Creativity and Innovation - These are buzz words that you usually associate with your marketing department of an organization. They have, however, become an integral part of every department of every organization because the only sure constant in business is change. And for successful or profitable change you need to be creative and develop innovation ideas.
When it comes to creativity however, Descartes - I think therefore I am is not enough.
The outlined definition provided is good when looking to see how to promote creativity but is there really anything that is truly novel. The answer is very little, but applying something old to a new set of circumstances can be seen as novel. So having the idea is only the first step. You then need to present it to someone and have them agree that it is novel.
So you have an idea, but not until you present or sell it to an individual or group of individuals does your creative idea have value.
Innovation is the implementation of a creative idea or product. This is where the expertise of creativity is extremely important. You need to be able to make your thoughts, a reality.
Making them a reality, however, can be more difficult than one may anticipate. For example, if you have a creative idea to streamline processes within an organization. The physical process of making this happen may not be overly complex, but changing the habits and behaviors of your people may be. So again, it is important to not only develop creative ideas, but one needs to be able to provide a vision for that idea that others will buy into.
As you read through the material on creativity and innovation, it is important to question your own ability to be able to see what is not there, to stretch your own frame of reference, to be able to develop as well as welcome creativity and innovation in the workplace.
We live in an ever evolving world and if you are not part of the change, you will be left behind.