CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION
Principles of Creativity
Creativity
Within every individual, creativity is a function of
three components:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Inspiration
Imagination
Vision
Knowledge
Ideas
Brainstorming
Mind
Motivation
Innovation
Introduction
What is crea tivity?
"Creativity is intelligence having fun " – Albert
Einstein
-
-
-
Creativity is the ability to generate
innovative Ideas and manifest them into
reality. The process involves original
thinking and then producing.
Creativity is defined as the tendency to
generate or recognize ideas,
alternatives, or possibilities that may be
useful in solving problems,
communicating with others and
entertaining ourselves and others
Creativity is moving from the known to
the unknown. "beyonder Creativity"
“ Creativity results from the interaction of a
system composed of three elements: a culture
that contains symbolic rules, a person who
brings novelty into the symbolic domain, and a
field of experts who recognize and validate the
innovation "- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1996)
" Creativity as new and useful " - Wyckoff (1991)
( 1 ) Expertise - encompasses everything that a
person knows and can do in the broad domain
of his/her work knowledge and technical ability.
( 2 ) Creative Thinking Skills - refers to how you
approach problems and solutions - the capacity
to put existing ideas together in person thinks
and works.
( 3 ) Motivation - is the drive and desire to do
something, an inner passion and interest.
According to Robert Gahim, Creativity is consist
of :
ANTICIPATION - Anticipation involves having a
vision of something that will become important
in the future before anybody else has it
COMMITMENT - Commitment is the belief that
keeps one working to realize the vision despite
doubt and discouragement
" The entrepreneur is primarily concerned with
developing new products, processes or markets,
the ability to bring something new, product,
processes or markets, the ability to bring
something new into the market. The
entrepreneurs indulges in original thinking more
than any other person thinks and he is able to
produce solutions that fly in the face of
established knowledge. Entrepreneurs are
inclined to be more adaptable and are prepared
to consider a range of alternative approaches.
They challenges the status quo, which can
sometimes bring them into conflict with their
colleagues. They dismiss their detractors and are
sometimes regarded as aloof. "
- Stone and Wankel ( 1986 )
Most creative outcomes take time to develop;
even when they seem somewhat chaotic, there
is a known process at work. It starts with the
identification of a problem or the anticipation of
an opportunity, and through comprehension of
the circumstances and reflection on the
problems, new connections are considered and
potential new combinations of components are
aired. From this emerge visible solutions or
possibilities that are subjected to evaluation,
which may be continuous with judgment being
suspended while the search process is
prolonged in search of genuine newness.
Some Characteristics of Being Creative
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Flexibility
Imagination
Originality
Fluency
Playfulness
Risk-Taking
Complexity
High-Energy
Elaboration
Independence
Openness
Tolerance of Ambiguity
Curiosity
Capacity to make orders from chaos
In making things better , the goal is :
1. To improve productivity and efficiency
2. Achieve Speed
3. Enhance comfort and convenience
In making better things, thinking can produce
various alternative leading:
1. Making better things
2. Evolution of a completely new idea,
production processes, or a total departure from
the conventional.
Thinking begins with engaging yourself in a
conversation with yourself, by yourself, in
yourself.
Creative thinking must, therefore lead to the
articulation of a strategy.
The Human Brain
The Human Brain is divided into 2 hemisphere
the right and the left hemisphere.
RIGHT HEMISPHERE
-
Creative Thinking
Creative thinking as defined by Okpara is the act
of generating solution and reasoning. It is an
ability of the mind seeking to find answers to
some life's questions.
Creative thinking is the ability to come up with
unique, original solutions.
Also known as creative problem-solving, creative
thinking is a valuable and marketable soft skill in
a wide variety of careers.
-
Lateral Thinking - is somewhat
unconventional, unsystematic,
unstructured, much like the image of
kaleidoscope whirling around to form
one pattern after another
( 1 ) Be reflective
( 2 ) Be prolific thinkers
LEFT HEMISPHERE
-
Vertical Thinking - narrrowly focused
and systematic, proceeding in a highly
logical fashion from one point to the
next.
