Creativity & innovations

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CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION
“Creativity is thinking up new things. Innovation is doing new things.”
Introduction
Creativity is not just a natural talent; it is also a skill that everyone can develop and learn.
It empowers people by adding strength to their natural abilities which improves teamwork,
productivity and where appropriate profits. So, creativity is not an isolated feature of a
human being but expresses itself in interaction with other people, in different
environments. That is why developing creativity in an organisation requires a mixture of
elements both ofpersonal behaviour and environmental aspects. With other words most
creative solutions will be gained in a combination of personal skills and a 'productive'
environment.
Definition:
Creativity is a process of developing and expressing novel ideas that are likely to be
useful.
The person who follows the crowd will usually get no further than the crowd. The person
who walks alone is likely to discover places no one has ever been before.
"The best way to get a good idea is to get a lot of ideas"
Creativity is a distinguishing characteristic of human excellence in every areaof behaviour.
—E. Paul Torrance
Creativity vs. Innovation vs. Invention
Creativity is the capability or act of conceiving something original or unusual
Innovation is the implementation of something new.
Invention is the creation of something that has never been made before and is recognized
as the product of some unique insight.

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Creativity versus Innovation
CREATIVITY INNOVATION
Imagination Implementation
Process Product
Generating Developing
Novelty Usefulness
Soft Hard
The Creative Process:
The creative process consists of six working phases, inspiration, clarification, distillation,
perspiration, evaluation, and incubation. During a particular piece of creative work each
phase should be experienced many times, in no definite order, sometimes for a very short
time.
The “icedip” phases
Inspiration.In which you generate a large number of ideas
This is the research or idea-generation phase. The process is uninhibited and characterised
by spontaneity, experimentation, intuition, and risk-taking.
Many people wonder where creative people find their good ideas. The answer is, in
amongst a huge pile of bad ones. Creativity is like mining for diamonds, most of what you
dig is thrown away, but that doesn’t make the digging a waste of time. If you ‘can’t think
of anything’ you are having difficulty with this inspiration phase, perhaps because you are
too self-critical, or expect good ideas to come too quickly.
In the field of the creative arts the inspiration phase is often associated with a search for an
individual voice, and with an attempt to conjure up deep feelings of (for example)
empathy, spirituality, or an intense identification with the subject matter
Mind set: In order to generate a large number of different ideas you need to be
deeply engrossed, fearless and free: Spontaneous, risk-taking, joyful, ‘slap-happy’,
intuitive and improvisational. It is very common instead to be self-conscious and fearful,
and to try to use inappropriate logical thinking. There is also a common tendency to
accept your first decent idea, instead of exploring more fully.

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Clarification In which you focus on your goals.
Key questions are:
◊ What am I trying to achieve here?
◊ What am I trying to say?
◊ Whatexactly is the problem I am trying to solve?
◊ What would I like the finished work to be like?
And in more open ended work:
◊ How could I exploit the ideas I have had?
◊ Where could this idea take me --- what could I make of it?
The aim here is to clarify the purpose or objective of the work. It is easy to lose your sense
of direction while dealing with detailed difficulties in creative work. So you need
occasionally to disengage from these obstacles and ask: “what exactly am I trying to do?”.
If you ‘get stuck’ in the middle of a project, then rather than dreaming up a stream of
alternatives you need to clarify where exactly you want to go. How to get there is then
often straight-forward, or even blindingly obvious.
Mindset : In order to clarify what you are trying to achieve you need to be: strategic,
unhurried and impertinent: analytic, logical, and clear minded, and not afraid to ask
difficult questions.Many people fail to clarify, they fail to achieve their goals because they
don’t know what they are.
Distillation In which you look through the ideas you have generated and try to determine
which ones to work on
Here ideas from the inspiration phase are sifted through and evaluated usually in the light
of the findings of a clarification phase. The best ideas are chosen for further development,
or are combined into even better ideas.
This is a self-critical phase. It requires cool analysis and judgment rather than slap-happy
spontaneity. However it should not be so critical as to inhibit productivity entirely.
Remember, the ideas you have had are only ideas, not complete solutions --- you must not
expect too much of them. It is where the ideas can take you that counts, not the ideas
themselves.

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Mind set: In order to choose your best ideas from the inspiration phase you need to
be positive, strategic, and intrepid. Judgmental, but optimistic about where each idea
might take you. Clear about where you want the ideas to take you, and daring enough to
take on original ideas. You need to be realistic but ready to take on challenges.
Common mistakes are to choose ideas which are familiar and well worked out instead of
those that will best achieve your intentions.
Perspiration In which you work determinedly on your best ideas.
This is where the real work is done. You are involved in determined and persistent effort
towards your goal; this will usually involve further 'inspiration' ‘distillation’ and
'clarification' phases.
Mind set: In order to bring your ideas to fruition you need to be: uncritical,
enthusiastic and responsive. You need to be positive and persistent, deeply committed and
engaged, and ready to respond positively to any shortcomings.
It is common for even very creative people not to make the best of this phase. They are
often uncertain and self-critical, and see weaknesses as lack of talent, instead of as a need
for more work or a different approach.
Evaluation This is a review phase in which you look back over your work in progress
In the evaluation phase you examine your work for strengths and weaknesses. Then you
need to consider how the work could be improved, by removing weaknesses but also by
capitalising on its strengths. Then there will probably need to be another perspiration
phase to respond positively to the suggestions for improvement. Perspiration and
evaluation phases often alternate to form a cycle.
Hardly anyone gets things perfect first time. Creative people adapt to improve.
Many people dislike the evaluation phase at first. However, highly creative people are
nearly always inveterate revisers. They tinker with work that would make others gape in
delight. Actually this evaluation phase can be very rewarding, and no work of real merit
will be produced without it. If Shakespeare and Picasso found they had to revise their
efforts, then I expect even you will need to!

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Mind set: In order to improve earlier work you need to be critical positive and
willing to learn. Self-critical (ruthlessly so sometimes), but positive about your vision of
how the work could be, and your ability to do this. You must see weaknesses as
opportunities to improve, and to learn. Instead creative people often see criticism as a
threat, and so fail to improve their work, and to learn.
Incubation In which you leave the work alone, though you still ponders about it
occasionally, leaving it ‘on the surface of your mind’.
Many brilliant ideas have occurred in the bath, or in traffic jams. If you are able to stop
work on a project for a few days, perhaps to work on other things, this will give your
subconscious time to work on any problems encountered; it will also distance you
somewhat from your ideas so that you are better able to evaluate them.
'Incubation' is particularly useful after an 'inspiration' or a 'perspiration' phase, or if a
problem has been encountered. Creative people are often surprisingly patient and untidy,
and are content to let half-baked ideas, loose ends and inconsistencies brew away in their
sub-conscious until 'something turns up'.
Whenever Sir Isaac Newton had a particularly thorny problem he always worked on it just
before he went to sleep. He said “I invariably woke up with the solution"
Mind set: In order to leave work for your sub-conscious to work on you need to be
unhurried, trusting, and forgetful. You must expect difficulties, trust yourself to find a
way round them, and not be panicked into adopting a weak solution.
Few people realise that some ideas take time to hatch, and see difficulties and indecision
as a sign of failure.We begin the process with a challenge thatwe have identified. Below
are some prompts * describing typical challenges.
Thisis Objective finding in the Osborn-Parnes process.
What would you like to accomplish?
What idea would you like to work on?
What do you wish would happen in your job?
What is the next research topic?
What relationship would you like to improve (Internal/External customer)?
What areas would you like to improve upon?

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What do you wish you had more time for?
What more would you like to get out of your job?
What are your unfulfilled goals?
What changes would you like to introduce?
What takes too long?
What is wasted?
What is too complicated?
Where are the bottlenecks?
In what ways are you inefficient?
What gives you stress?
What in your job do you least like doing?
What would you like to organize better?
Creative Problem Solving
Creative problem solving can be approached in a systematic way and one technique that
has found widespread application in the USA and Canada is known as the Osborn-
Parnesprocess.This process was first developed by Alex Osborn who coined the phrase
‘Brain-Storming’ in the 1950’s. Later working with Sid Parnes and others associated with
CPSI The Creative Problem Solving Institute the process was fully developed. It consists
of six stages and at each stage two modes of thought are applied. Divergence comes first
in which as many thoughts as possible are written down in connection with the particular
stage of the process. Divergent thinking looks outside the boundaries that define the
problem. In this mode of thought it is essential to defer judgement on the value of any
ones' thoughts until enough of them have been generated.
This is a learnt skill and the more debate that ensues the fewer ideas are generated during
this time. Convergence comes next where we select from the list those ideas that are the
best and here judgement is essential.
This should be a democratic process and it is useful to remember three criteria for
selection:These are Importance i.e. How important is this idea or problem? How much
Influence do you have in effecting it? How much does it represent or need a New Idea?

