Competence model articles Demonstrates an understanding of factors that support and block creativity Knowledge of factors that support and block creativity Promoting creativity, problem solving and out of the box thinking Understanding and facilitating individual and group learning process

I am looser, baby, so why don’t you block me

We believe it is very important to be aware and recognize factors that support and block creativity. The awareness could be useful to support your own creativity as a trainer and to support the creativity of learners. The knowledge could come in different ways, but we trust the knowledge that comes from the wisdom of the reflection. The tool is prepared to reflect on situations that usually block creativity.

Donatas Petkauskas February 22, 2020

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I am looser, baby, so why don’t you block me — Pexels.com

Why did I choose this tool?

We prepared this tool after reading different literature and after trying it out personally. Creative solutions, methods and thinking come when there are no other factors disturbing you and your creativity. We can list lots of blocking factors, but let’s do it together. In this exercise we encourage you to think about factors that block you to be (more) creative. Recognize when do you choose actions and solutions that worked very well in the past and you are willing to repeat them. Think about a situation where you wanted to be more creative but you chose the traditional way.

How does this apply to being a trainer?

Recognizing factors that block your creativity could help you support learners to be more creative (while creating atmosphere, choosing methods there are no “blocking factors” or you know how to mitigate them if they appear). Moreover this exercise increases your awareness.

Main content:

This is a reflection exercise. We invite you to think about situations where you felt that “something” blocked you from being creative or to come up with creative solutions, actions etc. After listing and writing about the situation, we encourage you to think how these “blocking factors” could be overcome and maybe you will find out.

Think about the factors that block your creativity and list them

Give an example of the situation where/how it happened.

You can deepen your situation analysis by asking yourself five times “why” in order to understand the root of the reason you think it was blocking your creativity.

Think about ways and methods how could you overcome this.*

If it is too difficult to think how to overcome “blocking factors”, we encourage you to invite colleagues to talk about how they are dealing with it.

I’m afraid of failure in front of learners

I’ve become nervous when I needed to present the agenda of the training unexpectedly, as my trainer colleague just turned to me asking to do this.

Why? Why do you think it was blocking your creativity?

When an unexpected situation happens, I am not ready to deal with it. I could refuse to do it and have time to prepare myself, or I could improvise and be more creative.

For such an unexpected situation, I have several tools in mind (always): ask for help or be someone else.

For example, I could put myself in the shoes of a known politician and present the agenda like he/she would (to be someone else would let me be more confident as this is not the real me, who is not prepared to present, but he, the politician).

Second option, could be to ask colleagues, learners for a help.

I am not an expert and I don’t feel ready

I was very afraid to fail in presenting the theory of active participation. I made a presentation but I was not improvising and most of the recommendations in the theory I have never tried before

Why? Why was I afraid to fail? Go deeper with the situation analysis.

Most of pax have experience in encouraging people to participate in elections, I was afraid they will start asking me serious questions to prove the theory, I don’t have answer to.

Try out some of “unknown” things before going to present.

Don’t act as an expert but use the knowledge and experience you have.

Ask for the opinion of my colleagues about the theory.

…

You can train yourself thinking about other factors that may block creativity:

I don’t believe in myself
It’s not the right time
It’s not perfect: analysis paralysis.
I feel uncertain and don’t know what to do next

Reflection questions:

How did you feel while reflecting about situations and blocking factors?
Were you honest and open?
What were the most unexpected reflections outcomes?
How could you apply this knowledge to trainings?

Exercises:

How to apply it in everyday life:

The third part of the exercise, where you need to think about most common actions, could be applied very easy to your daily life.

Co-author of the article: Agne Kvikliene

Agne Kvikliene – professional IT project manager who sometimes works as a trainer helping people to build organizational changes, strategies and ensure the quality. She had been working with training programmes and coordinated national trainers’ pool at National Agency of EU programmes for youth. While having experience in training, educating people she initiated training quality standards and raised the topic of trainers competences development. The biggest achievement for her was to lead Eastern partnership youth forum which was a milestone for the strengthening the quality of the non-formal education and the partnership among the EU and EaP countries. It became a continuous activity happening once in a two year.

Co-author of the article: Povilas Plukas

Povilas Plukas is the learning designer who designs experiences that grow personalities and helps organisations to reach their learning goals. Over the last 10 years he provides training courses on personal development, interpersonal communication, teamwork, change management, learning to learn, social entrepreneurship, gamification and game design. Povilas is a member of International Applied Improvisation network. He studied improvisation at Second City, a world-famous improv school in Chicago. He is partner in the consulting company Kitokie Projektai. The company has been active both in Lithuania and internationally since 2000.

Editor: Donatas Petkauskas

is professional supervisor, coach and experiential learning trainer, having more than 15 years of experience in consulting various organizations and individuals, creating and conducting training course on national and international levels. Donatas has extensive experience in non-formal education, training of youth workers and trainers. He is working in the field of non-formal education since 2003, since 2004 he is a member of trainers pool of Lithuanian National Agency (currently an alumni).