From the Publisher: 

Hello MFJ Readers. 

Our feature article in this issue is comprised of a short 15-question quiz, by Dr. Robert Epstein, to assess your creative competency in four areas that predict individual creativity. Your scores will identify your current competency levels and will alert you to additional practices that can greatly enhance your creative skills. Consider using this inventory to increase awareness around creativity and to inspire it in your groups.

Also check out our new 4-week telecass on Appreciative Inquiry presented at the end of this issue.

If you or your colleagues are interested in submitting an article for consideration, please email your ideas. I'd love to hear from you.

Have a great week... 
Steve Davis

Be brave enough to live creatively. The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. You can't get there by bus, only by hard work, risking, and by not quite knowing what you're doing. What you'll discover will be wonderful: yourself.--Alan Alda

Our capacity for creativity is possibly one of mankind's greatest gifts. Many people however discount, ignore, or deny their creative potentials. I think this is often due to ignorance around the nature and practice of creative attitudes and behaviors.

Perhaps you'll find the following inventory useful to help inspire creativity within your groups, or at least help them to better see how they can develop their latent creative competencies.

This mini- inventory is designed to assess your creative competencies. The inventory yields scores in four competency areas that predict individual creativity. (A competency is an underlying characteristic - i.e., motive, trait, skill and knowledge - which results in effective and/or superior performance in a job.) There are no right or wrong answers. Your scores will identify your current competency levels and will alert you to additional practices that can greatly enhance your creative skills.

Circle the appropriate answer and total your score below. Then check the key to see how good you really are!

1 = Strongly Disagree, 2 = Disagree , 3 = Neither , 4 = Agree, 5 = Strongly Agree

15-27 Dried-Up Pen
It's not that you lack creativity, you don't know just how to access and express it. You prefer to stick to things more mechanical in nature, while avoiding things that require others to stare at what you've done. Going through life without expressing your creativity is akin to driving through Arizona with no A/C and the power windows stuck in the up position. It can be done. But it isn't really pleasant, and you're likely to be quite crabby when the day is through. Still, a wide variety of tricks and methods available to you can help harness those creative fruits and start making juice.

28-39 Broken Chalk
You have some ability to express your creativity, but you still have to be reminded on occasion that crayons can be used for something other than eating. Your occasional bursts of creativity can be bolstered by techniques that will allow you to awaken and use the abilities you have yet to truly harness.

40-51 Disappearing Ink
Sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not. Your creative capacity has a lot of room for expansion. You know the warehouse is there, but you don't really know what you have inside. Your potential and internal resources are quite likely wasting away from only partial usage. But never fear! There are many ways for you to take stock of what you have and figure out how to make use of your capabilities.

52-63 The BIG Box of Crayons
Yes, while many of us are limited to twelve or sixteen (or in some cases four) you have access to a whole myriad of shades and colors you can use to express yourself. You know the possibilities and ways to make them happen, but there is always a little more you can do: sharpen the crayon, peel back the paper, even color with the side of the crayon. Learn some new techniques and you can do more than ever before.

64-75 The Inkpot Runneth Over
You and Shakespeare both have it pretty well together. You have a lot of ability for being creative and expressing it. You know a wide variety of ways to access your creativity and means of getting it out when the getting is good. Consider moving to Paris and sitting on the Left Bank, sipping absinthe and writing of your exploits abroad with Ernie and Fitzy.

About the Author: This is a mini version of a longer Creativity Competencies Inventory. A more complete version, which gives subscale scores in four different competency areas, is available through Personal Strengths Publishing. The author, Dr. Robert Epstein, is Contributing Editor of Psychology Today magazine, and University Research Professor at the California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant International University. A Ph.D. of Harvard University, he currently has eleven books in print, including Creativity Games for Trainers, The Big Book of Creativity Games, The Big Book of Stress Relief Games, and The Big Book of Motivation Games. All of which can be ordered through Personal Strengths Publishing: www.personalstrengths.com or 1-800-624-7347.

Resource 
The Big Book of Creativity Games, by Robert Epstein, Ph.D.

In the modern economy, where most workers are knowledge workers, creativity and innovation are the most easily sustainable competitive advantages. In The Big Book of Creativity Games, Harvard trained psychologist Robert Epstein provides dozens of games and activities designed to stimulate creativity and generate innovation in the workplace.

Dr. Epstein describes the scientific principles of creativity that underlie the games, and how these principles can be applied to tasks like problem solving, new product development, and marketing. Timely and innovative, The Big Book of Creativity Games is the ideal book for managers to turn to whenever they need:

· Games that are easy to lead and fun to play
· Exercises that go far beyond standard brainstorming techniques
· Innovation jump-starters for team meetings and work groups