New ideas and new thinking must be the gold dust of any creative. An on-going issue is whether creativity can be developed, lost, learned, improved or whether it is a magic and mysterious commodity. More and more evidence is pointing to the probability that cretivity can be developed, regained, sharpened - certainly up to a point. Anyone any experience of improving or developing their own creativity that they would like to share?

Anton

There are many many ways in which creativity can be developed, enhanced, and (perhaps most importantly in creative businesses) supported. I love the Disney strategy which separates the processes of creativity into 3 different spaces, the Dreamer, Critic and Realist. Each space has an equal contribution to make to the end creative product but its important not to jump too quickly from one to the next. The 'Dreaming' or brainstorming part of creativity is essential, and can't be tamed too quickly by realism, but if you ignore the audience or client (represented by the 'Critic), or fail to meet your deadlines or notice spiralling costs (Realist) entire projects can fall apart.
The Artist's Way is a bit of an old classic, but Julia Cameron's techniques are spot on in terms of unblocking and supporting creativity. I especially like her 'Morning Pages' (writing 3 pages long hand each morning, both as a brain dump and a means of training the mind to create on tap), and Artist dates, or the idea that you have to feed creativity with new images and ideas and experiences (which she calls 'filling the well').
Supporting creativity is also about improving confidence, as the quickest route to a creative block can be self-doubt or criticism.
I spend a lot of time writing about this stuff, if you are interested, check out my Creative Alchemy blog: http://creativealchemy.typepad.com/creative_alchemy//

Also...interesting books on the subject are Flow and the Psychology of Creativity by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Sticky Wisdom by Dave Allen of What If? and of course the Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. There are lots more but its not a bad place to start!

A bit of self publicity... A couple of years ago I set up 'At Abrahams' as a way of learning from creative people from other disciplines - arts, business and science. If you check out our website, you'll find more info on www.atabrahams.com

I think there are many ways to develop one's creativity - all valid. Visit galleries, read books, talk to friends, attend talks, self initiate projects, draw, write, think, don't think, take time out and do something different (I run).

I'd like to know what others do...?

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