1.
2 Introduction to creative and
analytic mindset
This section looks at the concept of creativity and provides a framework for
understanding creativity. This is followed by consideration of analytical
thinking in business, especially the recent new current of business or data
analytics. The section concludes by looking at an example that brings
creativity and analytics together.
Why creativity?
"You can measure data, but you cannot measure an
idea".
Dr. Henning Beck "What is a thought? How the brain creates new ideas" TEDxHHL Dec 13,
2016
Creativity has been listed as a core competence that students should develop in the UN
Competency Development Guide (Tang, 2017; United Nations, 2015,). This is because only
companies that can manage effectively creative minds will thrive in today's changing business
world (Plucker, 2022).
Creativity is an interesting area, but it is one that sometimes makes people nervous. If you ask,
most people will tell you that creativity is painting, sculpture, music or writing (which it is). But the
most people will tell you that creativity is painting, sculpture, music or writing (which it is). But the
type of creativity that we are looking at in this course, relates to bringing out the creativity in you
and making you reflect on your approach to creativity. Now, we are not asking you to paint or
develop music in this unit. What we are looking for instead is for you to think and to think
creatively to come up with ideas that demonstrate that you can 'think outside of the box'.
Being creative means that your ideas are both original and useful. Thinking creatively will assist
you in business, it will open up different areas of interest and it will help you to accept different
approaches in business. It will also help you determine which area are going to work and develop
in and how you can assess those areas.
Dr. George Land, in his TED talk explains why this is so important. While the whole clip is
interesting, to get Land's view on creativity you can start the clip from 6 minutes onward.
TEDxTucson George Land The Failure Of Success
"What we have concluded is that non-creative
behavior is learned".
Dr. George Land
Introducing the 4P's of creativity
Being aware of the 4Ps of creativity means that you will be able to understand your own creative
workflow and work out if you need to change something to enhance your creativity. For example,
you may need to examine the Press element, and change your workspace to a more calming or
stimulating environment. Going for a walk can sometimes assist with helping a creative
environment. One characteristic that certainly helps in being creative is the 'openness to
experience', so you may need to change your thinking!
(Source (https://medium.com/sparcit-blog/4ps-of-creativity-what-are-they-
(Source (https://medium.com/sparcit-blog/4ps-of-creativity-what-are-they-
8e639423f5a1#:~:text=Theories%20of%20creativity%20have%20focused,%2C%20Process%2C%20Produ
ct%20and%20Press.&text=They%20use%20their%20skills%2C%20the,motivation%2C%20to%20create%
20the%20product) )
Also read,
Gruszka, A. & Tang, M (2017: The 4Ps Creativity Model and its Application in different fields. In
M., Tang & C., H., Werner (Eds.). Handbook of the management of creativity and innovation:
Theory and Practice (pp 51-72). World Scientific.
https://login.ezproxy.library.sydney.edu.au/login?
url=http://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/10086#t=toc
(https://login.ezproxy.library.sydney.edu.au/login?
url=http://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/10086#t=toc)
Learning the 4p's in BUSS5221
Over the next few weeks, we will be introducing you to the creative aspects of the course. The
4P's in particular will form the basis for Weeks 3 - 6
Week 3 - Our focus will be on the Person as an enabler of creativity.
Week 4 - Our focus will be on the Press (sometimes called Place) as the environment in
which creativity thrives. This will include both the physical and the social environment.
Week 5 - Our focus will be on the Process of developing the creative product.
Week 6 - Our focus will be on the Product and how to evaluate creative ideas and
products.
The 6P's - persuasion and potential
Two other Ps have been added by Sternberg (1999): Persuasion and Potential, thus bringing it
to the 6Ps of creativity!
Persuasion refers to the ability to convince others in a field the motives for trying to be
creative or why a creative approach is being taken to an issue or problem.
Potential refers to the creative growth or development of ideas or outcomes or individuals.
There have been more that have been added, but these are the six that most researchers agree
on. For BUSS5221, we will focus on the key 4'P's of creativity.
Striving for creativity
So, what do we want you to do?
What we want from you is to approach this course with an open mind. We would like you to be
curious, to question and to challenge various viewpoints. We want you to ask the 'why' questions
and also the 'why not' questions, to approach an issue or a problem without a set answer and to
look outside business to generate your answers. We want you to approach problems with a blank
canvas. We would like you to have a malleable creative mindset and to develop your creative self-
efficacy. In other words, we want you to approach the course with a mindset to be creative and to
believe that you can be creative!
We are not looking for perfection, we just want you to open your mind and be curious.
Over the next few weeks we will be introducing you to the creative aspects of the course. We will
cover the creative and critical thinking, the problems that are associated with creativity, but we will
also look at creating creative teams and ways of doing this, as well as evaluating creative
elements.
Remember, as Simonton (2020) says:
"Creativity requires that you go where you don't know
where you're going".
Why analytics?
One key strand of analytical thinking in business has, for over a century, involved ever more
sophisticated ways of harnessing quantitative data to inform decision making. The key phases of
this strand of analytical thinking have been scientific management at the turn of the 20th century,
followed by different phases in the 1940’s (Sci Method), 1960’s (MIS), 1970’s (Decisions Support
Systems), and 1980’s (Business Intelligence). Since the 2000s, there is a massive increase in
data generation, storage, and computational capability. We are now in a period where what is
known as Analytics shapes how quantitative information is used to inform decision making.
Given the vast amount and variety of data that is being collected by organisations, the area of
analytics has become very important. As such, it is worth clarifying what the term analytics means:
it is the process of using quantitative techniques to deduce patterns and relationships in data and
derive meanings from those patterns in order to make informed decisions and predict future
outcomes.
Understanding how data works allows you to quantify the effects of any plan or strategy you are
pursuing. Once you are able to do this, you can then drive decisions regarding that plan/strategy
and make any changes to improve the outcomes of your plan/strategy. In light of this, having a
sound understanding of business analytics can help you make better decisions in the workplace
by allowing you to discover, predict, visualise, model and manage data.
We will look at why we need to strive for analytics in Week 7.
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