What is Creativity?

What is Creativity?
By Linda Naiman

I define creativity as the act of turning new and imaginative ideas into reality. Creativity involves two processes: thinking, then producing. Innovation is the production or implementation of an idea. If you have ideas, but don't act on them, you are imaginative but not creative.


“Creativity is the process of bringing something new into being...creativity requires passion and commitment. Out of the creative act is born symbols and myths. It brings to our awareness what was previously hidden and points to new life. The experience is one of heightened consciousness–ecstasy.”
— Rollo May, The Courage to Create


“A product is creative when it is (a) novel and (b) appropriate. A novel product is original not predictable. The bigger the concept, and the more the product stimulates further work and ideas, the more the product is creative.”
— Sternberg & Lubart, Defying the Crowd


Creativity and Economic Development:
We are living in the age of creativity

The Nomura Institute of Japan classifies four eras of economic activity:
1. Agricultural
2. Industrial
3. Informational... and now through the evolution of technology
4. Creative: constant innovation.


Daniel Pink expanding on this idea in A Whole New Mind (2005) 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. Pink points to Asia, automation, and abundance as the reasons behind the shift.

Pink says "Logical and precise, left-brain thinking gave us the Information Age. Now comes the Conceptual Age — ruled by artistry, empathy, and emotion."
What does this mean for future jobs? Winners are designers, inventors, counselors, ethnographers, social psychologists, and other right-brain folks, while lawyers, engineers, accountants, and other left-brainers will see their jobs migrate to Asia.


Creativity at Work

Creativity is a core competency for leaders and managers and one of the best ways to set your company apart from the competition. Corporate Creativity is characterised by the ability to perceive the world in new ways, to find hidden patterns, to make connections between seemingly unrelated phenomena, and to generate solutions. Generating fresh solutions to problems, and the ability to create new products, processes or services for a changing market, are part of the intellectual capital that give a company its competitive edge. Creativity is a crucial part of the innovation equation.



Creativity requires whole-brain thinking;
right-brain imagination, artistry and intuition,
plus left-brain logic and planning.


Creativity is fostered in organizational cultures that value independent thinking, risk taking, and learning. They are tolerant of failure and they value diversity. Open communication, a high degree of trust and respect between individuals are crucial.


Can creativity be learned?

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. 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. Business leaders are increasingly adopting the principles and practices of art and design to help build creative muscle in their organizations.


Design thinking can help organizations manage the innovation process and overcome some of the barriers that prevent leaders from being effective innovators. Art and design processes help people develop fresh thinking through aesthetic ways of knowing, imagination, intuition, re-framing and exploring different perspectives. Art-based processes also help people learn to be comfortable with uncertainty, ambiguity, and paradox.

Strategies for developing creativity ....
• Skills Training for leaders, managers and staff
• Coaching innovation champions and teams
• Culture Change initiatives

... are based on these findings from global studies on innovation:
• Traditional business models no longer hold.
• Innovation has a higher success rate when it is applied to the business model
• Creative leadership is required for innovation to succeed
• The ability to collaborate at all levels of the organization



Generative Research on Creativity

Generative research shows that everyone has creative abilities. The more training you have and the more diverse the training, the greater potential for creative output. The average adult thinks of 3-6 alternatives for any given situation. The average child thinks of 60.


Research has shown that in creativity quantity equals quality. The longer the list of ideas, the higher the quality the final solution. The highest quality ideas appear at the end of the list.


“Behavior is generative; like the surface of a fast flowing river, it is inherently and continuously novel... behavior flows and it never stops changing. Novel behavior is generated continuously, but it is labeled creative only when it has some special value to the community... Generativity is the basic process that drives all the behavior we come to label creative.” — Robert Epstein PhD, Psychology Today July/Aug 1996



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Myths about Genius

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.”


The study concludes that excellence is determined by:
• opportunities
• encouragement
• training
• motivation
• & most of all–practise.


”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)


See also Tapping into Genius


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Introducing the Management Innovation Index©
The Management Innovation Index (MIX) assists organisations in synchronizing leadership, management and strategy for innovative and measurable business outcomes.

MIX gives you a snapshot of your organisation’s management innovation capabilities and capacities at a given moment in time. It does this by surveying your organisational culture, environment, strategy and practice and your employees’ beliefs and attributes in relation to management and innovation. Continued here

Defining Innovation
Innovation is the production or implementation of ideas. 3M describes innovation is an action or implementation which results in an improvement, a gain, or a profit.
The National Innovation Initiative ™ (NII) defines innovation as "The intersection of invention and insight, leading to the creation of social and economic value."


Key Definitions from the IBM Global Innovation Study 2006:
Innovation is defined as using new ideas or applying current thinking in fundamentally different ways that result in significant change. There are three types of innovation that contribute to wealth creation in organizations:

Business Model Innovation: Significantly changing the structure and / or financial model of the business.
Operations Innovation: Improving the effectiveness and efficiency of core business processes and functions.
Product/Services/Markets Innovation: Creating new or significantly differentiated products, services or go-to-market activities

The nature of innovation—the inherent definition of innovation—has changed today from what it was in the past. It’s no longer individuals toiling in a laboratory, coming up with some great invention. It’s not an individual. It’s individuals. It’s multidisciplinary. It’s global. It’s collaborative.
—Sam Palmisano, Chairman, President and CEO, IBM

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Innovation at Hewlett-Packard
HP's philosophy for fostering an environment for creativity and innovation:

Rules of the garage:

Believe you can change the world.
Work quickly, keep the tools unlocked, work whenever.
Know when to work alone and when to work together.
Share — tools, ideas. Trust your colleagues.
No politics. No bureaucracy. (These are ridiculous in a garage.)
The customer defines a job well done.
Radical ideas are not bad ideas.
Invent different ways of working.
Make a contribution every day. If it doesn’t contribute, it doesn’t leave the garage.
Believe that together we can do anything.
Invent.
—1999 HP Annual Report


For innovation to flourish, organizations must create an environment that fosters creativity; bringing together multi-talented groups of people who work in close collaboration together— exchanging knowledge, ideas and shaping the direction of the future.