Critical Thinking Process
“What can I do to make things better, or what
can I do to make better things?”
Critical thinking is the analysis of available
facts, evidence, observations, and
arguments to form a judgment.
Critical thinking is the intellectually
disciplined process of actively and skillfully
conceptualizing, applying, analyzing,
synthesizing, and/or evaluating information
gathered from, or generated by,
observation, experience, reflection,
reasoning, or communication, as a guide to
belief and action.
There are two aspects of creativity :
( 1 ) PROCESS - IS DEFINED AS THE
PARTICULAR GOAL/S INTENDED TO BE
ACHIEVED
( 2 ) PEOPLE - ARE THE RESOURCES THAT
ARE USED TO ACHIEVE THESE GOALS
The Creative process has four commonly
agreed steps:
•
•
Background/Knowledge
Accumulation - This involves
extensive reading, conversation of
experts, professional meetings and
lectures and a general assumptions
of information relating to the
problem or history under such a
study.
Incubation Process - often occurs
when individual engaged in activities
totally unrelated to the subject or
problems.
Steps involved to inducing
incubation are as follows :
1. Engage in routine mindless
activities
2. Exercise regularly
3. Play
4. Think about the problem
before falling asleep
5. Practice self-hypnotize
•
Idea Experience - This is often
known as the creative process which
is mostly gotten before the solution
an individual is seeking being
discovered Ways to speed up ideas
include
Ways to speed up ideas include :
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Daydream the problem
Practice your hubby
Work in a leisurely environment
Put the problem on the back corner
Keep a note close every time to record at
any time
6. Ensure break while working
•
Evaluation and Implementation The assessment of the success or
failure of a particular objective or
goal
Things to be done before implementing
an idea:
a. Increase your energy level with
proper exercises, diet and rest
b. Educate yourself in the business
planning process
c. Test your idea with
knowledgeable people
d. Educate yourself in selling
process
e. Seek advice from others
f. Learn about the organizational
policy and
i. practices
Blocks and Barriers to Creative thinking
Creativity tools can be classified in many
different manners. McFadzean (1998) has
developed a framework for classifying
creativity tools using three categories:
i. Paradigm preserving
- where neither new elements nor
relationships between the elements of the
problem are introduced.
various values and cultural influences; and lack
of imaginative control.
ii. Paradigm stretching
- are those factors in your context,
situation, or setting that interfere with your
problem-solving efforts.
- where either new elements are
introduced or new relationships between
the elements of the problem are conceived.
Tools include - Checklists, Metaphor, Role
storming, Heuristic Ideation Technique and
Reversal.
iii. Paradigm breaking
- where both new elements and
new relationships between the elements are
introduced
Tools include- Picture Stimulation, Rich
Pictures, Imagining etc.
There are three broad, overlapping categories of
blocks:
i. Personal blocks:
examples include: lack of selfconfidence or self-image; a tendency to
conform; a need for the familiar, habit-bound
thinking; emotional numbness; saturation;
excessive enthusiasm; various values and
cultural influences; and lack of imaginative
control.
ii Problem-solving blocks
- are strategies, skills, or behaviors that
inhibit ability to focus and direct problemsolving activities, generate and identify options
and alternatives, or turn ideas into action.
examples include: lack of self-confidence
or self-image; a tendency to conform; a need for
the familiar, habit-bound thinking; emotional
numbness; saturation; excessive enthusiasm;
iii. Environmental blocks
This includes: the belief that only one
type of thinking is required for creative
outcomes, resistance to new ideas, isolation, a
negative attitude toward creative thinking,
autocratic decision making, reliance on experts,
and various strategic blocks that limit the use of
resources.
SPECIFIC BARRIERS TO CREATIVITY:
1. Searching to the one right answer
2. Focusing on being logical
3. Blindly following the rules
4. Constantly being practical
5. Viewing Play as Frivolous
6. Becoming overly specialized
7. Avoiding Ambiguity
8. Fearing looking foolish
9. Fearing mistakes and failure
10. Believing "I'm not creative"
Creative Approaches to problem solving
WHAT IS A PROBLEM?
