Graduate Marketing Organization Hosts Creativity Workshop

"To be creative means to be in love with life. You can be creative only if you love life enough that you want to enhance its beauty, you want to bring a little more music to it, a little more poetry to it, a little more dance to it."

― Osho

On October 30, the Graduate Marketing Organization (GMO) at Bentley University conducted an Enhancing Creativity workshop featuring Professor Andy Aylesworth. Professor Aylesworth is an Associate Professor and serves as the Chair of the Marketing Department. His primary teaching interests include creativity, marketing fundamentals, advertising, and integrated marketing communications. His passion lies in helping students exercise their creative muscles and unleash their inherent creativity.

Andy has trained in improvisational comedy techniques, and he uses techniques learned there to help students improve creative and business skills. A fun fact about him is that his favorite color is orange, which you can see by the color of his Jeep, bike, wallet, phone case, and most of his wardrobe.

The Enhancing Creativity workshop showcased a glimpse of the MK 758 Enhancing Creativity course taught by Andy at the Graduate School of Business. The workshop included concepts of brainstorming, divergent and convergent thinking, and various elements of teamwork. One of the most exciting parts of the workshop was when students were sent in breakout rooms and asked to fake their profiles when introducing themselves to each other. This is how the workshop began!

The workshop was undoubtedly an excellent exercise for the brain cells. Some of the key learnings from the workshop were:

1. Reward your curiosity: Instead of reprimanding yourself, reward yourself when you are curious about something.

2. Brainstorm new ideas: Start by suspending your judgment and self-criticism, then start writing down related ideas and possible solutions. The goal is to generate as many ideas as possible in a relatively short period.

3. Challenge yourself and create opportunities: Once you have developed some necessary creative skills, it is essential to challenge yourself to advance your abilities further. Look for more challenging approaches, try out new things, and avoid using the same solutions you have used in the past.

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