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Creativity There are so many ways to be creative. Sometimes our job allows us to be creative. Remember to be teachable and enjoy the process of discovery. 'Let the facts speak to you.' Pray for wisdom from God who created everything. Think of all the angles, and think outside the box. Study and plan.
Jose Luis Orozco runs a successful carpentry shop and is favored by all 3 political parties to be elected as a regional or county governor of a newly re-formed area that includes the city of San Ignacio, Jalisco, Mexico. He attends the Arandas Baptist Church and has a passion for improving the life of people in his region. We are interested in partnering with him in the creative endeavor to improve the air quality there. Data and local Jalisco brickmaking processes were examined during March 2006.
Used Motor Oil and Wood Fuel the Kilns
Jose Luis has a great vision to improve the quality of lives in the Los Altos area and has asked for our engineering help. A major business in the area is brickmaking. This is due to availability of key materials such as red clay, agave cactus waste, manure, wood and spent-motor oil, and cheap labor. Green, or unfired bricks are formed from a slurry of clay, manure and agave waste, and water, poured into molds, and dried. Once dry they are stacked into large piles, forming a kiln, the bricks are ignited using wood or used motor oil. The entire structure literally burns, as the organic material is consumed within the brick, leaving a porous, light, and structurally hard ceramic brick.
Smoke plume from a newly ignited kiln
Unfortunately, states Jose Luis, the brick kilns generate large amounts of toxic smoke, which drifts across the city of San Ignacio 24 hrs/day. The kilns are reduced during the week since children are in school, but on the weekends the smoke is even works as many more fire up. He estimates that there are over 300 kilns burning at any given time. with about 40,000 bricks per kiln. These kilns surround the city of San Ignacio upwind of the prevailing winds due the location of hardwood in the local Cerro Gordo mountains. These local kilns, he estimates, produce about 3,000,000 bricks per week for the region. The housing industry in the entire region of Los Altos is based largely on use of these brick for construction. Most towns in Los Altos are beneficiaries of the brickmaking from San Ignacio and surrounding area, and include Arandas, Atotonilco, Encarnacion de Diaz, San Julian. San Miguel uses some brick but also uses a stone quarries.
A burn nearly complete
Separately, it has been determined that Mexico has a reported 15,000 - 20,000 brick kilns burning at any given time, leading to pollution coming into the United States, as documented in areas near Cuidad Juarez.
It is believed that entrepreneurial U.S. engineers are best suited for causing broad environmental improvements, by working with passionate Mexican nationals, such as Jose Luis Orozco, and would be able to bless the people by providing for the needs they have in this area. Freely giving such technical support will yield long-term benefits of fresh air to people across the city, and would serve as a model for developments in other similar cities. Local craftsmen and engineers would be hired to guide the design, build, and operations technical support aspects. Profit-making is not out of the question.
An LLC run by people of the same vision could serve as a vehicle for funding of the feasibility studies, test kilns, and local support to gain political and public support for such environmental and health improvements. An economically affordable low-emission kiln is what is needed. The kiln, such as the Marquez kiln, would use bricks made locally, and only changes their process slightly, and only costs would be the bricks and labor to make such a kiln. Such a kiln can reduce air pollution by over 90%. The people living in towns such as San Ignacio would daily reap clean air and would also provide political support for rare visionaries who care, such Jose Luis Orozco.
Sometimes our skills and abilities can be applied outside of our regular jobs to greatly benefit people. Shown below is an example where engineering expertise can be applied in an another country. We have a great supply of knowledge here, sometimes underutilized, which can be very valuable there! Engineers can solve problems to benefit large numbers of people. Be creative and give, and look for ways to make a difference if you have a chance!
See below!
Mexican
Brick
Kiln
Smoke.
Creativity Ideas and Principles
Creativity is a lifelong endeavor which we have not mastered yet. It is a process, not a destination and I'm certainly not the final authority on the subject. But, here are some things that have helped me get going.
Recognize if you are stuck in a rut or trapped in a box.
Even better - you feel the desire to tear down the status quo and have incentive to be creative.
Get the basics down first. Learn the fundamentals of your work or activity.
Find what specialized area stokes your passion, because it's necessary for long-term creative success.
Accept that being creative is hard work, and a involves a willingness to learn.
Creativity is more about lifestyle and character than initial ability or giftedness, and requires development.
Creativity is a life-long process, and may not bear fruit for decades.
Creativity is not being satisfied with past practices, products, services, ability, or style.
Push to learn something new and don't rest on past accomplishments.
Study at how other people do it, take in all there is on the subject.
Don't re-invent the wheel if it has already been done.
Find the expert(s) in the field and look carefully at how they do it.
Read old and new books on the subject.
Know the current the 'state of the art' and be versed in the latest.
Push the boundary on the 'state of the art' once you know where the leading edge is.
Take the best from others in each area - make different combinations and patterns from existing practices and products, using the best.
Look at 'best practices,' and be willing to incorporate them in each area.
Look for the 'best in the field,' or 'best of show' and study the qualities that make them so.
Hang around with those who are growing and learning and trying new things.
Push for continuous improvement and upgrade.
A person is a 'craftsman' if they know how do something well, repeating it over and over - like making birdhouses for an 'arts and crafts' show. However, a person is an artist if they continue growing and creating new things, like as an painter who constantly improves upon a painting style, medium, or approach. This requires continually pushing outside of the comfort zone.
