John Davies
REFLECTIONS ON CREATIVITY: NOT A TIME TO THINK USUAL! BY JOHN DAVIES I am honored to share a few meanderings on the importance of everyday creativity and innovation. After all, creativity is essential to the innovation process. But dare I say that from time to time, we may gloss over its importance. But that’s a luxury we no longer can afford. After all, it’s amazing what a big surprise will do to shake up the status quo, especially when it’s a life or death matter. Remember, people typically change out of desperation or inspiration! So in this time of an historic pandemic, it can be no longer business as usual, not in Northwest Indiana, nor America, not anyplace in the world! Does that mean that our lives will never be the same? That we can no longer summon hope amid the gloom? That the emptying of streets and the shuttering of stores are forever? That things will no longer be the same in a profoundly altered nation? Sure, we need to make changes, and most importantly, we need to deploy the tools of creativity and innovation. But to suggest that this is the end of everything as we know it is shortsighted. In fact, I liken creativity and innovation as the tip of the spear to solve these challenges! But whether you are helping on the national stage, or trying to make things better for our state or region or trying to improve a local business or nonprofit, these are the essential tools. Allow me to draw on my experience as the founding managing director of the Society of Innovators (SOI). I saw a need for a regional approach to innovation, and I was part of a team that championed SOI. I interviewed hundreds of innovators, who created products that changed the world! Yes, I’m thrilled the Society is now at Purdue University Northwest. So here’s my bottom line. You can define creativity in many ways. I define it as thinking creatively to solve a problem in a new or different way. And I define innovation as implementing the solution that delivers value to corporations, communities and cultures. What underlies this success is the importance of thinking creatively to come up with original solutions. And innovators just aren’t thinking better. They’re thinking differently! Here are 10 ways to think creatively, or as I like to say to Think Differently: : 1. Be entrepreneurial by looking through the lens of possibility. Think Differently about entrepreneurship. 2. Accept risk and embrace ambiguity in pushing boundaries. Think Differently about risk and reward. 3. Demonstrate imaginative intuition to make the leap through creative thinking, learning and discovery. Think Differently about Thinking Creatively. 4. To be brave and upend accepted wisdom to change the world. Thinking Differently about courage and the status quo. 5. To accept new ideas from the intersection of strange and different disciplines. Thinking Differently about connectivity in the birth of good ideas. 6. To solve problems by combining elements that are familiar to create things that are faster, better and cheaper. Thinking Differently about problem-solving. 7. To disrupt when necessary and use data to inform decisions. Thinking Differently about the validation process. 8. To dream, test, try and launch your idea. Thinking Differently about the journey of implementation. 9. To add value through an idea that can lead to a competitive advantage. Thinking Differently about differentiation. 10. To realize it takes many ideas to solve an important problem, requiring a collective effort. Thinking Differently about the importance of a team approach. John Davies is President of Woodlands Communications & Innovation Consultancy based at the Purdue Technology Center in Crown Point, Indiana, and founding managing director and Lifetime Achievement Recipient of the Society of Innovators at Purdue Northwest. This article is part of a series, “Reflections on Creativity,” sponsored by the Center for Creative Solutions, celebrating April’s World Creativity and Innovation Week.
- Start: 15 April 2020
- End: 15 April 2020
- Attendance:
- Location: N/A , , United States