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Note that Idea-finding is the fourth stage in the Osborn-Parnes process not the first. Often
brain-storming meetings begin at this idea-finding stage before the real problem has been
identified. Furthermore they often end here too with a list of ideas but no further action.
Creative Tools
A variety of abilities that characterises creative individuals or groups have been presented
here Four of the key abilities will bediscussed in this section as well as tools to enhance
them in concrete problem solving situations. These abilities are:
• Fluency,
• Flexibility,
• Originality, and
• Elaboration.
FLUENCY
Fluency is the production of multiple problems, ideas, alternatives or solutions. It has been
shown that the more ideas we produce, the more likely we are to find a useful idea or
solution. Fluency is a very important ability especially in the creative problem solving
process. To have too few alternatives is not a good thing in problem solving especially if
you have to be innovative. There are many tools for producing ideas, alternatives and
solutions. Several researchers have shown that training and practice with these tools cause
a better fluency.
One creative tool, which has been widely used with big success for generating many ideas,
is Brainstorming. Osborn (1953) invented it for the sole purpose of producing checklists of
ideas that can be used in developing a solution to a problem. The tool is directed to
generating unconventional ideas by suppressing the common tendency to criticise or reject
them summarily. Osborn tried to separate idea-evaluation from idea generation because he
believed that if evaluation comes early, it reduces the quantity and quality of the ideas
produced. Therefore in a Brainstorming session no criticism is permitted and freewheeling
generation of a large number of ideas and their combination and development are
encouraged. Brainstorming is founded on the associative premise that the greater the
number of associations, the less stereotyped and more creative the ideas of how to solve a
problem will be.

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FLEXIBILITY
Flexibility is the ability to process ideas or objects in many different ways given the same
stimulus. It is the ability to delete old waysof thinking and begin indifferent directions. It
is adaptive when aimed at a solution to a specific problem, challenge or dilemma.
Flexibility is especially important when logical methods fail to give satisfactory results.
Looking at modern paintings requires flexibility, they demand looking from different
perspectives in order to see different objects, images and symbols. Seeing persons or
objects in the clouds requires the flexibility of seeing concrete shapes in cloud formations.
Flexible thinking provides for changes in ideas, detours in thinking to include
contradictions, differing viewpoints, alternative plans, differing approaches and various
perspectives of a situation.
A family of creative tools, known as verbal checklists, has been developed to enhance
flexibility in the creative process. Usually this is a checklist of questions about an existing
product, service, process, or other item to yield new points of view and thereby lead to
innovation. Osborn (1953) has also developed a very extensive verbal checklist while he
was a partner of a major US advertising firm. The idea behind the verbal checklist is that
an existing product or service can be improved if one applies a series of questions to it and
pursues the answers to see where they may lead. The main questions take the form of
verbs such as Modify? or Combine? These verbs indicate possible ways to improve an
existing product or service by making changes to it. Then you add definitional words to
the verb, for instance combine ideas, combine appeals, combine purposes, combine units,
etc.
ORIGINALITY
Originality means getting away from the obvious and commonplace or breaking away
from routine bound thinking. Original ideas are statistically infrequent. Originality is a
creative strength, which is a mental jump fromthe obvious. Original ideas are usually
described as unique, surprising, wild, unusual,unconventional, novel, weird, remarkable or
revolutionary. You need courage to be creative, because as soon as you propose a new
idea, you are a minority of one. Belonging to a minority is unpleasant. In addition the
original thinker must be able to withstand the ridicule and scepticism, which will be
directed toward his/her ideas and himself/herself. To enhance creativity we have to be
respectful of unusual or crazy ideas or alternatives.
Picture Stimulationis a very popular technique used to provide ideas beyond those that
might be obtained using brainstorming. The members of the group will look at a set of
selected pictures and relate the information gained from the picture to the problem,

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otherwise the rules of brainstorming should be followed. Photo excursion uses the same
principles of picture stimulation but instead of using prepared pictures for stimulation,
participants are required to leave the building walk around the area with a (Polaroid or
digital) camera, and take pictures of possible solutions or visual ideas for the problem;
when the group reconvenes, ideas are shared. Another related technique is the Object
Stimulation tool where instead of pictures a variety of different objects (e.g. a hammer, a
pencil, a board game, etc.) will be used. Sometimes you can use words instead of pictures
or objects, an associate them to your problem.
ELABORATION
Mind Mapping is a visual and verbal tool usually used to structure complex situations in a
radial and expanding way during the creative problem solving process. A mind map is by
definition a creative pattern of related ideas, thoughts, process, objects, etc. It is difficult to
identify the origin and the creator of this technique. It is quite probable that this tool has
been inspired by research on the interplay between the left and the right hemisphere of the
brain. It can also be dated back to the Bulgarian doctor and psychiatrist Lozanov who
experimented with the brain and accelerated learning. It has been, among others, Buzan
(1983) who has made Mind Mapping a well-known technique with many applications.
A Mind Map contains usually the following elements:
• The subject or the problem that has to be studied or analysed will be placed in the centre
of the paper
• Keywords (names or verbs) are used to represent ideas, as far as possible only one word
is used in a line
• The keywords are connected to the centrum through a main branch and sub branches
• Colours and symbols are used to emphasiseideas or to stimulate the brain to identify new
relations
• Let ideas and thoughts flew free; avoiding too much evaluation during the period of
elaboration of the map.
DIVERGENT AND CONVERGENT PROCESSES
Experience has shown that it is recommendable in a creative process to start with
divergent thinking to produce as many ideas orsolutions as possible and thereafter to
switch to convergent thinking to select the few most promising ideas.

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Some of the rules for divergent thinking are:
• Imaging, reframing and seeing issuesfrom different perspectives,
• Defer judgement (criticism or negativity kills the divergent process), be open to new
experiences,
• Quantity breeds quality, to have good ideas you need lots of ideas,
• Hitchhiking is permitted, in this way a synergetic effect can be achieved,
• Combine and modify ideas, in this way you can create many ideas,
• Think in pictures, to create future scenarios you can even simulate potential Solutions,
• Stretch the ideas, imagine ideas beyond normal limits, and
• Do not be afraid to break paradigms, avoid destructive criticism, and add value tothe
challenged concept.
Some of the rules of convergent thinkingare:
• Be systematic, find structure and patterns in the set of produced ideas,
• Develop ways to evaluate ideas, assess qualitative and quantitative measures of ideas,
• Do not be afraid of using intuition, thisis the way most important decisions are taken,
• Avoid quickly ruling out an area of consideration; takeyour time or better sleep on it,
• Avoid idea-killer views,try the impossible,
• Satisfy; do not expend too much time in looking for the optimal solution of an ill
structured multi-criteria problem,
• Use heuristics, use common sense and experience based rules, and
• Do not avoid but assess risk, this does notmean being blind to risks, for serious
consequences be sure to have a contingency plan.

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Creative problem-solving
In business there is typically a direct relationship between risk and reward. The bigger the
risk you take, the greater the possibility of making a high return. The reverse side of this is
that high risks can also be associated with spectacular failure.
Engineers working for RWE npower need to understand the commercial implications of
the decisions they make. The best decisions will be those that provide good technical
solutions while at the same time are commercially successful. Learning to manage risks is
important. Decisions taken must be in line with other priorities such as safe working. At
RWE npower, health and safety is the number one priority.
Creative problem-solving involves dealing with problems for the very first time.
While there are tools and techniques to help find solutions, engineers will need to be
creative. They need to decide what methods to use and ultimately how the problems will
be solved.
At senior management level, RWE npower has engineers with responsibility for running
very large units such as a power station. These senior managers are continually provided
with information about every aspect of the performance of the plant. They receive advice
and information from a range of specialists. The sorts of problems they encounter include
what to do when a weakness is spotted in materials. For example, the giant turbines which
power the generators can develop tiny defects over time. The turbines can weigh more
than 250 tonnes and rotate 3,000 times a minute. These defects are actively managed and
carefully monitored to ensure they do not deteriorate to present a potential safety
risk.When a plant manager is notified that tiny cracks have been found in the turbine, then
he or she must come to a decision very quickly. The options are:
1. Shut down part or all of the plant and start repairs. In the middle of winter this
could prove to be very costly. When demand is at peak this could lead to losing
supply contracts worth £2 million per day.
2. Take advice from specialist engineers to check whether it is still possible to
continue operating while carefully monitoring the weakness. Specialist fracture
engineers would need to prove that, if they continued to run operations, the impact
on the materials would remain within safety limits. Repairs would then be made as
soon as possible.
3. Do nothing.

