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Welcome to Idea Week!

April 15, 2008

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A Canadian-born project, started to celebrate creativity and explore how it can impact and promote innovation, is now an annual event. Today, April 15, Leonardo Da Vinci’s birthday, is when the party begins. Idea Week is seven days that are set aside to encourage creativity and enthusiasm for innovation in the arts, business, science and education sectors. It’s all concluded with Creativity and Innovation Day on April 21.

Da Vinci took different approaches to solving problems and working with ideas. He is, if you will, the mascot and hero of Creativity and Innovation Day.

Why celebrate? Find new solutions to old problems, create new opportunities, breakdown barriers and open new choices.

Want to know what can you do to celebrate the day?

If brushing your teeth with a different hand stimulates the use of new brain pathways, think of how rearranging and redecorating your workspace could refresh your perspective. And what about talking to someone new – someone from a different discipline, or a different department? It could open up new ways of seeing and solving problems.

Other ideas:

  • Brainteaser challenge – email a challenge or puzzle every day
  • Celebrate Your Mistake Day – to encourage everyone to not be afraid to fail, celebrate every mistake in a day with a song or cheer and reward the best one
  • Group Canvas – Set up a blank canvas with all manner of brushes, paints and craft paraphernalia to encourage a spontaneous group art project.
  • Gallery – encourage everyone to bring in something they’ve created. Food, lyrics, a craft, a story, a painting or some code and place it in the gallery for everyone to admire
  • Other ideas for celebrating the day or week at work

Have another idea? Let us know!

And check out the Seven Da Vincian Principles to understand of the elements of creativity that you’ll want to be stimulating this week:

  • Curiosita – An insatiably curious approach to life and an unrelenting quest for continuous learning.
  • Dimostrazione – A commitment to test knowledge through experience, persistence, and a willingness to learn from mistakes.
  • Sensazione – The continual refinement of the senses, especially sight, as a means to enliven experience.
  • Sfumato (literally “Going Up in Smoke”) – A willingness to embrace ambiguity, paradox, and uncertainty.
  • Arte/Scienza – The development of the balance between science and art, logic and imagination. “Whole-brain” thinking.
  • Corporalita – The cultivation of grace, ambidexterity, fitness, and poise.
  • Connessione – A recognition of and appreciation for the interconnectedness of all things and phenomena. Systems thinking.

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