Mark Greene, a Newtown author and resident, will be hosting a creativity workshop on April 30 and May 1 at Newtown Municipal Center Council Chambers, 3 Primrose Street. This workshop, “Mastering Creativity for Success: In the Age of Digital Distraction,” is meant for businesspeople to learn more about the creative process and how to harness its power in today’s fast-paced market.

Greene, who primarily writes satirical fiction, said, “The workshop is an outgrowth of my interest in how the creative process works. I started getting interested in the creative process as I started really, really working hard on being a novelist. I felt that the more creative I am, the better I would be as a novelist, so I kind of started down this separate path of studying how this process works. In the course of taking classes and hiring editors and doing all the things you have to do to improve your writing and get a book out, I met this gentleman, Patrick McCord.”

McCord has a PhD in Critical Theory and Cognitive Narratology, specializing in integrating neurological science and cognitive psychology into the teaching of reading and writing. Greene noted that McCord sees the creative process from an academic perspective. The two worked together on Greene’s most recent novel and developed it into a screenplay.

“He and I have worked together on a number of projects, so one day we were sitting there saying we should put together a workshop on the creative process, how it works. That was sort of the genesis for how this workshop got put together,” Greene said. While Greene has a business and corporate background, this is his first interactive workshop.

Greene said that the workshop requires a “mutual understanding of a couple issues.” The first “mutual understanding” needed is what creativity is and why it matters. Then, the workshop will move into problem solution, which is another way of saying “creativity roadblocks.”

“When I talk about creativity, most people think writers, painters, musicians, artists. When you really look up the definition and you strip away … the larger understanding of what it might mean, creativity is really about problem solving,” Greene said. “If you look at a problem as an opportunity, it’s a lot about how you position it in your mind.”

Greene listed some examples of people creating products to solve problems, like the printing press. The printing press was created so scribes would not have to write everything by hand anymore.

“You have a product that you’re making and selling. You want to sell it to an additional market, you want to change the product, you want to come up with a line extension, you want to reposition your business. So, it’s really about creative problem solving,” Greene explained.

Greene said that creativity is “the ultimate human survival skill.” He told The Newtown Bee that everyone who is on earth today is here because someone invented snowshoes — without them, ancestors would not have survived the harsh winter conditions. The reason why there are lights in buildings and electronic devices is because someone was creative enough to solve problems in the past.

Greene will go beyond creativity and defining it, however. He will also discuss potential roadblocks, such as digital distractions. Some digital distractions Greene mentioned are the myth of “multitasking,” artificial intelligence, and overuse of the internet.

Greene mentioned a study that shows reading physical copies, as well as writing notes with pen and paper, results in higher retention of information. He mentioned another study that showed it took about 20 minutes for people to return to deep concentration after taking a moment to answer an e-mail.

“So we talk about the roadblocks, and then we talk about how to get rid of them, how to address them,” Greene said. “I talk about building a moat against distraction. You have to build a moat around yourself. You have to actively decide whether I need to answer those e-mails.”

This workshop is for businesspeople. Greene said, “If your business is important to you, and your career is important to you, and you want to do a better job of running your business, and you want to improve your career, you want to get promoted, you want to become an entrepreneur. You want to do something in your life that you’re not doing now, and you want to move in that direction, this should be a workshop that could help you start to do that.”

The workshop is being offered for free for the first ten people who sign up. Send Greene an e-mail at markegreeneauthor@gmail.com, or call him at 203-209-4613.

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Reporter Sam Cross can be reached at sam@thebee.com.