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Managers will only consider options that do not involve a health and safety risk. Once
they are satisfied that this is the case they will consider commercial criteria. The best
solution will be the one that fully meets the requirements of customers while at the same
time yielding the optimum financial return.
3 Creative Brainstorming Activities, Games and Exercises for Effective Group
Problem Solving
Just because you call thirty minutes in a room-full of people and a flip chart a
brainstorming activity, doesn't make it successful. For problem solving brainstorming
to be effective, a little bit of coaxing will make all the difference. Here are three
brainstorming activities, games and exercises to transform your problem solving
sessions.
Brainstorming Activity 1 – Night and Day
Busy people need routines and shortcuts to make it through the day. If we had to
consciously think about the steps involved in making a cup of tea, we’d have exhausting
our thinking energy before we’d even left the house in the morning. Routine thinking may
save time and energy, but seriously hampers creative brainstorming, so use this exercise to
challenge traditional thoughts and encourage creativity.
Make a list of common words e.g. night, smart, heavy, quick, apple. Get your team to list
the first opposite meaning word that springs to mind e.g. day, stupid, light, slow, pear.
This will flush out the obvious, routine words. Challenge your team to come up with at
least 3 further opposite words for each word e.g.
Night=day,sun, white, awake,
Smart= stupid, scruffy, shabby, in-elegant, clumsy, gawky
You’ll find some similar meaning words creep into your list – that’s fine as these can
spark further opposite meaning words. Remember ideas breed ideas and to keep critical,
analytical thinking in check. Limit the time spent on this activity to 10-15 minutes, to keep
it fresh and focused. Now it’s time to introduce the “real” brainstorming activity. Write
your problem statement clearly and simply, and let those creative minds go to work on
generating new and non-routine ideas to solve the problem.

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Brainstorming Game 2 – What Can You See?
Sometimes you’re so close to a problem you can’t see how it will ever be solved. This
situation is so common, it even has it’s own cliché – “you can’t see the wood for the
trees”. Here’s a brainstorming game to help you see things differently, and aid the problem
solving process.
Show these shapes to your team, and ask them to individually write down what they can
see. You may find descriptions such as; three coloured shapes, or a green circle with a
diagonal line, a red hexagon and a yellow thought bubble etc.
Some may have made a small creative leap and seen the top left figure as a green
“forbidden” road sign. Others may have taken bigger creative leaps and see a winking,
bearded face or an imminent solar eclipse on a cloudy day. It doesn’t matter if you can or
can’t see these more outlandish images – there’s no right or wrong answer.
Looking at things in a fresh, new way can trigger a whole train-load of thoughts, and that’s
the essence of effective brainstorming.
Get the team to look at the shapes again and see how they describe them differently,
second time round.
Now, focus on your problem, and encourage your team to look at it with fresh eyes or “in
a different light”. How would they describe the problem to a non-English speaker, a child
or a Martian?
Use this process to encourage objectivity and distance from a problem, and start a more
reative problem solving process.

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Brainstorming Exercise 3 – Who’s Line, Is It Anyway?
“Normal” behaviour is encouraged at work, as this is the easiest, most efficient way to get
things done. As a result, our creative self often is hidden away, getting flabby from under-
use. Then along comes a manager demanding we do some brainstorming to come up with
an innovative solution. Ouch! Like un-used muscles, creativity improves with exercise, so
here’s a brainstorming exercise to warm-up those under-used creative muscles.
Just like the TV show, the principle of this brainstorming exercise is simple –
improvisation. Collect 5 random props from home, the office or from the problem solving
team e.g. belt, toy dog, post-it notes, lunch box and paper clip. Leave these props in the
middle of the room and encourage people to come up with different uses for the props e.g.
the belt could become a Japanese warrior’s head-band or the toy dog is hidden from the
group and is “dog-gone”. You get the drift!
Give this exercise a time limit of 10-15 minutes and encourage all team members to take
part. Even the shyest will have some creative use for the props!
10 Ways to Build a Sustainable Creativity/ Innovation Culture
What business would turn down more creativity and innovation in their employees? Here
is a list of tips to create a sustainable innovation culture where these skills can grow.
Want a culture of innovation? Choose a few of the following guidelines and make them
happen. Once satisfied with your progress on those, pick a couple more … if not YOU,
who? If not NOW, when?
Wherever you can, whenever you can, always drive fear out of the workplace

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Fear is “Public Enemy of a creative/innovative culture.
Always question authority
… especially the authority of your own longstanding beliefs.
Imagine what you can make happen
As far as the future is concerned, don’t speculate on what might happen.
Help people broaden their perspective
… by creating diverse teams and rotating employees into new projects — especially ones
they are fascinated by.
Ask questions
… about everything. After asking questions, ask different questions. After asking
different questions, ask them in a different way.
Learn to tolerate ambiguity
… and cope with soft data. It is impossible to get all the facts about anything. “Not
everything that counts can be counted. Not everything that can be counted counts,” said
Einstein.
Encourage people
… to get out of their offices and silos. Encourage people to meet informally, one-on-one,
and in small groups. Encourage a culture of collaboration.
Make customers
… your innovation partners, while realizing that customers are often limited to
incremental innovations, not breakthrough ones.
Develop a process of testing
… and trying out new concepts quickly and on the cheap. Learn quickly what’s working
and what’s not. It is important to act with speed and urgency. Get customer feedback
before committing resources to a product’s development.
Takeaways
Before reaching closure on any course of action, seek alternatives. Make it a discipline to
seek the idea after the “best” idea emerges.

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THINK OUT OF THE BOX
While “think outside the box” is certainly not a new concept, it seems to be used a lot
more often. In case you haven’t noticed, buzzwords like “innovative solutions” have also
been popping up more frequently. Companies are finally jumping on the “design matters”
bandwagon, but why?
Some may credit Apple for bringing elegant design to the masses. Sure, MP3 players, cell
phones and computers were not new ideas, but Apple paid attention to their design and
sent consumers into frenzy with drool-worthy products. Maybe it’s the fact that design
tools are no longer exclusive to a profession. Anyone can get their hands on image editing
software and do-it-yourself design kits. Others may nod to technology making it easier for
consumers to customize everything.
You want sneakers that are one-of-a-kind, a tissue box with your child’s photo, soda
custom mixed with flavours you select? Done, done and done, just log in and start
creating.
Whatever the reason, consumers have become incredibly design savvy. It’s not enough
that a product works well, it must look good and make life easier. And if it doesn’t,
consumers will let companies know by posting reviews and instantly spreading their
opinions and experiences to the masses. Companies must rise to the challenge or face
being left behind.
To be truly creative and innovative, companies need to embrace this new world. The first
step in doing that is actually listening to what consumers are saying. Innovation comes
from insights. Every day someone has some pain point that needs relieving, some
frustration to be addressed, and some need that’s unfulfilled. Companies have to find out
what those are and explore ways they can help. Learn what’s working and what’s not and
figure out how to change what’s not.
Once the problems are identified, companies should bring design in early as they start
working on the solution. Consumers can tell when design was the last thought in the
process – it feels forced or awkward or lacking, and that is no longer acceptable. Whatever
the product is, from a mop to an MP3 player, it needs to be effortless and intuitive.
Consumers want to make their lives easier while adding a bit of beauty to even the
mundane. Take OXO, which strives to make common kitchen products, like potato
peelers, look good plus offer great ergonomics in addition to performing its function well.
That’s what today’s consumers expect.

