CREATIVITY
❑ Creativity is defined as the tendency to generate or recognize
ideas, alternatives, or possibilities that may be useful in solving
problems, communicating with others, and entertaining ourselves and others.
❑ Creativity is the ability to come up with new ideas and to identify new and
different ways of looking at a problem and opportunities.
❑ A process of assembling ideas by recombining elements already known but wrongly
assumed to be unrelated to each other. This definition has several key elements
that are worth considering:
• Process: Creativity is also a process (implying, among other things, that it is
more like a skill than an attitude, and that you can get better at it with
practice).
• Ideas: Creativity results in ideas that have potential value.
• Recombining: The creative process is one of putting things together in
unexpected ways.
1. Need for novel, varied, and complex stimulation.
2. Need to communicate ideas and values.
3. Need to solve problems.
In order to be creative, you need to be able to view things in new ways or from a
different perspective. Among other things, you need to be able to generate new
possibilities or new alternatives. Tests of creativity measure not only the number of
alternatives that people can generate but the uniqueness of those alternatives. the
ability to generate alternatives or to see things uniquely does not occur by change; it is
linked to other, more fundamental qualities of thinking, such as flexibility, tolerance
of ambiguity or unpredictability, and the enjoyment of things heretofore unknown.
Thus, creativity is the development of ideas about products, practices, services, or
procedures that are novel and potentially useful to the organization.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
STEPS IN THE CREATIVE PROCESS
1. Opportunity or Problem Recognition: A person discovers that a new
opportunity exists or a problem needs resolution.
2. Immersion: The individual concentrates on the problem and becomes immersed
in it. He or she will recall and collect information that seems relevant,
dreaming up alternatives without refining or evaluating them.
3.
Incubation: The person keeps the assembled information in mind for: a while.
He or she does not appear to be working on the problem actively; however,
the
4. subconscious mind is still engaged. While the information is simmering it is
being arranged into meaningful new patterns.
5.
Insight: The problem-conquering solution flashes into the person's mind at an
unexpected time, such as on the verge of sleep, during a shower, or while
running. Insight is also called the Aha! Or Eureka! Experience.
Verification and Application: The individual sets out to prove that the creative
solution has merit. Verification procedures include gathering supporting
evidence, using logical persuasion, and experimenting with new ideas.
PERSONALITY TRAITS OF CREATIVE PEOPLE
► Persistence
► Self-confidence
► Independence
► Attraction to complexity
► Tolerance of ambiguity
►
Intuitiveness
►
Have broad interests
►
Are energetic
►
Drive to achieve
►
►
Love their work
Take risks
BARRIERS TO CREATIVITY
► Excessive focus on extrinsic motivation
► Limits set by superiors
► Critical evaluation
► Close, controlling supervision
► Competition in a win-lose situation
►
Control of decision making
►
Control of information
►
Blindly following the rules
►
►
Constantly being practical
► Becoming overly specialized
► Fearing looking foolish
Fearing mistakes and failure
INNOVATION
❑ Innovation is the implementation of new ideas at the individual, group or
organizational level.
❑ A process of intentional change made to create value by meeting opportunity and
seeking advantage.
• Process: Innovation is a process (implying, among other things, that it can be learned and
managed).
• Intentional: That process is carried out on purpose.
• Change: It results in some kind of change.
• Value: The whole point of the change is to create value in our economy, society and/or
individual lives.
• Opportunity: Entrepreneurial individuals enable tomorrow's value creation by exploring for
it today: having ideas, turning ideas into marketable insights and seeking ways to meet
opportunities.
• Advantage: At the same time, they also create value by exploiting the opportunities they
have at hand.
TYPES OF INNOVATIONS
There are four distinct types of innovation, these are as follows:
Invention - Described as the creation of a new product, service or process.
Something that has not been tried before.
Extension - The expansion of an existing product, service or process. This
would mean that the entrepreneur takes an existing idea and applies it
differently.
Duplication - Copying (replicating) an existing product or service and then
adding the entrepreneurs own creative touch. In order to improve it.
Synthesis - A combination of more than one existing products or services in to
a new product. or service. This means that several different ideas are
combined in to one new product or service.
THE INNOVATION PROCESS
1. Analytical planning – Carefully identifying the product or service
features, design as well as the resources that will be needed.
2. Resource organization – Obtaining the required
resources, materials, technology, human or capital resources.
3. Implementation – Applying the resources in order to accomplish the plans
4. Commercial application – The provision of value to customers, reward
employees, and satisfy the stake holders.
5 MYTHS OF INNOVATION
1. Innovation is planned and predictable.
2. Technical specifications should be thoroughly prepared in advance.
3. Creativity relies on dreams and blue-sky ideas.
4. Big projects will develop better innovations than smaller ones.
5. Technology is the driving force of innovation and success.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
► The change that entrepreneurs bring about is through creativity and innovation.
Therefore, it is not surprising to see that entrepreneurs are among the more
creative and innovative players of organizational change.
► Creativity requires someone (like an entrepreneur) to add value in the
marketplace through the innovation process.
► From the idea generation to the successful product development and
launch, innovation is the seed-bed for change. Charged with the coordination of
the innovation process are the entrepreneurs.
► It is the job of the entrepreneurs to be creative in identifying the gap in the
market and innovate a product to fill this gap.
