The world we live in changes rapidly every day, and the key to keep up, and hopefully be ahead, is through driving forces that push us forward. Capacity of change is directed and fueled by creativity and innovation. The most crucial point is that these two forces are transformative and therefore can drive progress. Using these forces, individuals or organizations can push in the right direction, even make a new path for something that was held back by limitations. This article discusses the importance of these traits and offers practical ideas on how to foster them.
Generating ideas is the key to creative thinking. There are many ways to stimulate an idea into existence—by concentrating, by getting into a group or working with a partner, for example. Idea generation is the fuel that makes the engine run. There is no formula for generating good ideas. Some people exude creativity while others seem to be in its direct path. Get wired, get focused, get to work, and the idea parade will soon be marching in your head! … And an idea in the head is a valuable thing!
The process to come up with good ideas is called idea generation. I want to work at this in an intentional way. It’s part of being an expert, but it’s also a skill that can be developed. I think I might also try some techniques from creative thinking to help me. After all, isn’t good thinking creative?
How can we best foster the generation of ideas? “Curiosity,” says Doris C. Rusch, “is fundamental.” She draws on the research of George Loewenstein, who found that curious individuals were more likely to persist in solving problems and more likely to think creatively than were individuals who lacked curiosity. Intense curiosity, Loewenstein says, creates “perceived interest” and “felt deficits”—conditions that make you want to find out more. Rusch, who is the director of the Play Innovation Lab at DePaul University, thinks curiosity is also basic to play. When you’re really curious, you’re much more invested in finding out answers. And the same is true in ideation.
Unconventional Thought: Welcoming Inventiveness
Thinking unconventionally involves confronting problems and challenges from nontraditional angles and venturing into alternative solutions. It means not being limited by standard ways of understanding a problem and instead empowering oneself to think creatively and imaginatively.
To encourage creative thinking, you must first dispel the main tendency within our brains to rely on the most obvious and proven solutions to problems. After all, why push your brain to find a brand-new solution when your old standby works just fine? I think most, if not all, of us are guilty (if that’s the right word) of doing this at one time or another. … The following series of posts and musings will endeavor to help us break free of this mold and dare to unleash the untapped maelstroms of our creative potential!
The text embraces the idea of risk-taking and the potential rewards it can bring. It goes on to explain how uncertainty can be an ally in creative endeavors. The author asserts that the basic ingredient for any risk is the possibility of failure. For learning to be real, there need to be real stakes. It also interrogates the difference between taking risks and courting danger. Finally, the essay encourages its readers to not be afraid to “embrace uncertainty and engage with risk.”
Risk is at the heart of creativity and innovation. It is the willingness to look directly into the future and say, “We can go this way!” It is something so intimate and personal that only you can define it for yourself. Is creativity new? Is it worthwhile? People tend not to feel risk when they are being truly creative. They positively relish it.
One way to encourage risk-taking is to see mistakes and failures as part of the process rather than as a disastrous outcome. It can be helpful to recall a particular time when a mistake first seemed like the end of the world to you, then try to recall how it felt about a week later (probably not nearly as bad), and then how it felt a year later (probably so insignificant as to be laughable). We humans have a remarkable ability to bounce back from just about everything, and the sooner we start to see that in ourselves, the more we start to embrace risk-taking as a way to learn something new and as an opportunity to grow and stretch our limits.
Developing a mindset of lifelong learning begins with curiosity. When we are curious about something, we have an innate motivation to learn more about it. This is especially true during our early years, when the world is bursting with wonders just waiting to be discovered. But as we get older, and especially when we become burdened with the responsibilities of adult life, we tend to lose our curiosity. We act as if we already know everything we need to know and have no reason to wonder about the world. But being curious, being motivated to learn, is a powerful determinant in how successful we are in doing so.
The drive that pushes creativity and innovation forward is curiosity. It’s a kind of persistent questioning—a hunger for discovering and understanding. Curiosity leads people to explore and map out new territories, both in the mind and in physical spaces. It impels people to invent and grow, constantly striving for new connections and broader perspectives.
To nurture curiosity is to maintain the state of always wanting to know more, to never assume that one has learned enough. Treat new experiences as opportunities for your imagination to take flight, and you just might discover something truly astonishing. If you feel that you sometimes grow complacent in your learning—well, know that you’re in good company. The great physicist Richard Feynman once meditated on what “plagues most people”: that “to know lots of facts” is considered smart, while those who keep asking questions are seen as less so. But it is precisely that questioning, that deep and persistent curiosity, which leads to the kind of earthshaking insights that can transform society—and, in Feynman’s case, win a Nobel Prize.
Blending creativity and innovation
You must assemble creativity and innovation if you want to succeed. This requires that you make idea creation, unorthodox thinking, risk, and curiosity the daily staples of your life. These attributes—when different, even clashing—are what reliably complement each other, and what make it possible for you to summon and apply the full resources of your mind to the problems that matter to you and the solutions that will break you through to the results you desire.
Develop the skill of generating ideas by creating a workplace that encourages people to be more inquisitive and exploratory. Sometimes, good ideas come from the most unlikely places. If we never push the boundaries of what’s safe and what’s expected, how do we ever create something truly great? This is the argument for not just allowing but encouraging those unconventional ideas to come to the surface. Then what comes next? Well, that part’s easy. You take the best ideas and do something with them. And you know what that is, right? It’s called innovation.
When you blend these parts into the way you naturally approach problems, you make it possible to see resolutions that you would not reach otherwise. And when you do that, you change the world. When you adopt the power of creativity and give free rein to your creative potential, you will achieve unfathomable results and drive incredible change. What part will you play in that explosion of change and that achievement of results?