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Yes, creativity, innovation and design matter. But don’t just talk about it in meetings and
reports, actually follow through with it, and let consumers help you form those solutions.
You’ll both be pleased by the results.
Fostering creativity
Faculty can foster or encourage creativity in many ways, from course design to
assignments to establishing a classroom atmosphere. One of the simplest ways to
encourage creativity (or any other kind of learning, in fact) is to signal approval through
verbal responses, physical responses (moving, raising one’s voice), and responding with
appropriate energy. Giving quick, specific feedback is also essential. Examples of specific
ways to encourage student behaviors appear in the Virtual Classroom Visit with Professor
Michael Clough.
Another simple way to encourage creativity is to tell your students about, and perhaps
offer extra credit for participation in, out-of-class groups and activities that reinforce
learning and thinking in your course. Some well-known examples are the Block & Bridle
Club, the Society of Automotive Engineers, the Writers’ Guild of ISU and the Society of
Chemistry Undergraduate Majors (SCUM). There are many more registered student
organizations at Iowa State University which may be useful partners in promoting student
creativity.
A central means of fostering creativity is through your course planning. Consider what
your students need in the area of declarative knowledge (facts, concepts, terminology), and
what they can gain by practicing procedural knowledge (inquiry, reasoning, and
metacognition) (Kurfiss). Plan with the end in mind (Wiggins &McTighe). That is, think
first of what you want students to know and be able to do at the end of the course, then
design toward those goals. Do you want your students to be creative at synthesizing their
knowledge, extending it, explaining it to others? Are you after elegance in design,
efficiency, speed, or some combination of these? Some other course outcomes linked to
creativity include recognizing and solving problems (or opportunities), managing
ambiguity and uncertainty, and feeling comfortable with change.
Once your course design is complete, build assignments that permit students to develop
their procedural knowledge and especially to practice the elements of metacognition
(drafting and practicing, trying out, assessing and revising) (Quallmalz&Hoskyn). These
can range from simple team-building exercises to complex, open-ended problems that
require a semester to solve.

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What is Innovation?
Innovation is the implementation of a new or significantly improved product, service
or process that creates value for business, government or society.
Some people say creativity has nothing to do with innovation— that innovation is a
discipline, implying that creativity is not. Well, I disagree. Creativity is also a discipline,
and a crucial part of the innovation equation. There is no innovation without creativity.
The key metric in both creativity and innovation is value creation.
Creativity and Economic Development:
We are living in the age of creativity.
Daniel Pink in his book, A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the
Future defines Economic Development as:
1. Agriculture Age (farmers)
2. Industrial Age (factory workers)
3. Information Age (knowledge workers)
4. Conceptual Age (creators and empathizers)
Pink argues that left-brain linear, analytical computer-like thinking are being replaced by
right-brain empathy, inventiveness, and understanding as skills most needed by business.
In other words, creativity gives you a competitive advantage by adding value to your
service or product, and differentiating your business from the competition. Without
creativity, you are doomed to compete in commodity hell!
Creativity is the Most Crucial Factor for Future Success
IBM’s 2010 Global CEO Study stated:
“The effects of rising complexity calls for CEOs and their teams to lead with bold
creativity, connect with customers in imaginative ways and design their operations for
speed and flexibility to position their organizations for twenty-first century success.”
The Creativity Gap
A 2012 Adobe study on creativity shows 8 in 10 people feel that unlocking creativity is
critical to economic growth and nearly two-thirds of respondents feel creativity is valuable
to society, yet a striking minority – only 1 in 4 people – believe they are living up to their
own creative potential.

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Can creativity be learned?
The short answer is yes.
A study by George Land reveals that we are naturally creative and as we grow up we learn
to be uncreative. Creativity is a skill that can be developed and a process that can be
managed.
Creativity begins with a foundation of knowledge, learning a discipline, and mastering a
way of thinking. You learn to be creative by experimenting, exploring, questioning
assumptions, using imagination and synthesing information. Learning to be creative is
akin to learning a sport. It requires practice to develop the right muscles, and a supportive
environment in which to flourish.
Studies by Clayton M. Christensen and his researchers uncovered The Innovators
DNA: Your ability to generate innovative ideas is not merely a function of the mind, but
also a function of five key behaviours that optimize your brain for discovery:
1. Associating: drawing connections between questions, problems, or ideas from
unrelated fields
2. Questioning: posing queries that challenge common wisdom
3. Observing: scrutinizing the behavior of customers, suppliers, and competitors to
identify new ways of doing things
4. Networking: meeting people with different ideas and perspectives
5. Experimenting: constructing interactive experiences and provoking unorthodox
responses to see what insights emerge
Sir Richard Branson has a mantra that runs through the DNA of Virgin companies. The
mantra is A-B-C-D. (Always Be Connecting the Dots). Creativity is a practice, and if you
practice using these five discovery skills every day, you will develop your skills in
creativity and innovation.
Overcoming myths about creativity
Beliefs that only special, talented people are creative-and you have to be born that way-
diminish our confidence in our creative abilities. The notion that geniuses such as
Shakespeare, Picasso and Mozart were `gifted’ is a myth, according to a study at Exeter
University. Researchers examined outstanding performances in the arts, mathematics and
sports, to find out if “the widespread belief that to reach high levels of ability a person
must possess an innate potential called talent.”

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The study concludes that excellence is determined by:
 opportunities
 encouragement
 training
 motivation, and
 most of all-practice.
“Few showed early signs of promise prior to parental encouragement.” No one reached
high levels of achievement in their field without devoting thousands of hours of serious
training. Mozart trained for 16 years before he produced an acknowledged master work.
Moreover many high performers achieve levels of excellence today that match the
capabilities of a Mozart, or a Gold Medallist from the turn of the century.” (The
Vancouver Sun, Sept.12/98)
Can Creativity Exist At Work?
Change your view
Creativity is the ability to make or think or see or hear something that did not exist before.
We must change our approach to new challenges. Instead of treating a problem in a
negative way, it makes more sense to identify several ways to solve it. It offers a multitude
of ideas and you will only have to choose the best solution possible. Believe me, think
positive will give you more fun!
Take risks
An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail. You know, not want to break
habits and continue to work the same way is without a doubt the greatest threat of
originality. The routine tends to reassure us while the novelty may worry, surprise, disturb,
annoy, but finally we always learn something. To live a creative life we must lose our fear
of being wrong. To get out of your daily routine at work, you must agree to take a
minimum of risk; this will give you the opportunity to try new things. Change the way you
look at your work can inevitably be beneficial. As we say in French: “Qui ne tenterien à
rien” – “Nothing ventured, nothing gained”.
Take time
A rested mind is a mind more productive, efficient and innovative. The best way to stay
creative is to take a break every two hours (as often as possible). Many studies have shown
that short breaks improve productivity of the brain. These breaks allow it to have a rest, to
integrate and interpret all the information gathered during the day.

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Moreover with these small interruptions you can get back to work with fresh ideas. The
most important is that you will have a clearer and newer vision.
Change of scene
One of the most effective methods to boost your creativity is to change environment. In
fact, your brain gets used to external stimuli and stops generating new answers to similar
problems. To encourage your mind to produce innovative inspiration, you must go out. Let
your eyes see something different, and soak up all the creative energy bubbling inside you.
Try the “free-writing”
To help you organize your ideas, it will be very useful to sit down and write anything that
pops into your head as template or schema. The key is not to fix barriers or limits. This
type of exercise is a great way to generate all the ideas hidden in you that you may not
have considered until now. After review, you just have to erase unnecessary information
and develop your thoughts and ideas in a clearer way.
Think outside the box!
The only way to be creative is not to follow rules. That does not mean that tomorrow you
can go rob a bank! But rather that we must try to break your preconceptions. As Albert
Einstein said: “Imagination is stronger than Knowledge”. You have to color outside the
links once in a while if you want to make your life a masterpiece. It’s like if you mix
different ingredients without following recipe, only for seeing what it can give. Whatever
topic you are working, there is always a way to think differently. So go ahead and let your
creativity take over!
Creativity Boosters:
Creativity is like a muscle, said Krista Peel Starer, a jewelry designer, illustrator and
painter.
“It can get really nimble if you use it often.”
The key to strengthening this muscle is finding exercises that work best for you.
For inspiration, we asked several creativity coaches, artists and authors to share the one
activity that, without fail, helps them access their creativity. Maybe you’ll add these to
your repertoire.

