creativity and innovation

1. Creativity & Innovation
By Sandeep Mannan

7. Creativity
“Imagination is more important than
knowledge.”
“Problems cannot be solved by thinking
within the framework within which the
problems were created”
“Get in touch with your inner child.”

8. Innovation
“The best way to get a good idea is to get a lot of
good ideas” Linus Pauling
“Innovation is everywhere; the difficulty is
learning from it” John Seeley Brown

9. Pepino fruit
The fruit of Pepino is often eaten ripe as a refreshing, quenching fruit after physical
effort.
Its yellowish white colour, with speckles and longitudinal lines, and its purple
colour in the ripe state make the fruit attractive. Its smell and taste are pleasant
because of their typical mild aroma and slightly sweet flavour. Its nutritional value
is low but it is recognized for its diuretic properties, probably because of its high
water content (90 percent) and good iodine content, for which it is recommended for
treating goitre. It also contains 7 percent of carbohydrates and 29 mg per 100 g of
vitamin C.

11. The famous board game, called Chess, was invented in India.
India is the 7th largest country in the world, the largest democracy and
one of the oldest civilizations.
India is one of the largest exporter of computer software products. It
exports software to over 90 countries.
India originated Yoga about 5,000 years ago.

14. Four Roles Of The Creative Process
The Explorer
Gathers information, explores for knowledge in new places
The Artist
Experiments with new approaches, combinations
Follows intuition, breaks rules, brainstorms, takes risks
The Judge
Evaluates ideas and solutions, critically weighs evidence.
The Warrior
Takes the offensive, fights for implementation, has courage.

15. Thinking provides knowledge, Knowledge
makes you great.

18. Creativity Blocks
Accepting conventional wisdom.
Not taking time to investigate or elaborate.
Seeking only to satisfy the perceived needs of bosses.
Having tunnel vision, compartmentalizing problems.
Looking for quick, yes-no answers.
Fearing rejection of ideas.
Being afraid of making mistakes.
Expecting others to be creative.
Being unwilling to question others.
Being unwilling to accept others’ input.
Being unwilling to collaborate.

19. Methods For Killing Creativity
Evaluation
Fear of evaluation kills the love of creative activity.
Surveillance
Looking over creative people’s shoulder or policing them de-motivates them.
Reward
Extrinsic rewards lower motivation.
Reward creative people with autonomy, the opportunity to learn.
Competition
Win/Lose competition kills creativity.
In a competitive environment, people think about how not to lose instead of
how to win.
Restricted Choice
Making choices for creative people or severely limiting their options lowers
creative output.
Extrinsic Orientation
External rewards such as prizes and money hurt creativity.
Creative people love the intrinsic rewards of doing the job.

20. Ways of Enhancing Personal Creativity
1. Accept there’s no right answer
2. Don’t follow the rules
3. Be foolish
4. Ask ‘What if?’
5. Think outside your area
6. Go for ambiguity
7. Believe in yourself

21. 1. No Right Answer
•The best way to get a good idea is to get a lot of ideas
•Change your question (eg IBM should have thought in
terms of solutions to problems, not computing hardware)
•Avoid workplaces with a culture of uniformity

22. 2. Don’t Follow The Rules
• We make rules based on reasons that make sense
• We follow these rules
• Time passes, things change
• The original reasons for the rules no longer exist, but because the rules are still in place,
we continue to follow them

23. 3. Be Fool-ish: Examples
Think against the conventional flow, like
the fool in Shakespearean times

24. 4. Ask “What If?”
Ask “what if” someone else were solving your
problem for you,
5 minute exercise : ‘What if’ someone else were
running this session on creativity. How would
they organise/structure it?

25. 5. Think Outside Your Area : Suggestions
1. Read fiction and stimulate your imagination
2. Go to places you wouldn’t normally go (eg a junk yard, a
fairground)
3. Develop the explorer’s attitude : the outlook that wherever
you go, there are ideas out there
(4. When you hit on an idea, write it down)

26. 6. Go For Ambiguity
“If you tell people where to go, but not how to get
there, you’ll be amazed at the results”
George S Patton (American General)

27. Ambiguity As Found In The Workplace
• Non hierarchical organisation
• Tolerance (or even encouragement) of different approaches
• Broad goals defined, but little else

28. 8. Believe in Yourself
Lack of creativity is a self-fulfilling prophecy (as
substantiated by research!)

29. 29
Converging thinking
Judging, assessing options,
focusing, making decisions.
Diverging thinking
Generating lots of options and
ideas, making lists.
Green light = speed Red light = brakes on!
These are two mutually exclusive mental activities

30. Thomas Edison
“I have not failed, I’ve just found 10,000 ways that
won’t work”.