A problem is a condition that is not
acceptable. It may be tangible or intangible
elements such as people, processes, systems,
states of affairs, products, or business or
personal situations.
The term problem refers to any
discrepancy between the current and desired
future situations.
Three Common Types of Problems:
•
•
•
It's Broken
It's Boondoggled
It's just Messy
CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING
-
-
CPS is a technique to approach a
problem or address a challenge in an
imaginative way; it helps us fix our
minds, find path-breaking, and take
suitable actions thereunder.
" To qualify as CPS, the solution must be
solved the stated problem in a novel
way, and the solution must be reached
independently.” - Williams Scott
CPS VS ROUTINE PROBLEM SOLVING
•
CPS - Any pre-established method for
solving the problem is either unknown
or not used.
-
Involves a hunt for new solutions
•
RPS - Pre-established method for solving
the problem is used.
-
uses old solution
EXAMPLES OF CREATIVE OPPROACHES
TO PROBLEM SOLVING
( 1) Having idea power - Generating
many, varied, and unusual ideas that
have high potential to address the
problem or meet the challenge in a fresh
and valuable way.
(2) Being persistent - Investing energy
and talent in taking a wild or highly
unusual idea and shaping, refining, and
developing the idea into a workable
solution.
(3) Consideration - Considering aspects
of the situation surrounding the solution
to enable agreement of your solutions
by others.
(4) Be Sensitive - to the context and the
people who may be involved with your
solution and working to obtain support
and acceptance.
(5) Variety of Possible Approaches Having a variety of possible approaches
to take for any situation, challenge, or
problem. Being aware of the power of
the process.
(6) Reflecting - Reflecting on many
different factors in determining your
technique.
EXAMPLES OF NON - CREATIVE
OPPROACHES TO PROBLEM SOLVING
1. Mindlessly defending the status quo.
2. Being resistant to exploring new
opportunities.
3. Making and acting on faulty
assumptions or incorrect data
4. Seeing the problem or challenges in only
one way.
5. Overlooking the need to improve,
develop, or refine a tentative solution.
6. Moving on before ensuring agreement
and acceptance by others.
7. Premature completion or conclusion.
8. Using an approach uncritically, just
because it may have provided relief or
results before.
9. Reacting to a situation before reflecting
on alternative ways of responding.
CREATIVE PROBLEM - SOLVING PROCESS
(Alex Osborn & Sidney Parnes)
1. OBJECTIVE FINDING
2. FACT FINDING
3. PROBLEM FINDING
4. IDEA FINDING
5. SOLUTION FINDING
6. ACCEPTANCE FINDING
James Higgin s
Data Finding
stage 3:
Problem Finding
stage 4:
James M Higgins is Cornell Professor of
Innovation Management at Crummer Graduate
School of Business, Rollins College Florida.
He developed the Innovation Quotient Inventory,
which measures the context for innovation in an
organization. He is also the author of the
Innovation Performance Inventory which
explains how to measure a firm's innovation
performance, and Innovation Quotient
Inventory: Manager's Assessment which helps to
measure a manager's performance in providing
the context for innovation.