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Soaking
“Nothing is better for my self-care, my well-being and my imagination than a soak!” said
Michelle Ward, a creative career coach, speaker, and co-author of the book The
Declaration of You. She usually brings a book with her and keeps a notebook – for jotting
down ideas – within arm’s reach.
For Ward, being around any body of water is inspiring. “Whether I’m on the beach or in
the shower or in a park around a lake, that’s where the ideas flow and inspiration happens.
Hmmm…maybe purchasing that boat I want isn’t such a wasteful move after all…” (We
agree!)
Listening to Music
Playwright and creativity coach Zohar Tirosh-Polk’s muse is music. “Music instantly gets
me in a more connected, creative place.” In fact, each of her plays, including the award-
winning “SIX,” was inspired by a song or set of songs.
Tirosh-Polk creates a playlist for every project. “It keeps me connected to the soul of the
play I’m trying to write. It helps me remember the world I’m creating in a tangible, direct
way.” And it helps her get out of her head and into her “soul and body.”
Even when Tirosh-Polk isn’t working, putting on music inspires her to write, dance, sing
and draw. “Music does create atmosphere and it has a way of bypassing our thinking
minds and get our creative juices going.”
Free writing
Every morning Justine Musk, a novelist and writer, pens three pages about whatever is on
her mind a la Julia Cameron.
“I’m not trying to be creative or poetic. I write these pages to get to the other side of the
wildness that’s cluttering my brain. When I do that, I find I can let go of everyday surface
anxieties and shift into a calmer, more creative place.”
Musk described this practice as unlocking her mind. In fact, she believes all freewriting is
powerful. “It takes you to the end of your thoughts in a way that just being in your head
never does. It’s like it opens up a secret passageway in your brain, leading you to what you
really think, and what you really know, that might surprise you.”

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Being Out in the World
“I’m self-employed, so I spend a lot of time at home slaving over my laptop, a situation
that isn’t always conducive to creative thought,” said Susannah Conway, a writer,
photographer and author of the book This I Know: Notes on Unravelling the Heart.
So she makes sure to venture outside. Even going to the supermarket gives her new ideas.
“It’s like rebooting my brain so it can make connections I might not have found while
sitting at my desk staring at the screen. I need to breathe in the streets of London to find a
new perspective.”
Showing Up
For Christine Mason Miller, a mixed-media artist and author of the bookDesire to Inspire:
Using Creative Passion to Transform the World, the best creativity catalyst is “to simply
show up.” That might include painting, writing or doodling.
“Even if I’m not in the mood, I can get into a creative zone very quickly just by starting.
Even something as simple as gluing or taping images and papers into an art journal
counts!”
The same is true for full-time painter Karine Swenson. “The one activity that always
inspires my imagination is going into the studio to do my work. Once I am painting or
drawing, the ideas come freely.”
She believes it’s a common myth that “the idea comes first and the art follows.” Foremost,
for Swenson, is putting in the hard work at her studio.
Waiting
Peel Starer’s no-fail creativity booster is waiting. “If I’m waiting for a train, or in a
doctor’s office lobby or sitting in the car at a light, my mind fills up that space with some
creative entertainment, and it’s usually pretty good stuff.”
It’s why she has lists and notes in her pockets. She also sends herself messages throughout
the day. “Sometimes the ideas stick and then I can formulate the best plan of attack, and
get to the fun part, which is that blissful ‘working phase.’”

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'How Creativity Works': It's All In Your Imagination
What makes people creative? What gives some of us the ability to create work that
captivates the eyes, minds and hearts of others? Jonah Lehrer, a writer specializing in
neuroscience, addresses that question in his new book, Imagine: How Creativity Works.
Lehrer defines creativity broadly, considering everything from the invention of masking
tape to breakthroughs in mathematics; from memorable ad campaigns to Shakespearean
tragedies. He finds that the conditions that favor creativity — our brains, our times, our
buildings, our cities — are equally broad.
Lehrer joins NPR's Robert Siegel to talk about the creative process — where great ideas
come from, how to foster them, and what to do when you inevitably get stuck.
On comparing Shakespeare with the inventor of masking tape
"I think we absolutely can lump them all together. I think one of the mistakes we've made
in talking about creativity is we've assumed it's a single verb — that when people are
creative they're just doing one particular kind of thinking. But looking at creativity from
the perspective of the brain, we can see that creativity is actually a bundle of distinct
mental processes.
"... Whether you're writing a Shakespearean tragedy, or trying to come up with a new
graphic design or writing a piece of software, how we think about the problem should
depend on the problem itself. Creativity is really a catch-all term for a variety of very
different kinds of thinking."
On how Steve Jobs redesigned Pixar studios to maximize collaboration and creativity
"The original design for the Pixar studios consisted of three separate buildings, where
they'd put the computer scientists in one building, and the animators in a second building
and the third building would contain everybody else: the directors, the editors and so on.
Steve realized that that was a terrible idea; that the real challenge of Pixar was getting
people from these different cultures — these computer scientists and these cartoonists —
to work together, to really collaborate. And so he insisted that Pixar studios just be one
vast, cavernous space."

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On forcing people to meet and mingle ... even if it's in the bathroom
"[Jobs] insisted there be only two bathrooms in the entire Pixar studios, and that these
would be in the central space. And of course this is very inconvenient. No one wants to
have to walk 15 minutes to go to the bathroom. And yet Steve insisted that this is the one
place everyone has to go every day. And now you can talk to people at Pixar and they all
have their 'bathroom story.' They all talk about the great conversation they had while
washing their hands.
" ... He wanted there to be mixing. He knew that the human friction makes the sparks, and
that when you're talking about a creative endeavor that requires people from different
cultures to come together, you have to force them to mix; that our natural tendency is to
stay isolated, to talk to people who are just like us, who speak our private languages, who
understand our problems. But that's a big mistake. And so his design was to force people
to come together even if it was just going to be in the bathroom."
On why you should stop trying to harness your brain, and instead help your brain
get out of its harness
onah Lehrer is a contributing editor at Wired magazine and the author of How We Decide
and Proust Was a Neuroscientist.
Nina Subin/Courtesy Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
"The question becomes, what happens if you hit the wall? Because we've all got
experience with this. You're working on a creative problem, and then all of a sudden that
feeling of progress disappears ... What you should do then — when you hit the wall — is
get away from your desk. Step away from the office. Take a long walk. Daydream. Find
some way to relax. Get those alpha waves. Alpha waves are a signal in the brain that's
closely correlated with states of relaxation. And what scientists have found is that when
people are relaxed, they're much more likely to have those big 'A ha!' moments, those
moments of insight where these seemingly impossible problems get solved. So when you
hit the wall, the best thing you can do is probably take a very long, warm shower. The
answer will only arrive once you stop looking for it."

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On the relationship between creativity and originality — and being triggered by
other people's ideas
"The brain is just an endless knot of connections. And a creative thought is simply ... a
network that's connecting itself in a new way. Sometimes it's triggered by a misreading of
an old novel. Sometimes it's triggered by a random thought walking down the street, or
bumping into someone in the bathroom of the studio. There are all sorts of ways
seemingly old ideas can get reassembled in a new way."
On the creative processes that resulted in Nike's "Just Do It" campaign
"This is a great story from Dan Wieden at Wieden+Kennedy, the veryhonored Portland ad
firm. ... He'd come up with seven videos for the new Nike ad campaign. ... He knew these
different videos which featured different sports needed a shared slogan. But he just
couldn't think of the slogan. ... At some point during the day, somebody must've
mentioned Norman Mailer to him. And so Norman Mailer was in the back of his head
somewhere.
"It's near midnight. His deadline's approaching. He's really, really frustrated at this point
because he can't come up with this damn slogan. And then suddenly he thinks of Norman
Mailer. He remembers Norman Mailer wrote this book called The Executioner's Song
about Gary Gilmore. And he remembers Gary Gilmore's last words right before he's
executed by a firing squad in Utah. His last words were, 'Let's do it.'
"And Dan Wieden thinks to himself, Geez, that's pretty brave. That's a pretty brave
sentiment to have right before you die — to just get it over with. But he realizes 'Let's Do
It' isn't quite right, so he tweaks one word. And there you get 'Just Do It.' ... But that's a
perfect example of how, in a sense, that's an old idea. It was a line in a Norman Mailer
book, and he tweaked it ever so slightly. He substituted one word and came up with one of
the most influential advertising slogans of the second half of the 20th century."
The role senior executives must fill for innovation success
We strongly believe there is a real Innovation leadership gap
My last article “Developing talent to drive innovation” was questioning the spending of
new funds on developing talent for innovation, unless the organization and its leadership is
not clear on what it is specifically looking for, or how it is prepared to back their words
with specific actions beyond ‘just’ new funding levels, then this might not be money well
spent.

