Creativity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship

Creativity is the ability to develop new ideas an to discover new ways of looking at problems and opportunities. Innovation is the ability to apply creative solutions to problems and opportunities to enhance or to enrich peoples lives. (Creative destruction) In a nutshell, creativity is thinking new things, innovation is doing new things.

Creative Thinking
The right brain is creative and intuitive lateral thinking

The left brain is logical and rational vertical thinking

Those who use their right brain are more likely to be different and challenge traditional mindsets (paradigms), which leads to innovation (also known as creative destruction) Basically Right brain = Intuitive Innovation = Creative destruction Innovators = Being different

Barriers to Creativity
Searching for the one right answer

Most educational systems teach that there is one right answer to a problem. This is a boon to creativity since it acts as a block to brainstorming.

Focusing on being logical

Being logical is valuable when evaluating ideas and implementing them, however, focusing too much effort on being logical in the early imaginative phases discourages the use of intuition.

Blindly following the rules

Often times, creativity depends on our ability to break existing rules so we can find new ways of doing things.

Constantly being practical

Suspending practicality for a while frees the mind to consider creative solutions that, otherwise, might never arise.

Barriers to Creativity (cont)

Becoming overly specialized

Defining a problem as one area of specialty limits the ability to see how it might be related to other issues.

Avoiding ambiguity

Ambiguity encourages us to think something different. Ambiguous situations force us to stretch our minds beyond their normal boundaries and to consider creative options we might otherwise ignore.

Barriers to Creativity (cont)

Fearing looking foolish

Creative thinking is no place for conformity. New ideas are rarely born in a conforming environment. People tend toward conformity to avoid looking foolish.

Fearing mistakes and failure

Trying something new often leads to failure, however, failure should not be seen as an end; but rather as pit stops toward success.

Believing that Im not creative

One who believes they are not creative will likely behave in the same way, thus making the belief a reality. Everyone has the potential to be creative, however, one must tap into that potential first.

How to Enhance Creativity

Expecting creativity

One of the best ways to communicate the expectation of creativity is to give employees permission to be creative.

Expecting and tolerating failure

Creative ideas will produce failures as well as successes. Creativity requires taking chances, and managers must remove employees fear of failure.

Encouraging curiosity

Constantly asking what if questions and taking a maybe we could attitude allows one to break out of the assumptions that limit creativity.

Viewing problems as challenges

Every problem offers the opportunity for innovation. Dumping ones problems on employees desks to be fixed does nothing to develop creativity within employees.

How to Enhance Creativity (cont)

Providing creativity training
What separates the average person form Edison, Picasso, or even Shakespeare isnt creative capacity its the ability to tap that capacity by encouraging creative impulses and then acting upon them. Training can help everyone learn to tap their creative capacity.

Providing support

One must give employees the tools and resources they need to be creative. One of the most valuable resources is time.

Rewarding creativity

Monetary rewards, praise, recognition, and celebration can be powerful incentives.

Modeling creative behavior

Entrepreneurs who set examples of creative behavior, taking chances, and challenging the status quo will soon find their employees doing the same.

The Creative Process

1. Preparation

2. Investigation

:: Prepare the mind for creative thinking (formal education, work experience, etc) :: Develop a solid understanding of the problem or decision :: View the similarities and differences in the information collected

3. Transformation 4. Incubation

5. Illumination 6. Verification

:: Give the subconscious time to reflect on the information (daydream, relax, etc)
:: The creation of an innovative idea the Eureka factor stage :: Validate the idea is accurate and useful (conduct experiments, prototypes, etc) :: Transform the idea into reality

7. Implementation

The Creative Process (cont)

Convergent thinking is the ability to see the similarities and connections among various data and events. Divergent thinking is the ability to see differences among various data and events.

Techniques for Improving the Creative Process

Brainstorming is a process in which a small group of people interact with very little structure with the goal of producing a large quantity of novel and imaginative ideas. Mind-mapping is a graphical technique that encourages thinking on both sides of the brain, visually displays the various relationships among ideas, and improves the ability to view a problem from many sides. This is often referred to as flip-flopping.

Protecting Your Ideas

A patent is a grant from the federal governments Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) to the inventor of a product giving them the exclusive right to make, use, or sell their invention in this country for 20 years. Approximately 98% of all inventors rely on patent experts to steer them through the convoluted process. Legal fees for filing a patent range from $3,000 to $10,000 depending on the products complexity. The average cost of a patent infringement lawsuit is about $600,000 if the case goes to trial. About half of the parties settle before going to trial. Of the trials, more than 60% of those holding patents win.

Protecting Your Ideas (cont)

A trademark is any distinctive word, phrase, symbol, design, name, logo, slogan, or trade dress that a company uses to identify the origin of a product or to distinguish it from other goods on the market.

Today, 1.5 million trademarks are registered in the United States, and 900,000 of them are in use.
A copyright is an exclusive right that protects the creators of original works of authorship such as literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works. A copyright lasts for the life of the creator plus 50 years after their death. A copyright lasts 75 to 100 years if the holder is a business. Experts estimate that the U.S. software industry looses $15 billion each year to pirates who illegally copy programs.