Aspects of Self-awareness: An Anatomy of Metacreative Systems

We formulate a model of computational metacreativity. It consists of various aspects of creative self-awareness that potentially contribute, in various combinations, to the metacreative capabilities of a creative system. Our model is inspired by a psychological view of metacreativity promoting the awareness of one's thoughts during the creative process, and draws from the field of self-adaptive software systems to explicate different viewpoints of metacreativity in creative systems. The model is designed to help in analyzing metacreative capabilities of creative systems, and to guide the development of creative systems to a more autonomous and adaptive direction.Peer reviewe

Employee Engagement Strategies to Increase Innovation

Human resources leaders (HRLs) who fail to embrace employee innovation are at risk of jeopardizing the organization\u27s competitive advantage. Organizational leadership and employees stand to benefit from innovation, as employee innovation can aid in establishing a competitive advantage and survivability. Grounded in the transformational leadership conceptual framework, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore employee engagement strategies HRLs use to increase innovation. The participants included 5 HRLs at small human resource management firms in the northeast area of the United States who used engagement strategies to increase innovation. Data were collected from interviews with the HRLs, company websites, and social media pages. A thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. Four themes emerged: cross team assessment, communication tools, measurement tools, and recognition strategies. The application of the findings from this study could contribute to positive social change by providing insights for HRLs on employee engagement strategy implementation for talent retention that increases workplace stability and employees supporting their families as well as contributing positively to their communities

Employee Engagement Strategies to Increase Innovation

Human resources leaders (HRLs) who fail to embrace employee innovation are at risk of jeopardizing the organization\u27s competitive advantage. Organizational leadership and employees stand to benefit from innovation, as employee innovation can aid in establishing a competitive advantage and survivability. Grounded in the transformational leadership conceptual framework, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore employee engagement strategies HRLs use to increase innovation. The participants included 5 HRLs at small human resource management firms in the northeast area of the United States who used engagement strategies to increase innovation. Data were collected from interviews with the HRLs, company websites, and social media pages. A thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. Four themes emerged: cross team assessment, communication tools, measurement tools, and recognition strategies. The application of the findings from this study could contribute to positive social change by providing insights for HRLs on employee engagement strategy implementation for talent retention that increases workplace stability and employees supporting their families as well as contributing positively to their communities

Searching for surprise

Inspired by the notion of surprise for unconventional discovery in computational creativity, we introduce a general search algorithm we name surprise search. Surprise search is grounded in the divergent search paradigm and is fabricated within the principles of metaheuristic (evolutionary) search. The algorithm mimics the self-surprise cognitive process of creativity and equips computational creators with the ability to search for outcomes that deviate from the algorithm’s expected behavior. The predictive model of expected outcomes is based on historical trails of where the search has been and some local information about the search space. We showcase the basic steps of the algorithm via a problem solving (maze navigation) and a generative art task. What distinguishes surprise search from other forms of divergent search, such as the search for novelty, is its ability to diverge not from earlier and seen outcomes but rather from predicted and unseen points in the creative domain considered.This work has been supported in part by the FP7 Marie Curie CIG project AutoGameDesign (project no: 630665).peer-reviewe

THEORETICAL ASPECTS OF TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP

Leadership is one of the important topics in today's economic science. The topicality of the research is based on economic development requirements. Leadership influences important processes and development in the company. The paper contains a theoretical analysis of the term ,,transformational leadership” aspects presented in scientific literature and a determination of transformational leadership structure and research results. In the paper, the author researches four dimensions of transformational leadership. The research is based on an analysis of the specific literature and scientific publications, research papers, studies, survey results and other sources of information. Research methods: the monographic or descriptive method for research of the transformational leadership concept, the interview method. The aim of the paper is to research the conception and theoretical aspects of transformational leadership in contemporary economic science in order to develop suggestions for a company’s leaders. Tasks of the paper: to find out the main aspects of the term ,,transformational leadership”; to make interviews with a company’s leaders in order to clarify transformational leadership influence on interactions between the leaders and their followers; to develop conclusions and suggestions. The author concludes that main aspect of transformational leadership is symbiosis between the leader and the followers - transformational leaders transform the personal values of their followers to support the vision and goals of the organization

