out the unique ways you already are creative
41. Use, and value,the whole brain - including the visual and kinesthetic
42. Draw or paint concepts
43. Create your own rituals
44. Adopt alternative views of reality
45. Pretend your are someone/thing else while problem solving or creating
46. Embrace being wrong as a worthwhile part of the creative process
47. Allow discomfort to be an acceptable part of the process
48. Give time for divergence as well as convergence
49. Value imagination as much as knowledge
50. Finally, there is no substitute for passion - find what is alive for you and create from there

My Improv Article at Innovation Tools

Innovation Tools is featuring an article I wrote, Creative Collaboration: Lessons from Improv Theater, on Applied Improv, based on my experience performing with Precipice Improv and applying improv principles and practices in organizations.

Click here for the article.

10 Traits of The Creative Personality

Psychology Today featured an excerpt of an article written by psychology professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (who popularized the term "Flow" in is books which include Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience and Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention among others). To build on Flow Theory, Csikszentmihalyi  interviewed 91 people, eminent in their respective fields, each of whom engaged in "flow" in an ongoing basis while contributing to the betterment of society. He found certain traits common to all that he called the Creative Personality. The following article summarizes his finding. I have copied only parts of it below - for the complete article, click here.

The Creative Personality
By Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Of all human activities, creativity comes closest to providing the fulfillment we all hope to get in our lives. Call it full-blast living...Creativity is a central source of meaning in our lives. Creative individuals are remarkable for their ability to adapt to almost any situation and to make do with whatever is at hand to reach their goals. Most of the things that are interesting, important, and human are the result of creativity...When we're creative, we feel we are living more fully than during the rest of life...what makes their personalities different from others...complexity. They show tendencies of thought and action that in most people are segregated. They contain contradictory extremes; instead of being an "individual," each of them is a "multitude."

Here are the 10 antithetical traits often present in creative people that are integrated with each other in a dialectical tension.

1. Creative people have a great deal of physical energy, but they're also often quiet and at rest. They work long hours, with great concentration, while projecting an aura of freshness and enthusiasm...This does not mean that creative people are always "on"...When necessary, they can focus it like a laser beam; when not, creative types immediately recharge their batteries. They consider the rhythm of activity followed by idleness or reflection very important for the success of their work.

2. Creative people tend to be smart yet naive at the same time...Another way of expressing this dialectic is the contrasting poles of wisdom and childishness...a certain immaturity, both emotional and mental, can go hand in hand with deepest insights...Furthermore, people who bring about an acceptable novelty in a domain seem able to use well two opposite ways of thinking: the convergent and the divergent.

3. Creative people combine playfulness and discipline, or responsibility and irresponsibility. There is no question that a playfully light attitude is typical of creative individuals. But this playfulness doesn't go very far without its antithesis, a quality of doggedness, endurance, perseverance...Despite the carefree air that many creative people affect, most of them work late into the night and persist when less driven individuals would not.

4. Creative people alternate between imagination and fantasy, and a rooted sense of reality. Great art and great science involve a leap of imagination into a world that is different from the present...the whole point of art and science is to go beyond what we now consider real and create a new reality...this "escape" is not into a never-never land. What makes a novel idea creative is that once we see it, sooner or later we recognize that, strange as it is, it is true.

5. Creative people tend to be both extroverted and introverted...in the thick of crowds or sitting on the sidelines and observing the passing show. In fact, in psychological research, extroversion and introversion are considered the most stable personality traits that differentiate people from each other and that can be reliably measured. Creative individuals, on the other hand, seem to exhibit both traits simultaneously.

6. Creative people are humble and proud at the same time...Their respect for the area in which they work makes them aware of the long line of previous contributions to it, putting their own in perspective. They're also aware of the role that luck played in their own achievements. And they're usually so focused on future projects and current challenges that past accomplishments, no matter how outstanding, are no longer very interesting to them. At the same time, they know they have accomplished a great deal. And this knowledge provides a sense of security, even pride.

7. Creative people, to an extent, escape rigid gender role stereotyping...ability to be at the same time aggressive and nurturant, sensitive and rigid, dominant and submissive, regardless of gender. A psychologically androgynous person in effect doubles his or her repertoire of responses. Creative individuals are more likely to have not only the strengths of their own gender but those of the other one, too.

8. Creative people are both rebellious and conservative. It is impossible to be creative without having first internalized an area of culture...But the willingness to take risks, to break with the safety of tradition, is also necessary. The economist George Stigler is very emphatic: "In innovation, you have to play a less safe game, if it's going to be interesting. It's not predictable that it'll go well."

9. Most creative people are very passionate about their work, yet they can be extremely objective about it as well. Without the passion, we soon lose interest in a difficult task. Yet without being objective about it, our work is not very good and lacks credibility. Here is how the historian Natalie Davis puts it:  "...you can't be so identified with your work that you can't accept criticism and response."

10. Creative people's openness and sensitivity often exposes them to suffering and pain, yet also to a great deal of enjoyment...Being alone at the forefront of a discipline also leaves you exposed and vulnerable...invites criticism and often vicious attacks...Divergent thinking is often perceived as deviant by the majority, and so the creative person may feel isolated and misunderstood...Yet when a person is working in the area of his of her expertise, worries and cares fall away, replaced by a sense of bliss.

Perhaps the most important quality, the one that is most consistently present in all creative individuals, is the ability to enjoy the process of creation for its own sake.

That was from Creativity: The Work and Lives of 91 Eminent People, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

My two cents: the Creative Personality can hold paradox without feeling conflicted - both paradoxical traits within oneself, as well as the ability to hold the world (and world view) as containing seemingly opposing realities without having to adopt one in particular. It is not reductionist, reducing a philosophy, creation or way of being down to one common denominator. It is expansive and yes-anding - accepting that contradictory ideas, situations and traits can be operating simultaneously or within the same individual or system - and that adds to the creative complexity, aliveness and richness of output.