No Creativity – No Innovation

So you must have seen by now the famous TED talk by education guru Sir Ken Robinsons. If not, watch it.

In this talk, he has a shocking example of how school kills creativity. The story is about a little girl who was in a drawing lesson. The girl hardly ever paid attention, but now she did. The teacher was fascinated and went over to her and said:

– “What are you drawing?”

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– “I’m drawing a picture of God”, the girl said.

– And the teacher said, “But nobody knows what God looks like.”

The girl answered, – “They will in a minute.”

Fostering creativity is enormously important. Innovation is the lifeblood of your business, I wrote in my previous article. Well, innovation is applied to creativity (Ken Robinson, Out of our minds, learning to be creative).

So they are tightly connected. No creativity, no innovation. This infographic built among others on two mind maps depicts what creativity is, what are the drivers of creativity, and the characteristics of creative people.

From research, it is clear that there are ways to stimulate creativity. This may be, for example, achieved by visualizing ideas using sketching methods or mind mapping. It covers several steps of the 8 successful innovators’ practices (Peter Demming, the innovator’s way). Let’s be honest: when it comes down to innovation, you will need everything that helps.

According to Business Week (August 2005), the overall success rate with innovation initiatives is a meager 4 percent. So, try a mind map session next time you are aiming to innovate your products.