Creativity & Innovation

By Sandeep Mannan

Creativity“Imagination is more important than

knowledge.”

“Problems cannot be solved by thinking

within the framework within which the

problems were created”

“Get in touch with your inner child.”

Innovation

“The best way to get a good idea is to get a lot of

good ideas” Linus Pauling

“Innovation is everywhere; the difficulty is

learning from it” John Seeley Brown

Pepino fruit

The fruit of Pepino is often eaten ripe as a refreshing, quenching fruit after physical

effort.

Its yellowish white colour, with speckles and longitudinal lines, and its purple

colour in the ripe state make the fruit attractive. Its smell and taste are pleasant

because of their typical mild aroma and slightly sweet flavour. Its nutritional value

is low but it is recognized for its diuretic properties, probably because of its high

water content (90 percent) and good iodine content, for which it is recommended for

treating goitre. It also contains 7 percent of carbohydrates and 29 mg per 100 g of

vitamin C.

The famous board game, called Chess, was invented in India.

India is the 7th largest country in the world, the largest democracy and

one of the oldest civilizations.

India is one of the largest exporter of computer software products. It

exports software to over 90 countries.

India originated Yoga about 5,000 years ago.

Four Roles Of The Creative Process

The Explorer

Gathers information, explores for knowledge in new places

The Artist

Experiments with new approaches, combinations

Follows intuition, breaks rules, brainstorms, takes risks

The Judge

Evaluates ideas and solutions, critically weighs evidence.

The Warrior

Takes the offensive, fights for implementation, has courage.

Thinking provides knowledge, Knowledge

makes you great.

Creativity Blocks

Accepting conventional wisdom.

Not taking time to investigate or elaborate.

Seeking only to satisfy the perceived needs of bosses.

Having tunnel vision, compartmentalizing problems.

Looking for quick, yes-no answers.

Fearing rejection of ideas.

Being afraid of making mistakes.

Expecting others to be creative.

Being unwilling to question others.

Being unwilling to accept others’ input.

Being unwilling to collaborate.

Methods For Killing CreativityEvaluation

Fear of evaluation kills the love of creative activity.

Surveillance

Looking over creative people’s shoulder or policing them de-motivates them.

Reward

Extrinsic rewards lower motivation.

Reward creative people with autonomy, the opportunity to learn.

Competition

Win/Lose competition kills creativity.

In a competitive environment, people think about how not to lose instead of

how to win.

Restricted Choice

Making choices for creative people or severely limiting their options lowers

creative output.

Extrinsic Orientation

External rewards such as prizes and money hurt creativity.

Creative people love the intrinsic rewards of doing the job.

Ways of Enhancing Personal Creativity

1. Accept there’s no right answer

2. Don’t follow the rules

3. Be foolish

4. Ask ‘What if?’

5. Think outside your area

6. Go for ambiguity

7. Believe in yourself

1. No Right Answer

•The best way to get a good idea is to get a lot of ideas

•Change your question (eg IBM should have thought in

terms of solutions to problems, not computing hardware)

•Avoid workplaces with a culture of uniformity

2. Don’t Follow The Rules• We make rules based on reasons that make sense

• We follow these rules

• Time passes, things change

• The original reasons for the rules no longer exist, but because the rules are still in place, we continue to follow them

3. Be Fool-ish: Examples

Think against the conventional flow, like

the fool in Shakespearean times

4. Ask “What If?”

Ask “what if” someone else were solving your

problem for you,

5 minute exercise : ‘What if’ someone else were running this session on creativity. How would they organise/structure it?

5. Think Outside Your Area : Suggestions

1. Read fiction and stimulate your imagination

2. Go to places you wouldn’t normally go (eg a junk yard, a fairground)

3. Develop the explorer’s attitude : the outlook that wherever you go, there are ideas out there

(4. When you hit on an idea, write it down)

6. Go For Ambiguity

“If you tell people where to go, but not how to get there, you’ll be amazed at the results”

George S Patton (American General)

Ambiguity As Found In The Workplace• Non hierarchical organisation

• Tolerance (or even encouragement) of different approaches

• Broad goals defined, but little else

8. Believe in Yourself

Lack of creativity is a self-fulfilling prophecy (as substantiated by research!)

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Converging thinking

Judging, assessing options,

focusing, making decisions.

Diverging thinking

Generating lots of options and

ideas, making lists.

Green light = speed Red light = brakes on!

These are two mutually exclusive mental activities

Thomas Edison

“I have not failed, I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work”.