innovative minds don't think alike

Personal creativity is the result of the interaction of mind, emotions and intuition. Out of cognitive, emotional and intuitive intelligence arises the creative IQ.

"Knowledge comes from the past, so it's safe. It is also out of date. It's the opposite of originality." - Paul Arden

Building a career used to be a question of academic experience. This has changed. The knowledge of today might be useless by tomorrow. For being successful in management, having an MBA in the pocket was key. This might not be crucial anymore. In December 2009 Harvard Business Review voted Steve Jobs the world's best-performing CEO for delivering a whopping 3188% industry-adjusted return from 1997 to 2009. The CEO of Apple does not possess an MBA. He is simply a creative genius.

There are many ways to describe intelligence and even more types of intelligence like cognitive, collective and interpersonal intelligence. Some scientists believe the human species does have more than 100 types of intelligences. However we focus on three of them:

• cognitive intelligence
• emotional intelligence
• intuitive intelligence

1. cognitive intelligence

What does it take to be successful in a rapidly changing world? 

Curiosity, courage and imagination. Children learn through being curious. Asking questions is their job. They mainly think with the right hemisphere, which is responsible for divergent thinking. It's easy for kids to associate, to think chaotically, invent new games and spark ideas.

New influences and new impressions accelerate the process of generating ideas. Through change the brain starts to build up new neural connections. Without change nothing new will be built. On the contrary without change the brain starts to minimize the neurological system due to it being an economical system. It's comfy to use existing paths rather than to try out new ones. As a result we often find old people being obstinent. We can only think radical, if we build up new neural connections constantly. In our training we explain how to keep the brain from downsizing and how to stimulate divergent thinking.

• The IQudo Peak-Creative-Test defines personal creative values and ideal environmental conditions.
• The IQudo 7-i Idea Model describes the main values of creativity and how they can be reinforced.

2. emotional intelligence

"Empathy is the gentle twin of creativity!" - Robert Gerlach

For selling a product it's crucial to understand the customers' needs. In order to perceive his desires we need to be emotionally intelligent. The control center for emotions is the limbic system and the amygdala. The ability to speak, to love, to think and to perceive results from an interaction of electrical signals, who spread their information throughout the neurological network. Emotionally intelligent people combine feelings with rational thinking. Based on feelings like empathy, creative engineers develop products that turn out to be bestsellers. People with a clear perception of emotions are better in problem solving.

Creative results are not to be foreseen. The unpredictable, not calculable often causes fear. The feeling of safety or belonging to a group minimizes that fear. Inspiring thoughts arise only when we feel safe within a team, we dare to be authentic in.

The word "flash of genius" has its meaning because it hits us spontaneously, out of nowhere. It literally flashes through the body. The barometer for the quality of an idea is the sensation within the body. Great ideas always come together with strong feelings.

• Studies and exercises show how to efficiently apply emotional intelligence in the creative process.
• We explain how to transform negative emotions into creativeness.
• Play! - don't work. Seriously, playfulness is the most fun way to find ideas. We explain how the game works.

3. intuitive intelligence

"The only real valuable thing is intuition." - Albert Einstein

The world of managers is set up in tasks that have to be accomplished in a certain amount of time. Unfortunately ideas are faithless co-workers. They appear at work whenever they want to and certainly do not care about deadlines.

To understand the ideal operating temperature of ideas, let's have a closer look at the brain. For creative thoughts to arise, the mind loves to be in a relaxed mode. The brain functions on varying brain waves. Light-bulb moments happen in the alpha-frequency, which can be called the chill out time for the mind. Therefore ideas pop up if we do not concentrate too much.

The subconsciousness processes 400 million bits of information per second. The conscious part of the mind only accomplishes 2.000 bits per second. Enough to read and understand one sentence. While driving a car, reading a book, running or sleeping, the subconsciousness sorts out information in the "back of the head", filters and evaluates it until it sends the solution to the consciousne

• Scientific findings demonstrate the importance of intuition for creativeness.
• We explain how to integrate intuitive intelligence in daily work.
• Relaxation exercises show how to alleviate contact to the intuitive intelligence.

"Believe comes first!" - John Hegarty, english advertising legend

Creatives don't need things to be proven. They smell opportunities, they trust their inner wisdom and wait for the right inspiration to come. Franz Kafka once wrote: "You need not leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and wait, just learn to become quiet and still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked. It has no choice; it will roll in ecstasy at your feet!"