John Cabra | SUNY: Buffalo State College (original) (raw)
John is an Associate Professor at the State University of New York College at Buffalo and a Visiting Professor at the International Business School at the Universidad de La Sabana, Colombia where he focuses on teaching, training and facilitating leadership, creative thinking and problem solving. John’s research interests are organizational creativity and perceptions of creativity across cultures.
Organizations that have benefitted from his training and facilitation include: IBM; Cadbury–Motts Mexico; Quaker Oats; the Chilean Travel and Tourism Association; El Dorado Bogotá International Airport Authority; ConAgra Foods Mexico; Grupo Bimbo Mexico; Banamex Mexico; Kraft Foods; Mattel Toys; Transitions Optical Latin America; British Home Office; University of Rochester; Drexel University; Sage Publications; Taca Airlines El Salvador; and United Airlines. To date, John has presented in 22 countries.
John was an operations manager for American Airlines in Buffalo, New York. He has also held internal consulting positions for American Airlines in the fields of training and development, employee relations, and organizational development for its Miami, Caribbean, and Latin America division. Before joining American, John was a bilingual training and organizational development specialist for Fisher–Price Toys North American and Mexican Operations.
John holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology from the University of Manchester, England, and a M.S. in Creativity and Change Leadership from the State University of New York. John has published articles in Latin American business journals and he serves as an editorial board member of Creatividad y Sociedad, a creativity journal published at the University of Barcelona, Spain. In recognition for his work as an expert in the field of organizational creativity, John was recently accepted into the Fulbright Senior Specialist Program in Business.
Supervisors: Reg Talbot
Phone: 716-878-3674
Address: 1300 Elmwood Avenue
International Center for Studies in Creativity
Chase Hall 244
Buffalo, New York 14222
less
Uploads
Papers by John Cabra
Handbook of Organizational Creativity, 2012
Artificial Intelligence for Engineering Design, Analysis and Manufacturing, 2010
Abstract This paper provides a brief introduction to the field of creativity studies. After more ... more Abstract This paper provides a brief introduction to the field of creativity studies. After more than 60 years of scientific study, there is much that has been learned about how to teach and facilitate creative thinking. We review some of the well-known methods for fostering creativity on ...
What is it about successful mentoring stories that make us feel so good? Is it the knowledge that... more What is it about successful mentoring stories that make us feel so good? Is it the knowledge that the human race is still trying to help one another out? Or the inspiration of realizing that we, too, can make a difference? Perhaps it's the questions that successful mentoring provokes: How did he do that? What's her secret? How do I create a positive relationship with my mentees? What Works is here to help!
With the support of the National Science Foundation, we interviewed successful mentors across the United States to find out what has worked to engage underrepresented students in the sciences. Using these interviews, we compiled a set of habits, skills, environments, tools, techniques, and processes that can be tweaked and applied to any mentoring situation. Dive into these mentoring stories and lists, and see how you can broaden your outreach!
A digital Creative Problem-Solving (CPS) process was facilitated in a 3Dvirtual world in order to... more A digital Creative Problem-Solving (CPS) process was facilitated in a 3Dvirtual world in order to assess whether such an environment was conducive to remote synchronous creative collaboration. IBM associates comprised the majority of the group that was involved in the process. Insights regarding the experience working within this virtual environment are discussed
at length as seen through the eyes of the authors (CPS facilitators) of this paper and through the eyes of the participants. Data was gathered through a short feedback form administered to all participants, and informal interviews were also held to explore ways to improve the CPS experience. Results were encouraging. In common, participants reported that their experiences were deeply engaging and conducive to creative collaboration. An argument is made for the early adoption and use of this type of virtual worlds for remote-synchronous creativity interactions. Finally, from a systems view of creativity, the authors identify opportunities for future research studies that examine the efficacy of creative collaboration within virtual worlds.
This article describes the rationale for studying workplace creativity of selected Colombian comp... more This article describes the rationale for studying workplace creativity of selected Colombian companies. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to extract data from 61 respondents. The coding process is explained and illustrated as means to establish rigor. Reliability coefficients are calculated and explained. The purpose of the article is primarily instructional and for dissemination. The article finally provides some theoretical explication of the findings.
Talks by John Cabra
The Opportunities and Challenges of Technology Driven Creative Collaborations Evolving technolog... more The Opportunities and Challenges of Technology Driven Creative Collaborations
Evolving technology landscapes have opened exciting new possibilities to drive creative behavior, organizational creativity and innovation through computer-mediated interactions. Such opportunities are met with equal challenges that need to be addressed in order to harness the full potential of massively distributed creative collaborations. This presentation will elaborate the underlying trends that give rise to these opportunities, and challenges to what extent these trends will govern creativity and innovation in business, education, science and design in the next 10 to 30 years.