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Developing talent for innovation requires commitment across a whole range of structure,
creating conditions, adapting or designing new systems, processes and providing clear
governance. Senior executives need to understand innovation is often far more frustrating
than most executives imagine it to be and a awful lot of hard work. Innovation is very
demanding but the rewards can be spectacular in new growth, improved earning and
organizations ‘sense of pride and identification’.
There are no best practice solutions to fall back on for your specific organizations to seed
and cultivate innovation, a trap many fall into. You don’t switch innovation on or off to
meet short term needs, it is certainly not faddish, innovation is simply,a or the, core driver
of growth, future performance and your valuation barometer.
The innovation buck in responsibility for innovation is firmly at the top.
The innovation buck stops at the top, it will not work in just being ‘pushed down’ the
organization. It is the role senior executives must fill for achieving a greater innovation
success.
If the leadership of the organization fail to formally integrate innovation into the core of
any strategic- management agenda where it ‘constantly runs through’ the decision making
process innovation will remain disappointing in its impact. Our leaders need to explicitly
lead and manage, they need to close the gap between aspiration and execution where
everyone up and down the organization can feel more confident that innovation is a core
focus and needs developing.
It is against this clear observation from our and many others research initiatives, that the
place to focus is getting the leadership to fully understand their key role and engage in
innovation, to make it a central core to their own destiny, in top and bottom results.
So our opening thoughts in the white paper on this leadership void.
Here’s a vital question to answer that will make a difference to your organization’s
survival: which individual in your organization is most important for innovation success?
Many people will argue it is the most creative person in the company, the individual with
the best ideas. Others will argue that it is the person who can make the idea a reality.
Perhaps these answers are true in entrepreneurial companies or very small firms, but these
responses aren’t true in larger organizations. In larger organizations we believe the CEO
or another empowered senior executive is the most important person for innovation
success.

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since they have the ability to:
 link innovation to strategy, and
 create focus, engagement and passion for innovation, and
 direct funds and resources to good innovation programs, and
 speed good ideas to market as new business models, products and services, and
 ensure the processes and metrics exist so innovation is sustainable.
In mid-sized and large companies, leadership and engagement from CEOs and senior
executives are vital to innovation success. What’s more, these leaders want innovation to
happen, more consistently, more purposefully and with better result.
Not only do CEOs and executives want innovation, they demand innovation to drive
organic growth, profits and create differentiation. We know this because you’ve made it
clear. In survey after survey the vast majority of CEOs report that innovation is one of
their top three priorities. Yet the gap between “saying and doing” indicates a gap between
vision and implementation. The consequences of this gap are significant:
 Poor execution of innovation goals
 Failure to achieve strategic goals
 Limited organizational design to sustain innovation
 The growth of disbelief or cynicism when innovation isn’t pursued.
We also believe CEOs and senior executives play a vital role in the success or failure
of innovation.
Unfortunately, those roles haven’t been well-defined. Since the roles are poorly defined,
they are rarely well executed. It’s not enough for executives simply to demand more
innovation – senior executives must demonstrate links between corporate strategy and the
work of innovation, between their vision and the activities necessary to create new
products and services and between their expectations and the actual culture of the
organization.
Executives fail to fill this vital role when they:
 are unaware of the role,
 don’t understand the importance of their role,
 delegate the role to others who don’t have the power to execute the role, or
 Under-perform in the role.

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Understanding the importance of innovation, and the barriers that innovation will
encounter, helps define key activities an innovation senior executive must undertake, and
what he or she must do to fill the role effectively. This leads to an important question: if
innovation is strategically important, and if engaged senior executives are critical to
innovation success, what keeps executives from filling the roleeffectively?
There are a number of reasons why executives have difficulty filling an innovation
leadership role,including:
 Lack of innovation experience
o Concern about short-term financial reporting goals
o Difficulty managing “important” versus “urgent” tasks
o Difficulty converting their vision into reality
o Lack trusted innovation tools and frameworks
o Unaware of the level of resistance and inertia
o Concerned about upsetting the status quo
Many senior executives lack innovation experience. They often move into their positions
through excellent financial management, cost cutting or other demonstrated operational
successes. Thus, they lack innovation experience and are unfamiliar with its
methodologies, tools and frameworks and often have few trusted sources for well-tested
methods and insights.
Innovation is especially challenging because it is so unfamiliar, so potentially disruptive
and yet so important. Innovation requires change that can impact the status quo and disrupt
the firm’s ability to achieve short-term financial goals. Only an engaged, committed senior
executive can create a sustained innovation capability or discipline, yet many lack
experience, tools and awareness of the importance of the role.
The seven essential capabilities for innovation leadership
Understanding the innovation environment critical to innovation success led us to identify
seven essential capabilities that senior executives must provide in order to fill those roles
effectively. These relate to skills, capabilities and the capacities for innovation to thrive.

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These include:
 creating alignment,
 deploying trusted methods and tools,
 effective communication and engagement,
 empowering people, providing skills,
 refocusing attitudes, perspectives and rewards ,
 defining a corporate “governance” for innovation
Leaders can drive innovation through thoughtfully designing the strategic innovation
framework.
This initial White Paper became the prelude to the Executive Innovation Work Mat. The
Work Mat, which provides a unique examination of the executive’s role in innovation, it
helps executives understand the vital role they must play for innovation to succeed, and
provide a framework that companies can adopt to ensure linkages between strategy and
innovation, innovation and capabilities, innovation and culture.
More can be read on this website to extend your understanding of the work mat, for
example.
For innovation to really take hold and become a sustaining and systematic function, it is
for the leadership of our organizations to become strategically engaged, by providing the
framework, the guidance, the direction and necessary top management commitment to
‘make this happen.’
Lastly leaders in organizations, big or small, need a lot of help in working all of the
implications through, believe me……and many others fed up with leaders disappointment
when they fail to fully engage in strategic framing approaches and making the time and the
commitments themselves!
Disruptive Innovation
Disruptive innovation, a term of art coined by Clayton Christensen, describes a process by
which a product or service takes root initially in simple applications at the bottom of a
market and then relentlessly moves up market, eventually displacing established
competitors.

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As companies tend to innovate faster than their customers’ needs evolve, most
organizations eventually end up producing products or services that are actually too
sophisticated, too expensive, and too complicated for many customers in their market.
Companies pursue these “sustaining innovations” at the higher tiers of their markets
because this is what has historically helped them succeed: by charging the highest prices
to their most demanding and sophisticated customers at the top of the market, companies
will achieve the greatest profitability.
However, by doing so, companies unwittingly open the door to “disruptive innovations” at
the bottom of the market. An innovation that is disruptive allows a whole new population
of consumers at the bottom of a market access to a product or service that was historically
only accessible to consumers with a lot of money or a lot of skill.
Characteristics of disruptive businesses, at least in their initial stages, can include: lower
gross margins, smaller target markets, and simpler products and services that may not
appear as attractive as existing solutions when compared against traditional performance
metrics. Because these lower tiers of the market offer lower gross margins, they are
unattractive to other firms moving upward in the market, creating space at the bottom of
the market for new disruptive competitors to emerge.
Ways to Spark Creative Thinking
1. Explore the Unknown
Routine and habit can squash creativity and stifle us. Once stifled, our minds are not
challenged anymore. To break the routine, do things you’ve never done before. Take a ride
in a hot air balloon, go deep sea diving, throw a block party, sign-up for a course, see a
concert, take a day trip somewhere, draw pictures, have unusual conversations, try a new
recipe.
How about reading books other than the usual? We tend to stick with what we like. If you
only read non-fiction books then you can be missing out on amazing fiction books and
vice versa. Choose an activity that thrills, inspires, or even scares you. When we take
ourselves out of our comfort zone, pushing through our fears, we liberate ourselves, gain
new perspectives and expand our creative minds.

