Ideation

I've been a fan of Tom Rath and his Strengthsfinder books from the Gallop group for a while. The StrengthsFinder Test measures the presence of 34 talent themes. Talents are people's naturally recurring patterns of thought, feeling, or behavior that can be productively applied usually in the workplace, but also in life. The more dominant a theme is in a person, the greater the theme's impact on that person's behavior and performance. 

I've taken the test and discovered my strengths (Input, Ideation, Connectedness, Futuristic and Intellection) and I've also read the Teach to Your Strengths books as a way of improving my teaching abilities.


According to the Strengthsfinder Test, Ideation is one of my strengths and Rath describes it like this: 

You are fascinated by ideas. What is an idea? An idea is a concept, the best explanation of the most events. You are delighted when you discover beneath the complex surface an elegantly simple concept to explain why things are the way they are. An idea is a connection. Yours is the kind of mind that is always looking for connections, and so you are intrigued when seemingly disparate phenomena can be linked by an obscure connection. An idea is a new perspective on familiar challenges. You revel in taking the world we all know and turning it around so we can view it from a strange but strangely enlightening angle. You love all these ideas because they are profound, because they are novel, because they are clarifying, because they are contrary, because they are bizarre. For all these reasons you derive a jolt of energy whenever a new idea occurs to you. Others may label you creative or original or conceptual or even smart. Perhaps you are all of these. Who can be sure? What you are sure of is that ideas are thrilling. And on most days this is enough.

I've finished my Term at school today, clocking off at 4.00 pm after a final late Gate duty. The next three weeks are a time to refresh and recuperate, but also a time to generate ideas. I've worked out what all my classes are doing for next term, but I'd like to try generating some direction for my own personal artistic pursuits. So we'll see if Mr Rath has it right over the break. 

I'll be at GoMA on Sunday looking at the Surrealist exhibition as well as the Creative Generations student work from 2010 (apparently our student who got the award stands up rather well). And then it'll be a mix of surfing the net, reading books on Chardin and Wesselmann, and watching Charlaine Harris's TrueBlood (Series 3) and reading Tom Peters. All of it goes into the melting pot to see if I can get any new links or previously unencountered directions.


Burn brightly, Pete.