The onset of the 21st century is marked by deep psychological and sociological transformations affecting every scale of human endeavor, ranging from individual to crowd behavior. Deep and central to these transformations is the penetration of digital communication and computer technology into modern day life. Above all, this new and evolving technological landscape has opened exciting new possibilities to drive creative behavior, organizational creativity and innovation through computer-mediated interactions. Such opportunities are met with equal challenges that need to be addressed in order to harness the full potential of massively distributed creative collaborations. This keynote will elaborate on the underlying trends that give rise to these opportunities and challenges and to the extent they will govern how creativity and innovation will emerge and manifest in areas of organizational life such as business, education, science and design in the next 10 to 30 years.
Handbook of Organizational Creativity, 2012
Artificial Intelligence for Engineering Design, Analysis and Manufacturing, 2010
Abstract This paper provides a brief introduction to the field of creativity studies. After more ... more Abstract This paper provides a brief introduction to the field of creativity studies. After more than 60 years of scientific study, there is much that has been learned about how to teach and facilitate creative thinking. We review some of the well-known methods for fostering creativity on ...
What is it about successful mentoring stories that make us feel so good? Is it the knowledge that... more What is it about successful mentoring stories that make us feel so good? Is it the knowledge that the human race is still trying to help one another out? Or the inspiration of realizing that we, too, can make a difference? Perhaps it's the questions that successful mentoring provokes: How did he do that? What's her secret? How do I create a positive relationship with my mentees? What Works is here to help!
With the support of the National Science Foundation, we interviewed successful mentors across the United States to find out what has worked to engage underrepresented students in the sciences. Using these interviews, we compiled a set of habits, skills, environments, tools, techniques, and processes that can be tweaked and applied to any mentoring situation. Dive into these mentoring stories and lists, and see how you can broaden your outreach!
A digital Creative Problem-Solving (CPS) process was facilitated in a 3Dvirtual world in order to... more A digital Creative Problem-Solving (CPS) process was facilitated in a 3Dvirtual world in order to assess whether such an environment was conducive to remote synchronous creative collaboration. IBM associates comprised the majority of the group that was involved in the process. Insights regarding the experience working within this virtual environment are discussed
at length as seen through the eyes of the authors (CPS facilitators) of this paper and through the eyes of the participants. Data was gathered through a short feedback form administered to all participants, and informal interviews were also held to explore ways to improve the CPS experience. Results were encouraging. In common, participants reported that their experiences were deeply engaging and conducive to creative collaboration. An argument is made for the early adoption and use of this type of virtual worlds for remote-synchronous creativity interactions. Finally, from a systems view of creativity, the authors identify opportunities for future research studies that examine the efficacy of creative collaboration within virtual worlds.
This article describes the rationale for studying workplace creativity of selected Colombian comp... more This article describes the rationale for studying workplace creativity of selected Colombian companies. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to extract data from 61 respondents. The coding process is explained and illustrated as means to establish rigor. Reliability coefficients are calculated and explained. The purpose of the article is primarily instructional and for dissemination. The article finally provides some theoretical explication of the findings.
The Opportunities and Challenges of Technology Driven Creative Collaborations Evolving technolog... more The Opportunities and Challenges of Technology Driven Creative Collaborations
Evolving technology landscapes have opened exciting new possibilities to drive creative behavior, organizational creativity and innovation through computer-mediated interactions. Such opportunities are met with equal challenges that need to be addressed in order to harness the full potential of massively distributed creative collaborations. This presentation will elaborate the underlying trends that give rise to these opportunities, and challenges to what extent these trends will govern creativity and innovation in business, education, science and design in the next 10 to 30 years.
The onset of the 21st century is marked by deep psychological and sociological transformations affecting every scale of human endeavor, ranging from individual to crowd behavior. Deep and central to these transformations is the penetration of digital communication and computer technology into modern day life. Above all, this new and evolving technological landscape has opened exciting new possibilities to drive creative behavior, organizational creativity and innovation through computer-mediated interactions. Such opportunities are met with equal challenges that need to be addressed in order to harness the full potential of massively distributed creative collaborations. This keynote will elaborate on the underlying trends that give rise to these opportunities and challenges and to the extent they will govern how creativity and innovation will emerge and manifest in areas of organizational life such as business, education, science and design in the next 10 to 30 years.