(ITP-24) Concept of creativity
and its stages
Abstract:
This article
explores the concept of creativity and its stages. Creativity is the ability to
generate novel and valuable ideas, products, or solutions. The stages include
preparation, incubation, illumination, and verification. In the preparation
phase, individuals gather knowledge and acquire skills. The incubation stage
involves subconscious processing and reflection. Illumination is the sudden
insight or "Eureka" moment, while verification involves refining and
evaluating the creative idea. The creative process is not strictly linear, and
factors like individual traits and environmental influences play a role.
Understanding creativity's stages helps foster creativity in individuals and
organizations, driving innovation and personal growth.
What is Creativity?
•
Creativity represents a Special Kind of
Thinking Process. Creativity is generally known as originality in ideas. Every
one of us ought to process creative abilities. But every one of us is a unique
creation, Thereby the degree of possession of creative ability is not uniform.
•
Some of us are found to possess high
creative talents and these are the people who move the world ahead by their
discoveries and inventions in the field of art, literature, science, business,
teaching and other fields of human accomplishments. They are responsible for
coming up with new ideas and bringing about social and cultural changes.
Nature and characteristics of creativity
The nature and characteristics of
creativity are as follows:-
- Creativity is universal. Every one of us
possesses the creative capacity to some degree.
- Creative abilities are natural endowments,
they are capable of being nourished and nurtured by training or education.
- Through creative expression, something new
or novel idea is produced. But the novelty or newness doesn’t mean to
produce totally new idea it may be something that is already present but
reshaped or rearrangement of these ideas is also called creativity.
- Creative expression is the source of joy
and satisfaction for the creator.
- Ego involvement in creative person like
creator can say it’s my creation, I have solved this problem
- Creative thinking cannot be closed
thinking. It must have complete freedom for the multiplicity of responses,
choices and line of action.
- The field of creative expression is very
wide. It covers all the aspects of human accomplishments like scientific
inventions and discoveries, compositions of poems, Drama, dance, music
etc. Our day to day life activities also needs creativity. Therefore, in a
nutshell, life as a whole presents enormous opportunities for creative
expression.
Stages of Creativity Process
Preparation
The first stage is the idea of
‘preparation’ the idea that is immersing yourself in the domain. If someone is
good at music then he will absorb a lot of music that is inspiring him to
create a new piece of music. Likewise, some who is good at dance,
arts, Research will look after to create something new in their interested and
related field. In this stage, students try to absorb as much information as
possible because this information will go into their sub consciousness where it
is very important for the second stage.
Incubation
The second stage is called the
‘incubation’ stage. In incubation, all the information he has gathered in the
first stage preparation stage really goes back. It starts to churn in the back
of his mind, in the sub-consciousness. This is an extremely important stage
because something can take days, or week or months or sometimes even years.
That idea that he will think about writing about a book or piece of music, and
he is writing about it and he just leave it to the side for a while and then
come back to it. Now the interesting thing about the incubation stages is that
to a certain extent it is not really under his control how long that stage will
take. It is something he cannot really rush because what it leads to is the
third stage.
Illumination
This is the third stage. This
stage essentially describes the classic “eureka!” or “aha” moment of insight.
However, the fact that illumination has an entire stage devoted to it shows
that it’s essentially not just a quick moment of insight and helps us
understand that it’s something we can—and should—work towards achieving. The
third stage is what most people think is a classic characteristic of a creative
person, but creativity is a process which even the most seemingly unimaginative
people can learn to manage and nurture.
Verification/implementation
At this fourth stage, you build on the “aha”
solution. You evaluate, analyze and build on your idea. You then polish it to
make sure that it’s both useful and novel. At this stage, you would also often
choose to prototype and test your idea in order to find out if it meets the
users’ needs which you defined at the preparation stage—and, if so, polish it
as needed.
Conclusion
Creativity is a multifaceted process that
involves various stages and factors. By understanding and harnessing
creativity, individuals and organizations can unlock their innovative
potential, leading to new solutions, products, and advancements. Nurturing
creativity through education, supportive environments, and personal development
strategies is crucial in fostering a creative society and addressing the
challenges of an ever-changing world.
