In my ongoing quest for knowledge about all things creative, I checked out the Wikipedia.org link for creativity and came across the following:
Creativity is typically used to refer to the act of producing new ideas, approaches or actions, while innovation is the process of both generating and applying such creative ideas in some specific context.
In the context of an organization, therefore, the term innovation is often used to refer to the entire process by which an organization generates creative new ideas and converts them into novel, useful and viable commercial products, services, and business practices, while the term creativity is reserved to apply specifically to the generation of novel ideas by individuals or groups, as a necessary step within the innovation process.
I’m concerned that people are talking about creativity in a context where they should be using the term innovation.
Here are some other thoughts about the meaning of creativity or being creative:
- Making something new
- Solving problems
- Selling solutions (through “creative” aka slick and fancy words, images, video, etc.)
In a business context, especially of late, being creative means:
- doing more with less
- overcoming restrictions and/or impossible odds
- finding alternate ways to get things done
or generally:
- get things done with no budget
Creativity is being thrown around as a buzzword, a magic bullet, a lucky rabbit’s paw…
Just as Web 2.0, and its offspring social media, was supposed to save businesses and grow businesses, we’re going to hear more and more about being creative (or being innovative, which is actually a better word to use) in order to get things done. Or survive, even.
(Don’t get me wrong: there are a number of businesses who are growing and thriving with the use of Web 2.0 technologies, but those are the ones with revenue or the prospect of being acquired for large sums of money. But quite a few aren’t and probably won’t last long term.)
Is “creativity” going to die in the business world when people realize that smart action is possibly even more important than smart ideas?
Creativity is essential, but useless without innovation, with a focus on action.
Is this just another path to insanity, finding the magic buzzword to make things better? Or am I the one who’s a bit loopy?
What do you think?
EDIT: my old friend Scott Marshall has done a wonderful continuation of these ideas at his own blog.
i have been mixing these two, .. now, innovation is development and implementation of creative ideas .. ok ..
now, can you tell me the difference between awareness and consciousness please?
I WISH I could describe the difference between awareness and consciousness!
Creativity is poorly defined. To most, it means “artistic” or inventive. This leaves out problem solving and decision making, which in reality creativity encompasses.
You are quite right, creativity is a buzzword, and innovation is usually what organizations want. Innovation is a buzzword as well! And…you can't have one without the other.
I believe creativity is a foundational piece for innovation. Mel Rhodes defined organizational creativity with his Four P's of Process, Product, People and Press (which is really culture). For an organization to be holistically innovative, they had better be minding those P's as that's where innovation comes from.
Excellent additions, Gregg.
“Creativity is essential, but useless with innovation, with a focus on action.” Sentence does not parse.
Surely you mean “Creativity is essential, but useless without innovation, with a focus on action.” ?
oops, I'll have to change that, thanks.
[...] writing this as a kind of response to my friend Mark’s blog entry about creativity, in which he wonders if the use of that word in a business context is making it into a buzzword [...]
I had so much to say about this, I wrote a post myself. Good one.
http://superiorstudio.homeunix.com/squonky/?p=63
Yes, and your post was a good one, too.
I don't think any business, or country, can afford to ignore the economic benefits of creativity. Thankfully the U.N. and a few other organizations are beginning to see the urgency in preparing a creative, and like you said, innovative workforce by publishing guidelines for how best to compete in a quickly shifting economy.
If we all believe that creativity will continue to be a part of the answer, then the question becomes where does it come from and how can we foster it?
I wrote an article that explores the sources of creativity from a neuroscience perspective, and how we can encourage it in the education system. Thought you might be interested.
http://thenovelera.com/40/creativity-the-future...
Hey Mark, I had occasion several years ago to hang out with the good people at Play (http://lookatmorestuff.com) – a creative consultancy based in Richmond, VA. The way we distinguished between creativity and innovation at the time went something like this:
Innovation is the destination, creativity is the “getting there”… or the journey if you'd prefer (as trite as that can sound).
I seem to recall a story (going purely from memory here – so I could be WAY wrong, but it illustrates the point nonetheless) surrounding a 'synthetic mesh' innovation at Nike. For clarity, I'm referring to the first time they decided to use synthetic mesh in constructing the upper of a running shoe.
As the story goes, some guy at Nike was in the grocery store and noticed a plastic mesh bag of oranges. That got him thinking…. 'I wonder how durable that material is?'. So, apparently he bought a couple of bags, took them home, and promptly made makeshift 'shoes' out of them for his kids – just wrapping their feet in plastic mesh bags. He then watched them run around the house playing all evening – probably a little more enthusiastically than normal given their 'assignment'. Everything seemed to hold up just fine, and a running shoe prototype soon followed.
In this instance, being open to something new… the capacity to be able to take inspiration from a diverse set of stimuli… that's the essence of the creativity that's at play here. The synthetic mesh running shoe? That's the innovation. The new thing that your creativity helped create.
Whaddya think?
I'm not real comfortable with the distinctions between creativity and innovation.. feeling like they don't quite get at the real essence, you know? I think part of the problem is I like to think in depth psychology terms.. and even think about business in those terms.. and the definitions seem… like they might have some use value.. but I'm worried about what they might obscure.
I will say this though.. the importance of creativity is on the rise.. everything we consume.. it's for the creative content.. that's the big commodity… and it's value.. I think at least.. is only likely to rise..
But it's soo hard to tease out creativity from other things.. I mean if you look at it under a microscope.. structurally you do see it all over the place.. as common as breathing..
I guess what I feel like is.. and this is terrible to say.. but that business is sorta screwed.. or maybe it's that rule that only 10% of stuff is the good stuff? So maybe 90% of business is screwed (and hey, the economy seems to be backing me up on this one) And so the problem you're really talking about is the latest idolatry designed to help stupid people avoid becoming smart people..
And I mean if you really, really, really, think about it.. isn't that the big problem with social media? Or hasn't it been? That it's so “disruptive” which roughly translates to.. forces you're brain to get off autopilot a little bit?
I mean if you ask me what the problem was in that last dot com bubble.. it would be the stupid auto pilot people. I'll tell you a prayed for the bursting of the bubble.. cause I love the computer stuff so much.. I wanted a stupid person exodus…
but back to creativity and innovation..
I think it's a mistake to think of creativity as in anyway results orientated.. because.. if you try to manage creativity that way.. you often loose you're golden goose.. And innovation, I guess.. I see as creativity self actualized.
Or at least that's how it strikes me at this moment
[...] BroadcastingBrains.com’s astute observation that “Creativity” has become the new b… As I have been writing about, Broadcastingbrain.com is also observing the overemphasis and oversimplification of creativity in business. Unfortunately, the word seems to be the new buzz word. Like web 2.0 and social media before it, creativity is this year’s magic bullet for success. If you like this article, you may also enjoy: [...]
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