We are awesomely created beings, with giftedness and abilities that should be tapped to their fullest extent.
We can pray to our creator for help and direction, and to challenge the status quo in our life.
Creativity can be learned.
Creativity can be learned. You may think you are not a creative person and creativity is for people like those who sit and write books, songs or create movies, etc. You may think creativity is something that comes natural to some people and you are not in that group, or you just don’t need to be creative.
How can creativity help you in your job, regardless of what kind of job you are doing? Your job may seem very secure and snug right now. However, you need to realize that our economy is cyclic and is never the same, is always changing. Your job may be secure today, but will it be two years from now? There is a huge chance it will not be. Being creative in your job today may help you keep this same job two years from now when things change. Creativity can absolutely help you do a better job today, which will make you a more valuable employee for tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. If you are good at what you do, you can always be better, and the better person is most likely the one who will be kept around when things suddenly change and downsizing begins.
What exactly is creativity on the job? According to Michael Michalko, one of the world’s leading experts in the field of creativity, creative people are those who come up with more ideas in a shorter space of time. These people had good and bad ideas that were generated quickly. Out of the huge number of bad and good ideas will spring some that better solve a problem in new and exciting ways. If you become a person on your job able to generate a huge number of ideas, whether they are good or bad, that at least in that bunch are some that solves the problems of your employer, this quality alone can set you apart from another employee and make you more valuable to that employer. More ideas and better ideas is definitely an asset to any person in any job. Who does not have problems to solve at any kind of job they may be on? Being creative, coming up with more ideas and better ideas is something that can be learned. You may never write that best seller book or a number one hit song, but….be assured that you can learn to be creative enough to do a better job and make yourself a more valuable employee to your employer today and for tomorrow.
One reason people are not creative on their jobs is that with all the recent cutbacks in staff and downsizing trends of the last few decades people live from day to day fairly stressed out and unable to relax and think creatively. Another reason is people often they just can’t think creatively. Because of that mindset they continually miss opportunities that people on the look for creative ideas immediately pounce upon. So what can you do if you fall into one of these categories? Obviously you need to relax, ease your stress and learn to think creatively, so when the opportunity arises, you will be one of those ready to pounce and spit out all those good and bad ideas that among which will be solutions to your employers’ problems.
Assess what you can realistically do and cannot do. You don’t need to get an all or nothing mind-set or the opinion you need to be absolutely perfect or superman or superwoman. Maybe you just don’t have the time to become a creative thinker. In that case, you can hire someone to help give you a creative touch to your work, either to do it for you, or to look over your work and talk it over with you of how you could add some creativity. You need to find someone to bounce your ideas off who is innovative themselves, non-judgmental and enthusiastic. You will be amazed at how many ideas you will be able to come up with.
Another way you can start to learn to be creative is to take a few minutes of your time here and there throughout the day and notice things a little closer. When you watch television, pay special attention to the advertisements and see if you can visualize just how the advertising staff came up with the idea for that particular commercial. Have a childlike curiosity about the world around you and try to see the unusual connections of two things totally unrelated together that can solve a problem. If you practice this routinely you will start seeing associations between totally different things and you will start to become more creative and innovative naturally on a daily basis without doing too much thinking about it or messing up your schedule otherwise just to think creatively. You will begin to come up with more and more ideas that will suddenly stun those individuals you work with. Be aware that you need to learn how to generate thousands of ideas, both good and bad, and don’t be disappointed if most of those ideas produce failure or nothing. The good ideas, however, that produces the solution will most likely be in that batch as well.
One example of an incredible idea generator is Thomas Edison. I always heard that many, many people “laughed” at Thomas Edison and all his ideas and inventions. Thomas Edison had a remarkable number of invention failures. However, those inventions that did succeed solved some huge, huge problems for a lot of people. If you become a creative idea generator yourself just know that you might be quite comical to a lot of people around you until of course, you come up with the one idea that rocks the nation, or in your particular world and job.
Here are some fun games you can play to help you become more creative:
• While you get dressed look at the color of what you are putting on. As quickly as possible, think of as many alternative different names for that color. Keep thinking of new names until you finish dressing.
• Do you ever get caught in a traffic jam? The time wasted sitting in these traffic jams could be used to play a creative mind game. Look the car in front of you. Choose something about the car that catches your eye such as a bumper sticker or the actual color of the car. Say out loud ten thoughts that come to your mind as a result of that part of the car. Now think about a problem you have at work. As quickly as possible list as many ways that what you notice about the car part is similar to your problem at work. Now determine whether or not any of these items might help you solve your problem at work. If not, pick another part of the car and play the game again.
• Another game you play with yourself is when you run into a problem, think, what Leonardo would do in this situation.
• You can also use biblical scripture to creatively find answers to your problems. For every problem a human faces now there is some kind of an example in the many verses and scriptures of the bible that we can use to creatively apply to our problems of today and actually solve them. If you are a minister or a leader of a church congregation, one of your best sources of solving problems in your church and congregation will be from your Bible.
Author: Connie Limon. Visit us online at www.selfimprovementbook1.com and sign up for our newsletters. Self Improvement Book is a guide to information about self improvement, personal growth and self help tips. It is an organized directory referencing information in other websites on the World Wide Web.