Idea Finding
stage 5:
Solution Finding
stage 6:
Acceptance Finding
However creative problem solving h as been
divided into three stages by some scholars,
involving the following six (6) steps:
a. explore the challenge
He is also the author of six trade books on
creativity and innovation 101 Creative Problem
Solving Technique,(1st and revised editions)
JAMES M. HIGGINS - 101 CREATIVE PROBLEM
SOVING TECHNIQUES: THE HANDBOOK OF NEW
IDEAS IN BUSINESS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
ANALYZING THE ENVIRONMENT
RECOGNIZING A PROBLEM
IDENTIFYING THE PROBLEM
MAKING ASSUMPTIONS
GENERATING
ALTERNATIVESGENERATING
ALTERNATIVES
6. CHOOSING AMONG ALTERNATIVES
7. IMPLEMENTING THE CHOSEN SOLUTION
8. CONTROL
the following, based on van gundy ( 1988's )
description, is a very brief skeleton of a very rich
process, showing it in full '6 X 2' stages' form
stage 1:
Mess Finding
stage 2:
1. Objective Finding
2. Fact Finding
3. Problem Finding
b. generate ideas
1 .Idea Finding
c. prepare for action
1. Solution Finding
2. Acceptance Finding
another scholar, jeffrey baumgartner. proposed
seven (7) steps for creative problem solving:
step 1:
State what appear to be the problem
step 2:
Gather facts, feelings and opinion
step 3:
Restate the problem
step 4:
Identify alternative solution
step 5:
solved and new opportunities that might be
capitalized upon. It is composed of two steps:
•
•
Problem finding, and
Fact finding,
Evaluate alternatives
step 6:
Implement decision
step 7:
Evaluate the results
The Problem Solving Model
Stage II Conceptualizing: Creating options in the
form of alternate ways to understand and define
a problem or opportunity and good ideas that
help to solve it. It is composed of two steps:
•
•
Problem defining, and
Idea finding,
in the problem solving, scholars have proposed
that the following steps must be followed:
1. Identify the problem
2. Gather adequate information about the
causes of the problem
3. Perceive and generate possible
alternatives and be creative while
considering alternative solutions
4. Select the best solution
5. Take action
6. Review your actions
The Simple CPS Approach
The Simplex Process is a simple, yet powerful
method for solving problems and executing
projects of any scale. The process, instead of
being represented as a single, straight-line
process is represented as a circle. This reminds
us of the importance of continuous
improvement, both to us and to our clients.
The Simplex creative process has four stages and
eight steps which include:
Stage I Generating: Creating options in the form
of new possibilities/problems that might be
Stage III Optimizing: Creating options in the form
of ways to get an idea to work in practice and
uncovering all the factors that go into a successful
plan for implementation. It is composed of two
steps:
•
•
Evaluating and selecting, and
Action planning,
Stage IV Implementing: Creating options in the
form of actions that get results and gain
acceptance for implementing a change or a new
idea. It is composed of two steps:
•
•
Gaining acceptance, and
Taking action.
Techniques for Improving the Creative Process
Four techniques that are especially useful for
improving the quality of creative ideas from
teams are brainstorming, mind mapping, TRIZ,
and rapid prototyping.
1. Brainstorming
- This technique is based on the capacity of the
human brain to make associations.
- In any session or meeting, there are certain
rules that needs to be followed in order to
ensure that a brainstorming session produces
good results. The session can be divided into
three phases:
• Preparation phase
• Brain-storming session
Brain Writing
This is similar to brainstorming. The only
difference is that the participants are given a set
of coloured sheets of paper (between 5 and 20)
and ideas are first written down, one idea per
sheet.
• Evaluation and implementation of the results
2. Mind Mapping
Rules for brainstorming:
• The more ideas the better
• No discussion
- This technique is a visual picture of a group of
ideas, concepts or issues, using the mind
mapping systems further enhances the brain
writing method.
• No idea is a bad idea
• Build on one another's idea
• Display all ideas
Specific steps in mind mapping:
• Unblock your thinking
• See an entire idea or several ideas on one
sheet of paper
Benefits of brainstorming:
• See how ideas relate to one another
• Solutions can be found rapidly and
economically
• Look at things in a new and different way
• Results and ways of problem-solving that are
new and unexpected
• Look at an idea in depth
• A wider picture of the problem or issue can be
obtained
Multi-voting
• The atmosphere within the team is more open
• Write down the numbers of the items you feel
are the major causes of the problem
• The team shares responsibility for the
problem
• Share your votes by a show of hands
• Eliminate those items with the fewest votes
• Responsibility for the outcome is shared
3. TRIZ
• The implementation process is facilitated by
the fact that staff share in the decision-making
process
- In 1946, Genrich S. Altshuller, a 22-year-old
naval officer in the former Soviet Union,
developed a process with a name derived from
the acronym for the Russian phrase that
translates as "Theory of inventive problem
solving" or TRIZ.
