Chapter 1 Creativity and its Importance in Business

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Chapter 1Creativity and its Importance in
Business

• Definitions of creativity
• How ideas arise
• Importance of creative thinking in business
• Paradigm shifts
• Characteristics of creative thinking
• Acquiring creative skills

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DEFINITIONS OF CREATIVITY (1)

• Creativity is an ability to come up with new and
  different viewpoints on a subject.
• It involves breaking down and restructuring our
  knowledge about a subject in order to gain new
  insights into its nature.
• Defining creativity is complicated because the
  concept has many dimensions.

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DEFINITIONS OF CREATIVITY (2)

• Wertheimerrestructuring our knowledge
• Kelly and Rogersunderstanding how we think
• Maslowprimary versus secondary
• Rickardspersonal discovery process
• Gilliammaking new connections
• Amabilenovel and useful ideas

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DEFINITIONS OF CREATIVITY (3)

• Being creative is seeing the same thing as
• everyone else, but thinking of something
• different
• Charles Cave
• http//members.ozemail.com.au/caveman

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INVENTION AND CREATIVITY

• Invention is an act of creativity that
  results in a device, process or technique that is
  novel enough to produce a significant change in
  the application of technology.

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HOW IDEAS ARISE

• Generating ideas is not a chance process.
• Ideas appear to arise when people are actually
  looking for them.
• It happens to people who are
• Curious or inquiring.
• Engaged in a search for opportunities,
  possibilities, answers or inventions.

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IMPORTANCE OF CREATIVE THINKING

• Logical thinking is a series of steps that extend
  what we know already, rather than being truly
  new.
• The need for creative thinking arises from the
  inadequacies of logical thinking.
• It is a method for producing insights that might
  not be obtained through conventional or
  traditional methods of logical thinking.

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CREATIVE THINKING IN BUSINESS

• Increasing number of problems have few or no
  precedents
• Fewer tried and tested ways of approaching them
• Creativity is a vital asset for leadership
• Business problems are usually open-ended
• Planning, organising, leading, controlling

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PARADIGM SHIFTS

• The need for creative thinking often becomes
  paramount when a paradigm shift occurs or is
  likely to occur.
• A paradigm is a set of rules and regulations that
  guide our actions when solving problems.
• Transport train, airplane, spaceship

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CHARACTERISTICS OF CREATIVE THINKING

• Intelligence measures do not explain creativity.
• Creative thinkers form novel combinations.
• Making juxtapositions between dissimilar
  subjects.
• Thinking productively rather than reproductively.

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PEOPLE WHO EXHIBIT CREATIVE BEHAVIOUR (1)

• Challenge the status quo
• Confront assumptions
• Exhibit curiosity
• Like to investigate new possibilities
• Take the initiative
• Are highly imaginative
• Are future oriented

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PEOPLE WHO EXHIBIT CREATIVE BEHAVIOUR (2)

• Tend to think visually
• See possibilities
• Are not afraid to take risks
• Are prepared to make mistakes
• Are adaptable to different environments
• Are adaptable to changing circumstances
• See relationships between seemingly disconnected
  elements

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PEOPLE WHO EXHIBIT CREATIVE BEHAVIOUR (3)

• Distil unusual ideas down to their underlying
  principles
• Synthesise diverse elements
• Are able to spot underlying patterns in events
• Are able to cope with paradoxes
• Look beyond the first right idea

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ACQUIRING CREATIVE SKILLS

• Fluency - ability to produce many ideas
• Flexibility - ability to produce a varied mix of
  ideas
• Elaboration - ability to add detail, depth,
  mixtures of viewpoints or perspectives
• Originality - uniqueness, novelty, newness