Designing an Information-Experience Using Creativity Science Theory and Tools

An “information-experience” encapsulated by a technological/digital audio-visual tool presents data and potentially meaningful information to prompt actionable knowledge concerning: “unspoken creative process elements;” their profound impacts on both how well our “physiology of creativity” functions; but also on how well foundational creative thinking and behavioral prerequisites (energy, motivation, imagination, and ownership) are leveraged. The product: 1) introduces the user to one component of the CPS (Creative Problem Solving) Facilitation Process - Exploring the Challenge; 2) features a content specific component which prompts exploration of the many correlations between societal, organizational / community, human physiological / behavioral data, and the direct relationships of these to creative/productive capacities and capabilities; while also 3) establishing an overview and resources to delve further into experiences or information concerning the domain of Creativity Science, Innovation, Change Leadership, or wellness/health-driving productivity factors, behaviors, and tools

Exploring the relationship between creativity training and the practice of pause for leaders in a world of information overload

The exponential growth of technology is driving a pace of change that is consistently disrupting industries around the world. At the same time, creativity has been identified as a top quality future leaders need to possess to navigate these turbulent times (IBM, 2010; Walinga, Cunningham, & MacGregor, 2011). This qualitative phenomenological study explores the role of pause in enhancing personal creativity and creativity training experiences for leaders. While research studies in the fields of creativity, leadership development and information overload are plentiful, there is a lack of research in how the practice of pause might impact creativity training experiences or influence a leader in how they function throughout this tech saturated world. In this study, 11 creativity training experts were interviewed regarding the pause practices they have adopted and what role the practice of pause plays during the creativity training experiences they conduct for leaders. Six themes emerged: Creativity experts in this study reported that their practices of pause produce positive benefits, involve nature and/or outdoor activities, typically limit or avoid technology, time constraints have the potential to influence the role and implementation of pause within a creativity training experience, the practice of pause in training increases the likelihood of attendee engagement and pause practices in training are likely influenced by the creativity training environment. Recommendations include exploring generational perspectives of technology and pause practices, examining the impact of retreats in creativity training, and investigating cultural dynamics related to pause practices. This study presents key findings for both researchers and leadership development professionals about the role of pause as a personal practice to enhance creativity, as well as a practice within creativity training that has the ability to enhance the learning experience

Towards Transformational Creation of Novel Songs

We study transformational computational creativity in the context of writing songs and describe an implemented system that is able to modify its own goals and operation. With this, we contribute to three aspects of computational creativity and song generation: (1) Application-wise, songs are an interesting and challenging target for creativity, as they require the production of complementary music and lyrics. (2) Technically, we approach the problem of creativity and song generation using constraint programming. We show how constraints can be used declaratively to define a search space of songs so that a standard constraint solver can then be used to generate songs. (3) Conceptually, we describe a concrete architecture for transformational creativity where the creative (song writing) system has some responsibility for setting its own search space and goals. In the proposed architecture, a meta-level control component does this transparently by manipulating the constraints at runtime based on self-reflection of the system. Empirical experiments suggest the system is able to create songs according to its own taste.Peer reviewe

The Dark Rationalism Glossary

Existential theorists have been working to syncretize philosophy, science, and spirituality since shortly after Galileo unknowingly initiated the schism between them. Contemporary philosophers, scientists, and theologians are still engaged in this effort, but have little to show for nearly four centuries of effort. The thesis of this article is that—despite their cooperative intentions—these theorists continue to talk past each other, due to an unacknowledged disagreement on the meaning of their overlapping terms of art. To effectively unify the divergent existential insights of philosophy, science, theism, and spirituality, it will be necessary to return to first principles. To establish an integration baseline, this article defines a diverse collection of philosophical, scientific, theistic, and spiritual expressions, in a unifying vocabulary

Climate change, corporate responses and economic growth

How will climate change, and personal, corporate, community, public sector and Governmental responses to it impact upon economic growth? Would more emphasis upon sustainability increase or depress economic growth? Much will depend upon creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship, the scale and timing of adjustment, and the economic implications of substitutes and lifestyle and other changes. This article looks particularly at corporate responses, the role of boards and the relationship between boards, owners and other stakeholders, regulators and Governments. It suggests a variety of questions that directors could usefully consider