- It is a systematic approach designed to help
solve any technical problem, what its source.
Unlike brainstorming and mind mapping, which
are right-brained activities, TRIZ is a left-brained,
scientific, step-by-step process that is based on
the study of hundreds of the most innovative
patterns across the globe.
→CREATIVE TECHNIQUE
Implies that you are attempting to
advance toward an outcome that is
new.
With knowledge and skills for
evaluation, a creative approach requires
engagement of one’s imagination,
intelligence, courageous attitude
because no ready-made answer exists.
4. Rapid Prototyping
- Generating creative ideas is a critical step in
the process of taking an idea for a product or a
service successfully to the market
- However, entrepreneurs find out that most of
their ideas would not work, and that is where
prototyping plays an important part in the
creative process. The premise behind rapid
prototyping is that transforming an idea into an
actual model will point out flaws in the original
idea and will lead to improvement in its design.
3 principles of rapid prototyping:
• Rough
TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES FOR CREATIVE
PROBLEM SOLVING (CPS)
1.
Mental state shift: Creativity
techniques designed to shift a person’s
mental state into one that forces
creativity.
2.
Problem refraining: by
reconsidering one’s goals by asking—“
What am I really trying to accomplish?”
3.
Multiple idea facilitation :
designed to increase the quantity of
fresh ideas
4.
Inducing change of perspective:
designed to efficiently lead to a fresh
perspective that causes a solution to
become obvious.
• Rapid
• Right
What is Creative Technique?
What is a creative technique?
→TECHNIQUE
- Is simply the way you move forward,
advance, or come closer to something.
- A way of making change happen.
CONCEPTUAL BLOCKS TO CREATIVE
PROBLEM SOLVING (CPS)
-
The 4c’s by Williams Scott
1. Constancy: requires being able to
define and solve problem in multiple
ways.
2. Commitment: although our minds
can process a lot of information, we
often get committed to overly simplistic
assumptions about things.
3. Compression: to quickly solve a
problem, we often artificially limit the
information we use in defining the
problem and searching for solutions.
4. Complacency : sometimes we give up
too easily when we encounter problems
for which we don’t immediately see
solutions.
OVERCOMING CONCEPTUAL BLOCKS
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
Play around with the problem definition
Brainstorming.
Training
Pattern breaker
Excursion
Shake-up
INNOVATION
→Process of bringing the best ideas into realit y,
which triggers a creative idea,which generates a
series of innovative events.
→Creation of new value, which is the process of
transforming new ideas into new value/turning
the idea into value.
→It is the implementation of creative
inspiration, which the National Innovation
Initiative (NII) define it as “the inter-section of
invention and insight, leading to creative of
social and economic value.
→Innovation is the “value”, in which the
creation of value adding value to customer’s
satisfaction/ “delighting the customers”
→Basis of all competition advantages, the
means of anticipating and meeting customer’s
needs and the method of utilization of
technology.
ELEMENTS OF INNOVATION
Fiona Fitzpatrick identified the following
elements of innovation:
1. Challenge: What are we trying to change
and accomplish? – “the pull”
2. Customer focus: Creating value for the
customers. – “the push”
3. Creativity: Generating and sharing the
idea(s). – “the brain”
4. Communication: The flow of
information and ideas. – “the life blood”
5. Collaboration: People coming together
to work together on the idea(s). – “the
heart”
6. Completion: Implementing the new idea
– “the muscle”
7. Contemplation: Learning and sharing
lessons lead to higher competency. –
“the ladder”
8. Culture: the playing field of innovation
includes:
a.
Leadership- sees possibilities and
positions the team for action. – “the role model”
b.
People- diverse groups of radically
empowered people to innovate– “the source of
innovation”