As I picked up The Art of Innovation by Tom Kelley for a third week, I began to think about how the ideas he is describing in his book could help me perform better in school and my extracurricular in the future. While Kelley focuses his instructions towards executives and other businessmen looking to improve the innovation at their own firms, I believe that I could use the same ideas in my life, too. The first chapter I read that interested me was about brainstorming. It discussed the different ways to come up with ideas and how to build the right environment for it. Innovating is based on new ideas, so brainstorming is the backbone of innovation. Some ideas he mentions is writing everything down, numbering the ideas, and taking leaps from different ideas to other ones. One thing he stressed was this idea of equality in the room. Having a boss looking over your shoulder as he judges you will definitely lead people to not be as wiling to speak their mind. I have seen this before in school, too. I think one of the problems in school in general is that the teachers believe they have a power over the students. In elementary school I understand that discipline is necessary in certain situations, but their is a line when teachers restrict creative learning because they want to follow a strict set of rules. For example, making sure everyone talks in a class discussion before you can talk again. I have seen this rule implemented over and over. Kelley even states making everyone talk is one of the six ways to "kill brainstorming."
Another idea that Kelley highlights is creating an environment of teamwork. No single human could ever be a greater innovator than a group of people working together. Working in teams is one of the most important skills I have come to realize through all of my experience in school and the work force. I believe giving students opportunities to work in groups is really important to building those skills, too. One idea Kelley gave made me want to redo how groups are made in schools, though. He explained that in his situation of creating new groups for discussion, he let the students pick who they wanted to be their leader. I feel like letting students pick what groups they want to be in is really important. If you force students into groups, they will most likely not do as well. Many teachers would argue that kids would just want to be with their friends and fool around. Then that is their fault for not trying, not the teachers. Overall, the book is giving me a lot to think about.
I've been thinking a lot about how to group students (or let them group). Some students do quite well in self-formed groups. However, some do not. Sometimes groups end up forming around students who are not a part of an already established group of friends; sometimes student choose to be in groups with students whom they don't work well with. I, too, think choice is a key ingredient to creativity...but I'm not sure that everyone is able to use it well.
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