The Four P's Creativity

C ombining
R elativity
E xcellence
A bstractness
T alent
I ntuition
V aluable
E xperiences

The four P’s of Creativity is a variety of approaches to creativity that have come about from more than a century of creative research

Creativity an attribute of:
Product-some ideas, solutions, and designs are more creative than others;
Person-some individuals are more creative than others;
Press-some physical and social environments produce more creativity than others;
Process-some thinking techniques produce more creativity than others
(Santanen & Vreede, 2004)

Summary of the best applications and techniques using the Four P’s of creativity:

Product - The product perspective of the Four P’s frames creativity as a property of the outcomes produced by a creative endeavor. The definition of creative product includes a physical object, a theoretical system, an equation; something both novel and appropriate to an open-ended task; has the power to transform the constraints and boundaries of a situation (Santanen & Vreede, 2004).

Measuring the creativity of a Product
- Uniqueness
- Beauty/Novelty
- Helpfulness
- User-Friendly

Person - The person perspective of the Four P’s frames creativity as a property of people and studies the causes of differences in creativity among populations. One device for identifying creative persons is the use of an adjective checklist which contains 300 adjectives that describe personal traits (e.g., sexy, capable, clever, snobbish, original, reflective).

Measuring Creativity in a Person
- Positive self image
- Needs personal independence
- Wide Interests
- Tendency to become over-involved
- Reacts positively to challenges

Press - The press perspective of the Four P’s frames creativity as an interaction between people and their environments. Some environmental elements found to lead to creativity include: social interaction; intrinsic (e.g., belonging to a thing by its very nature 1) and; extrinsic (e.g., not essential or inherent; not a basic part or quality; extraneous 2) motivation; the presence of sufficient challenge; freedom; autonomy; access to required resources and; organizational support.

Evaluating t he Creativity of Press
- Encourages goal setting
- Encourages risk taking
- Sufficient challenge
- Freedom
- Resources

Process - The process perspective of the Four P’s frames creativity as a way of thinking and studies the stages of the creative process. Osborn originally predicted that a verbally interacting group could produce at least twice as many unique ideas (Santanen & Vreede, 2004). Production blocking results occur because only one person at a time may use an oral communication channel. Early research with Group Support Systems (GSS) demonstrated that anonymous brainstorming teams produced substantially more unique ideas than did identified teams unlike group think which is “thought exhibited by group members who try to minimize conflict and reach consensus without critically testing, analyzing, and evaluating ideas” (Wikipedia, 2009).

Evaluating creativity in Process
- Verbally interacting groups
- Anonymous brainstorming
- Anonymous group collaboration software
- Building on a logical model
- Sustained and complex mental effort over time


References:
extrinsic. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Retrieved January 16, 2009,
from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/extrinsic

Groupthink. Wikipedia on-line encyclopedia. Retrieved on 1/16/2009:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupthink

Intrinsic. 9n.d Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Retrieved January 16, 2009,
from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/intrinsic
Santanen, E., Briggs, R., & De Vreede, G. (2004, Spring). Causal Relationships
in Creative Problem Solving: Comparing Facilitation Interventions for Ideation. Journal of Management Information Systems, 20(4), 167-197. Retrieved December 18, 2007, from Business Source Complete database.