I got a 98% omg awesome. I answered based on how I manage people in real life, how I manage my business, how I manage my friends and how I manage the minecraft server.
*Do You Know How to Elicit Creativity in Other People?*
Epstein Creativity Competencies Inventory for Managers (ECCI-m) v. 2.4, 2008-2012, Dr. Robert Epstein
Results for Kenneth U
May 20, 2013
Thanks for taking the ECCI-m! Your scores, which are listed below, are an indication of the level of competency you currently have in eight different skill areas that are important for helping others to express their creativity. Your Total Score reflects your overall skill level. While it’s not necessary that you be adept in all of these areas, the stronger your skills, the more creativity you are likely to elicit in the people you supervise. The good news is that all of these competencies are trainable; that is, there are books you can read, seminars you can attend, and videos you can view that will improve your abilities in each and every area. The Big Book of Creativity Games contains 48 games and exercises you might find helpful. A related book, Creativity Games for Trainers, provides more detailed information for professional trainers. Both are published by the business division of McGraw-Hill.
The highest possible score in each area is 100, and so is the highest possible Total Score. Wherever your score is under 100, some improvement is possible. If your score is below 85, you probably should be concerned. If your score is below 65, it’s especially important that you work on your skills in this area. If your creativity management skills are poor, you’ll probably have trouble eliciting creativity in other people; strengthening your creativity management skills can boost creative expression in your organization or classroom dramatically.
Remember, creativity in an organization doesn’t need to be left to chance! Creativity-generating processes can be introduced systematically into every operation, every meeting, every task and goal — all activities from top to bottom.
Here is your profile….
Your Total Managerial Competency Score is 98%
Your scores in each of the eight different skill areas are as follows:
EncouragesPreservationofNewIdeas: 100%
EncouragesCapturing100%
ChallengesSupervisees100%
EncouragesBroadening100%
ManagesSurroundings100%
ManagesTeams100%
ManagesResources100%
ProvidesFeedback100%
ModelsSkills80%
New ideas are fleeting, like a rabbit running through the woods that you only glimpse. Creative people know this, which is why they go to great lengths to capture their new ideas as they come, sometimes jotting down notes on a napkin or calling their own voicemail and leaving themselves a message. To maximize the creative output in the people you manage, you need to teach them that it’s important to preserve new ideas, and you also need to make it easy for them to do so. You can help people capture their new ideas with environmental reminders: posters, signs, digital messages, etc., that encourage capturing. You can provide materials and devices that facilitate capturing: idea folders, memo recorders, PDAs, walls people can write on, etc. You can provide quiet areas that allow people to hear their thoughts. And you can even set aside special periods of the day — creativity breaks — for capturing new ideas. Encouraging the capturing of new ideas is the most powerful tool you have for increasing creative output in your organization.
ChallengesSubordinates: 100%
Although failure, and even the thought of failure, makes people uncomfortable, Dr. Epstein’s laboratory research has shown that failure is extremely valuable for creative expression. When we’re put into tough situations — situations in which we might fail — a phenomenon Epstein calls ”resurgence” kicks in: Many old behaviors and ideas compete for our attention simultaneously. New ideas and behaviors are generated as the old behaviors and ideas combine; interconnections among old behaviors is mechanism underlying all creativity, according to Epstein. That’s why giving people real challenges is such a powerful way of stimulating creativity. To be an effective manager of creativity, you need to challenge people regularly, to teach them not to fear failure, and even to teach them better ways to manage stress. One specific challenge technique that Epstein teaches: Make sure that all tasks and goals are stated in an ”open-ended” way; make sure you ask for ”at least” three solutions to a problem, not just three. Closed, bounded assignments shut down creative thinking.
EncouragesBroadeningofKnowledgeandSkills: 100%
Because creativity is the result of interconnections among previously established bits of knowledge, the more interesting and diverse those bits of knowledge, the more profound the creativity. If you want more creativity from your subordinates, you need to encourage them to learn things well outside their current areas of expertise. In an exercise called ”The Experts Game,” Epstein produces a dramatic increase in new ideas by having people listen to three people talking for 5 minutes each about unusual topics. If your resources allow, don’t just give your subordinates another course on the latest software update; instead, treat them to a lecture on 17th century Italian art or on the basics of plate tectonics — or, better yet, ask your own employees to give occasional lectures on their own obscure areas of expertise! You’ll be amazed to learn what kind of serious expertise is hiding right now in your organization.
ManagesSurroundingstoStimulateCreativity: 100%
New behaviors and ideas are also generated when people are exposed to new, vague, or multiple stimuli in the environment around them — both physical and social stimuli. Static environments, on the other hand, stifle creativity. To be an effective manager of creativity, you need to provide an interesting, ever-changing environment, and you also need to make sure that your subordinates interact with ever-changing groups of individuals in your organization.
ManagesTeamstoStimulateCreativity: 100%
Although teams are often used to generate new ideas, Dr. Epstein has shown that they’re rarely used optimally. The main problem with teams is that they shut down the creativity of some or even most team participants. New ideas always emerge in individuals, after all, and the presence of other people often inhibits creative expression. One technique of team management that Dr. Epstein teaches is called ”shifting”: Team members work on the problem together for a short time. Then they shift out of the group and work on the problem individually. Then they come back together and pool and discuss their ideas. Shifting allows everyone to make a contribution, and groups that shift generally produce twice as many ideas as non-shifting groups. Epstein also teaches the importance of assembling highly diverse teams, as well as of changing team membership on a regular basis.
ManagesResourcestoStimulateCreativity: 100%
When resources are limited, creativity is limited. Dr. Epstein demonstrates this in a simple exercise called ”Popsicology,” in which participants are asked to create designs using popsicle sticks. To no one’s surprise, the more popsicle sticks people have, the more creative their designs are rated by peer judges. To maximize creative output in your organization, you need to keep both time and material resources flowing to the full extent possible.
ProvidesFeedbackandRecognitiontoStimulateCreativity: 100%
Never underestimate the power of consequences. When people are given positive feedback or material rewards for expressing new ideas, they express more of them. Good creativity managers provide positive feedback when people demonstrate creativity, and such feedback can also be systematized in an organization by making it part of evaluation and incentive systems.
ModelsAppropriateCreativity-ManagementSkills: 80%
You can manage by telling, and you also manage by doing. When your subordinates see you expressing creativity, they’ll feel more comfortable expressing their own. More important, when they see you practicing any of what Epstein calls the four ”core competencies of creativity” — Capturing, Challenging, Broadening, and Surrounding — they’ll be more likely to learn and master those competencies. To get a more detailed fix on your personal creativity competencies, take the Epstein Creativity Competencies Inventory for Individuals (ECCI-i) by visiting MyCreativitySkills.com.