Creativity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship

Creativity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship

• Creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship are interconnected concepts.
• Creativity is the ability to create and innovate.
• Innovation is the process of exploiting new ideas to create economic, social and environmental value.
• The ability to create and innovate has been observed throughout history, although tools may change.
• The past viewed creativity as a spiritual experience through a muse.
• Today, nature's inspiration is considered in human creation, using many examples.
• Creativity is a complex combination of nature and nurture.
• Creativity, regardless of natural talent, is enhanced through practice and study.
• Creativity supports businesses that seek novelty in consumer products, media, fashion, and travel.
• Creativity is important for solving problems that do not have ready-made solutions.
• Creativity is fundamental for progress.
• Creativity is developed through systematic problem-solving and is not just an 'inspiration'.
• Creative people are not necessarily born, but can be developed.
• There are two contrasting views of creativity: the Elite View and the Developmental View.
• The Elite view emphasizes creativity as rare and unteachable, and a lonely endeavor. The Developmental view sees creativity as available to all and learned through training and development.
• The reality is that creativity is not exclusively for elite individuals and can be developed and applied in any situation.
• The brain uses both sides.
• Both sides of the brain work together, and the concept of a dominant left or right side is not accurate.
• Different brain functions are lateralized (occurs on one or other side).
• Later research demonstrates the brain is not as dichotomous as previously thought, and both sides work together.
• Creativity is a process that humans can tap into.
• The left hemisphere is better at processing language and logic. The right hemisphere is better at emotional aspects of language.
• Understanding the different types of thinking can help for problem solving, decision making, team interactions, and communication.
• A popular theory of improving teams is the whole-brain approach.
• Whole brain thinking encompasses multiple perspectives within a team or group.
• The goal of communication is to transmit an idea or to persuade, and success requires understanding the audience's mindset.
• Creativity involves three components: domain-relevant skills, creative processes, and intrinsic task motivation.
• Creativity is instrumental in the process of innovation, which is dependent on invention and commercialization.
• Innovation entails making changes in existing methods, ideas, or products.
• Innovation is the process by which new ideas are exploited to create economic, social and environmental value.
• Innovation can be either disruptive or sustaining.
• Disruptive innovations create a new value proposition for new markets.
• Sustaining innovations make improvements or updates to existing products or markets.
• Innovation requires invention that leads to a new product, service or process and can be for betterment to a current offering (e.g., a better way to perform a process) rather than a completely new invention.
• Success hinges on the combination of creativity and effective commercialization.
• Not all inventions or ideas are successful and commercialization is important for innovation.
• Opportunities come from a combination of creative ideas and a perception of opportunity within a given context.
• The identification of an opportunity is related to prior knowledge, education, work experience, enculturation, family and friends, and other factors.
• Drucker's Opportunity Scan discusses external and internal factors that determine opportunities.
• The attributes of creative thinking include flexibility, originality, and non-judgmental consideration of potential solutions.
• The process of creativity has several distinct stages: preparation, incubation, insight, evaluation and elaboration.
• Fear, risk, convention, self-doubt, and fear of failure are barriers to business creativity.

De Bono's Six Thinking Hats

• De Bono's model uses six "thinking hats" as a technique for problem-solving.
• Each hat represents a different type of thought process.
• The six hats are White, Red, Black, Yellow, Green, and Blue.
• The hats help to ensure both positive and negative considerations are incorporated in decision making and problem-solving.
• The process of creativity has several distinct stages, such as generating knowledge, incubation, idea generation, evaluation and implementation, based on De Bono's methods.

Example Creative Problem Solving Steps

• The process of creative problem-solving uses multiple mindsets (i.e. Explorer, Detective, Judge and Producer).
• The example includes stages of problem definition, idea generation, idea synthesis, idea judgement and solution implementation.

Other Points

• Creativity can be a problem-solving process.
• Creativity can improve team interaction.
• The three components of creativity are relevant skills, creative processes, and intrinsic task motivation.
• Problems can lead to opportunities.