Innovation Flow

Creativity is not a process, right ? (Tim Cook, The Apple CEO) http://www.businessweek.com/printer/articles/85214-tim-cooks-freshman-year-the-apple-ceo-speaks?src=longreads&utm_source=buffer&buffer_share=f156d I agree with Tim, Creativity is not a process. In fact many creative folks fear that a process may well wipe out whatever creativity that exists. But Creativity and Innovation are not synonymous. Innovation is still a process. Innovation is the process of (a) using creativity to create insightful ideas (b) using these ideas to craete value to the Customer and (c) taking that value-creating idea to the Market successfully. Creativity will yield good ideas. But a process is still needed to make that creative idea solve real problems and craete value to customer. Without a structured process, it is difficult to take an idea (however great it is) successfully to the Market. So Tim, Innovation is a process unlike Creativity.

Creative Problem Solving (CPS)  Having looked at how Ideas arise in our Minds (in my recent blog post -  http://innovationflow.blogspot.in/2012/07/ideas-what-are-they-how-do-we-get-them.html  ) , you may be curious to know whether you can translate this knowledge into a structured framework that will help you to solve a variety of problems with creative solutions. Here it is pertinent to look at the pioneering work of Alex Osborne and the evolution of the Creative Problem Solving (CPS) Framework.  Alex Osborn " Creativity is so delicate a flower that praise tends to make it bloom, while discouragement often nips it in the bud. Any of us put out more and better ideas if our efforts are truly appreciated.  [Alexander Osborn]." Alex F. Osborn – May 24, 1888 – May 13, 1966 Alex Osborn founded the Creative Education Foundation (CEF) in February 1954. With Robert Berner, he implemented the first Creative Problem Solving Institute (CPSI...

..the mind is like a car battery-it recharges by running - Bill Watterson, Creator of Calvin & Hobbes   Here's an excerpt from a speech Bill Watterson gave at Kenyon College, Gambier Ohio, to the 1990 graduating class SOME THOUGHTS ON THE REAL WORLD BY ONE WHO GLIMPSED IT AND FLED Bill Watterson - Kenyon College Commencement - May 20, 1990 If I've learned one thing from being a cartoonist, it's how important playing is to creativity and happiness. My job is essentially to come up with 365 ideas a year. If you ever want to find out just how uninteresting you really are, get a job where the quality and frequency of your thoughts determine your livelihood. I've found that the only way I can keep writing every day, year after year, is to let my mind wander into new territories. To do that, I've had to cultivate a kind of mental playfulness. We're not really taught how to recreate constructively. We need to do more than find diversions;...

We know that innovators combine multiple skills and thinking styles - divergent and convergent thinking styles, left and right brain skills, creative thinking and entrepreneurial thinking etc. I realized that the super successful innovators do something lot more complex than that - combine four distinct personalities. The four personalities are not only distinct but also conflicting in certain aspects. If you wonder how they manage to do this, believe me, you are not alone - it took me six years of study of the personality profile of innovators across different domains to understand this. Here I wish to share my insights on the complex, multi-dimensional personality of an Innovator.  (Image - The Hindu God  Brahma, who created the universe and set it in motion, is depicted with four faces. Brahma represents the infinite spirit, and is one of the three primary Vedic Gods (others being Shiva the destroyer and Vishnu the protector) known as the Trimurtis.) ...

Innovation is (a) creating insightful ideas, (b) creating value out of it in new ways and (c) taking it to the market successfully. Creativity needs freedom while the process of value creation and taking it to the Market needs significant discipline of execution. The challenge is to balance these two apparently contradictory requirements - freedom and discipline.  Older models based on the concept that the left hemisphere of the human brain handles organization and the right hemispheres handles creativity do not teach us (a) How to achieve excellence in both hemispheres simultaneously ? or (b) How to strike a balance between the two ? or (c) How to trigger either one of the hemispheres on demand ?  I do not doubt the relative importance of either, rather I am interested in understanding how the left and right communicate with each other, how they can both work in synergy. If  Innovation = Creativity x Execution -------------------------------- (1) then how ...

Here we look at the four basic element of creative thinking  A - Alternative thinking B - Beyond thinking C - Convergent thinking and D - Divergent thinking The ABCD of Creative Thinking A - Alternative Thinking as a problem analysis technique -  Look at the problem through a different lens - What is the problem that you wish to solve - How would a 4 year old kid look at this problem - How would Walt Disney or Steve Jobs look at this problem, How would Mahatma Gandhi look at this problem - I created a powerful deck of 108 triggers for looking at a problem through different lens (on 27 August, 2011) - I have been using it at all my Innovation workshops - we get many good ideas and it is very popular.  I will be sharing this deck in my blog posts. Solve Tough Problem by using Lenses -  http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2007/05/09/solve-tough-problems-by-using-lenses/ B - Beyond Thinking is also a problem defining techn...

3 easy ways to boost your Creativity  3 days with Nature every month or 30 mins with yourself every morning or at least 3 breaks Shelly Carson describes Creativity as the ability to produce work or ideas that combine or recombine elements of information that are stored in our brains or that are coming in from the outside world in novel and original ways, that have a purpose (Author of Your Creative Brain). Who would not like to enhance their creativity ? Did you know that there are 3 simple ways to boost your creativity very significantly ? I have benefited from these practices and I am confident that you will too. 1.Spend time with Nature Research conducted at the University of Kansas concludes that people from all walks of life show startling cognitive improvement — for instance, a 50 percent boost in creativity — after living for a few days steeped in nature. “Nature is a place where our mind can rest, relax and let down those threat responses,” said A...