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2. Write Morning Pages
Author and artist Julia Cameron in her book, The Artists Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher
Creativity, recommends a basic tool for a “lasting creative awakening” called “Morning
Pages”. These three pages of longhand writing, as Cameron says, are strictly a stream-of-
consciousness, whatever crosses the mind. She explains that the pages must be done in the
morning because they prioritize the day you are about to have instead of reviewing the day
that’s already past. Cameron says there is no wrong way of doing the morning pages and
nothing written is too petty, silly, stupid, negative, or weird. Basically, she says the
purpose of this brain dumping is to get all that “angry, whiny, petty stuff” written down so
that it miniaturizes our censor, calming us down, cheering us up, inspiring us, consoling us
and emptying ourselves of disturbing distractions. Consequently, our minds and hearts
open up to deeper reflections.
3. Keep an Idea Book
Ever had an idea come in a dream, during the ride to work, or in the shower? Great ideas
can come unexpectedly. They come and go in our busy minds so it’s important to write
them down so as not to forget. Keeping an idea book handy can help to capture a thought
or idea in the moment. The idea book can hold bits of wisdom, observations, and inspiring
words, for example. It can be used as a brainstorming tool. Carry the idea book in your
pocket or purse and have another book near your bedside. Just as long as it can be easily
accessed when that inspiring idea comes.
4. Use Mind Maps
Mind mapping is a creative tool that can help solve problems by visually connecting
thoughts, ideas and facts just as the mind works. They can be used for creative-problem
solving, decision-making, project planning, brainstorming, and taking notes. A mind map
is a diagram that includes the arranging of words, ideas and activities linked to a central
idea. The goal is to organize and classify information visually to quickly identify and
understand the structure of a topic and how all the pieces fit together.
Think of a question or problem you have been struggling with and experiment with mind
mapping. The activity in and of itself can be a creative one. For example, below is a mind
map that answers the question/problem, “What can schools do about climate change?” by
Sharon Genoese.

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5. Design an Environment that Encourages Creativity
Design your living room, bedroom or home office so that creativity can flourish. We can
feel most inspired when we surround ourselves with the things we love and that fill our
soul such as meaningful photographs, beautiful artwork, inspiring artifacts, soothing color
schemes, and so on. Denise Linn in her book, FengShui for the Soul: How to Create a
Harmonious Environment that will Nurture and Sustain You writes, “Our homes have an
enormous impact on our state of mind. They can make us feel as though we are plunging
into the depths of despair, or they can be uplifting havens of beauty and rejuvenation. I
believe the soul yearns for places of sanctuary and balance, ones that provide authentic
reminders of what is truly important in life.”
Imagine yourself in a room with comfy furniture, cherished mementos, thought-provoking
artwork, peaceful and happy colors, soothing lighting or candles, and your favorite music
playing in the background. You’ll be well on your way to inspired creativity.

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6. Write a List of 100
The List of 100 is a powerful technique, according to Luciano Passuello, founder of the
website Litemind. List of 100 can be used to solve problems, brainstorm ideas, clarify
thoughts or answer burning questions. Passuello says it’s a simple principle where you
state your question or issue at the top of a blank sheet of paper, and then you create a list
of one hundred answers or solutions.
The benefit, he says, of creating this list is that your subconscious starts to engage in the
process, ideas start flow, uncovering new and surprising answers. “The List of 100 is a
beautifully articulated cooperation between the conscious and subconscious minds
tackling one single problem,” Passuello says. He emphasizes that the list must be done in
one sitting for it to work properly with no distractions. He also recommends the following
as you write the list:
 Don’t judge or evaluate ideas; you’ll review them later.
 Don’t write complete words or sentences, if that slows you down.
 Don’t stop to wonder how far in the list you are; number the lines from 1 to 100 in
advance or use numbered lists if you’re using a word processor.
 Don’t worry too much about repeating entries; duplicates can shed light on your
patterns of thought.
Here are some List of 100 examples: 100 Ways to Generate Income, 100 Things I Am
Grateful For, 100 Ways to Improve My Relationships, and 100 Places I’d Like to Visit.
7. Find Inspiring Tools
What gives you inspiration and fires up your imagination? For some it’s music, perhaps a
particular kind like jazz or country. For others, it may be looking at a photo, picture or
symbol. Perhaps it could be communing with nature, reading a certain passage or quote.
8. Create a Vision Board
One way to spark creativity is through a vision board. A vision board is a board where
images and words are displayed that represent who you are or want to be, do or have in
your life. Creating a vision board helps identify your intentions, keeps you focused on
these intentions and then helps to make them a reality. Vision boards can be created for all
kinds of uses such as a particular project or outlining your life’s dreams.

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The vision board is a way of getting thoughts, goals and desires on paper to add clarity and
to make more indelible on the mind. Keep the board in a place where it can be viewed
daily. The more you look and contemplate on your board, the more your wishes enter
into your subconscious, manifest and become reality. Read a great article by Christine
Kane on how to make a vision board.
9. Exercise Your Imagination
When Michelangelo described how his Statue of David was created he said, “I saw the
angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” Michelangelo, through mental
imagery, birthed a genius creation.
Visualization or imagination is the source for all that is created, so the more we visualize
something we want to create, the more likely it will get created. Henry David Thoreau
said, “The world is but a canvas to the imagination.” To live a creative life, start to
imagine things such as what it is you desire in life, what life will look like when your
goals and dreams are reached, and how it will feel. This visualizing has a powerful effect
on the subconscious.
10. Engage in Creative Practices
With the practice of creative thinking, ideas result that can change the world. Life is full of
possibilities, and we can realize our creative potential from writing a screenplay or a book
to designing a revolutionary product or finding a cure for a disease. The only real
limitations to this potential are self-imposed ones. Once a person can get past fear,
creativity can flourish.
Generating New Ideas
Think Differently and Spark Creativity
"We need to think differently!" "This needs some fresh ideas!" "We have got to be more
creative around here!" Are messages like these popping up more and more in your
workplace?
Faced with complex, open-ended, ever-changing challenges, organizations realize that
constant, ongoing innovation is critical to stay ahead of the competition. This is why we
need to be on the lookout for new ideas that can drive innovation, and it's why the ability
to think differently, generate new ideas, and spark creativity within a team becomes an
important skill. You need to work actively on building and cultivating this skill, and it can
be done!

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Often, though, we make the mistake of assuming that good ideas just happen. Or worse
still, we get caught in the mind trap that creativity is an aptitude; some people have it,
others don't. Then there is the other self-defeating belief – "I am not intelligent enough to
come up with good ideas."
These assumptions are rarely true. Everyone can come up with fresh, radical ideas – you
just need to learn to open your mind and think differently. This article shows you how to
do so.
How to Generate New Ideas
Standard idea-generation techniques concentrate on combining or adapting existing ideas.
This can certainly generate results. But here, our focus is on equipping you with tools that
help you leap onto a totally different plane. These approaches push your mind to forge
new connections, think differently and consider new perspectives.
A word of caution – while these techniques are extremely effective, they will only succeed
if they are backed by rich knowledge of the area you're working on. This means that if you
are not prepared with adequate information about the issue, you are unlikely to come up
with a great idea even by using the techniques listed here.Incidentally, these techniques
can be applied to spark creativity in group settings and brainstorming sessions as well.
Breaking Thought Patterns
All of us can tend to get stuck in certain thinking patterns. Breaking these thought patterns
can help you get your mind unstuck and generate new ideas. There are several techniques
you can use to break established thought patterns:
 Challenge assumptions: For every situation, you have a set of key assumptions.
Challenging these assumptions gives you a whole new spin on possibilities.
You want to buy a house but can't since you assume you don't have the money to
make a down payment on the loan. Challenge the assumption. Sure, you don't have
cash in the bank but couldn't you sell some of your other assets to raise the money?
Could you dip into your retirement fund? Could you work overtime and build up
the kitty in six months? Suddenly the picture starts looking brighter.

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 Reword the problem: Stating the problem differently often leads to different
ideas. To reword the problem look at the issue from different angles. "Why do we
need to solve the problem?", "What's the roadblock here?", "What will happen if
we don't solve the problem?" These questions will give you new insights. You
might come up with new ideas to solve your new problem.
In the mid-1950s, shipping companies were losing money on freighters. They
decided they needed to focus on building faster and more efficient ships. However,
the problem persisted. Then one consultant defined the problem differently. He
said the problem the industry should consider was "how can we reduce cost?" The
new problem statement generated new ideas. All aspects of shipping, including
storage of cargo and loading time, were considered. The outcome of this shift in
focus resulted in the container ship and the roll-on/roll-off freighter.
 Think in reverse: If you feel you cannot think of anything new, try turning things
upside-down. Instead of focusing on how you could solve a problem/improve
operations/enhance a product, consider how could you create the problem/worsen
operations/downgrade the product. The reverse ideas will come flowing in.
Consider these ideas – once you've reversed them again – as possible solutions for
the original challenge.
 Express yourself through different media: We have multiple intelligences but
somehow, when faced with workplace challenges we just tend to use our verbal
reasoning ability. How about expressing the challenge through different media?
Clay, music, word association games, paint, there are several ways you can express
the challenge. Don't bother about solving the challenge at this point. Just express it.
Different expression might spark off different thought patterns. And these new
thought patterns may yield new ideas.
Connect the Unconnected
Some of the best ideas seem to occur just by chance. You see something or you hear
someone, often totally unconnected to the situation you are trying to resolve, and the
penny drops in place. Newton and the apple, Archimedes in the bath tub; examples
abound.Why does this happen? The random element provides a new stimulus and gets our
brain cells ticking. You can capitalize on this knowledge by consciously trying to connect
the unconnected.Actively seek stimuli from unexpected places and then see if you can use
these stimuli to build a connection with your situation.

38
Some techniques you could use are:
 Use random input : Choose a word from the dictionary and look for novel
connections between the word and your problem.
 Mind map possible ideas: Put a key word or phrase in the middle of the page.
Write whatever else comes in your mind on the same page. See if you can make
any connections.
 Pick up a picture. Consider how you can relate it to your situation.
 Take an item. Ask yourself questions such as "How could this item help in
addressing the challenge?", or "What attributes of this item could help us solve our
challenge?"
Shift Perspective
Over the years we all build a certain type of perspective and this perspective yields a
certain type of idea. If you want different ideas, you will have to shift your perspective. To
do so:
 Get someone else's perspective: Ask different people what they would do if faced
with your challenge. You could approach friends engaged in different kind of
work, your spouse, a nine-year old child, customers, suppliers, senior citizens,
someone from a different culture; in essence anyone who might see things
differently.
 Play the "If I were" game: Ask yourself "If I were ..." how would I address this
challenge? You could be anyone: a millionaire, Tiger Woods, anyone.
The idea is the person you decide to be has certain identifiable traits. And you have
to use these traits to address the challenge. For instance, if you decide to play the
millionaire, you might want to bring traits such as flamboyance, big thinking and
risk-taking when formulating an idea. If you are Tiger Woods you would focus on
things such as perfection, persistence and execution detail.
Employ Enablers
Enablers are activities and actions that assist with, rather than directly provoke, idea
generation. They create a positive atmosphere. Some of the enablers that can help you get
your creative juices flowing are:
 Belief in yourself: Believe that you are creative, believe that ideas will come to
you; positive reinforcement helps you perform better.

39
 Creative loafing time: Nap, go for a walk, listen to music, play with your child,
take a break from formal idea-generating. Your mind needs the rest, and will often
come up with connections precisely when it isn't trying to make them.
 Change of environment: Sometimes changing the setting changes your thought
process. Go to a nearby coffee shop instead of the conference room in your office,
or hold your discussion while walking together round a local park.
 Shutting out distractions: Keep your thinking space both literally and mentally
clutter-free. Shut off the Blackberry, close the door, divert your phone calls and
then think.
 Fun and humour: These are essential ingredients, especially in team settings
CREATIVE PRODUCT DESIGN
Product design is the process of creating a new product to be sold by a business to its
customers. A very broad concept, it is essentially the efficient and effective generation and
development of ideas through a process that leads to new products.
In a systematic approach, product designers conceptualize and evaluate ideas, turning
them into tangible inventions and products. The product designer's role is to combine art,
science, and technology to create new products that people can use. Their evolving role
has been facilitated by digital tools that now allow designers to communicate, visualize,
analyze and actually produce tangible ideas in a way that would have taken greater
manpower in the past.

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Product design is sometimes confused with (and
certainly overlaps with) industrial design, and has recently become a broad term inclusive
of service, software, and physical product design. Industrial design is concerned with
bringing artistic form and usability, usually associated with craft design and ergonomics,
together in order to mass-produce goods. Other aspects of product design include
engineering design, particularly when matters of functionality or utility (e.g. problem-
solving) are at issue, though such boundaries are not always clear.
Due to the absence of a consensually accepted definition that reflects the breadth of the
topic sufficiently; two discrete, yet interdependent, definitions are needed: one that
explicitly defines product design in reference to the artifact, the other that defines the
product design process in relation to this artifact.
Product design: the set of properties of an artifact, consisting of the discrete properties of
the form (i.e., the aesthetics of the tangible good and/or service) and the function (i.e., its
capabilities) together with the holistic properties of the integrated form and function.
Product design process: the set of strategic and tactical activities, from idea generation to
commercialization, used to create a product design.

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Product design process
There are various product design processes and many focus on different aspects. The
process shown below, for example, is "The Seven Universal Stages of Creative Problem-
Solving," outlined by Don Koberg and Jim Bagnell. It helps designers formulate their
product from ideas. This process is usually completed by a group of people, i.e. industrial
designers, field experts (e.g. prospective users), engineers, etc. depending upon the
products involved. The process focuses on figuring out what is required, brainstorming
possible ideas, creating mock prototypes, and then generating the product. However, that
is not the end of the process. At this point, product designers would still need to execute
the idea, making it into an actual product and then evaluate its success by seeing if any
improvements are necessary.
The product design process has experienced huge leaps in evolution over the last few
years with the rise and adoption of 3D printing. New consumer-friendly 3D printers can
produce dimensional objects and print upwards with a plastic like substance opposed to
traditional printers that spread ink across a page.
The design process follows a guideline involving three main sections:
1. Analysis
2. Concept
3. Synthesis
The latter two sections are often revisited, depending on how often the design needs touch-
ups, to improve or to better fit the criteria. This is a continuous loop, where feedback is the
main component.

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To break it down even more, the seven stages specify how the process works. Analysis
consists of two stages, concept is only one stage, and synthesis encompasses the other
four.
ANALYSIS
Accept Situation: Here, the designers decide on committing to the project and finding a
solution to the problem. They pool their resources into figuring out how to solve the task
most efficiently.
Analyse: In this stage, everyone in the team begins research. They gather general and
specific materials which will help to figure out how their problem might be solved. This
can range from statistics, questionnaires, and articles, among many other sources.
Concept
Define: This is where the key issue of the matter is defined. The conditions of the problem
become objectives, and restraints on the situation become the parameters within which the
new design must be constructed.
SYNTHESIS
Ideate: The designers here brainstorm different ideas, solutions for their design problem.
The ideal brainstorming session does not involve any bias or judgment, but instead builds
on original ideas.
Select: By now, the designers have narrowed down their ideas to a select few, which can
be guaranteed successes and from there they can outline their plan to make the product.
Implement: This is where the prototypes are built, the plan outlined in the previous step is
realized and the product starts to become an actual object.
Evaluate: In the last stage, the product is tested, and from there, improvements are made.
Although this is the last stage, it does not mean that the process is over. The finished
prototype may not work as well as hoped so new ideas need to be brainstormed.
Demand-pull innovation and invention-push innovation
Most product designs fall under one of two categories: demand-pull innovation or
invention-push innovation.

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Demand-pull happens when there is an opportunity in the market to be explored by the
design of a product. This product design attempts to solve a design problem. The design
solution may be the development of a new product or developing a product that's already
on the market, such as developing an existing invention for another purpose.
Invention-push innovation happens when there is an advancement in intelligence. This can
occur through research or it can occur when the product designer comes up with a new
product design idea.
Product design expression
Design expression comes from the combined effect of all elements in a product. Colour
tone, shape and size should direct a person's thoughts towards buying the product.
Therefore it is in the product designer's best interest to consider the audiences who are
most likely to be the product's end consumers. Keeping in mind how consumers will
perceive the product during the design process will direct towards the product’s success in
the market. However, even within a specific audience, it is challenging to cater to each
possible personality within that group.
The solution to that is to create a product that, in its designed appearance and function,
expresses a personality or tells a story. Products that carry such attributes are more likely
to give off a stronger expression that will attract more consumers. On that note it is
important to keep in mind that design expression does not only concern the appearance of
a product, but also its function. For example, as humans our appearance as well as our
actions is subject to people's judgment when they are making a first impression of us.
People usually do not appreciate a rude person even if they are good looking. Similarly, a
product can have an attractive appearance but if its function does not follow through it will
most likely drop in regards to consumer interest. In this sense, designers are like
communicators, they use the language of different elements in the product to express
something.

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