Chapter 6
Beyond Creativity
Continuing with innCREA
Creativity is an important part of our lives because, without creativity, we wouldn’t have the things that bring us so much happiness and satisfaction. Creativity is one reason things like art, music, dance, and film exist. Creativity helps us express our feelings and ideas about all kinds of things. It also allows us to share our ideas with other people.
When people express their feelings through art, music, or stories, they can share their thoughts and emotions with other people. When you’re creative, finding good solutions and developing new ideas is easier. Creative expression is a tool you can use to solve problems and situations.
A creative idea can sometimes help you overcome a challenge you may have been facing for a long time; remember – the time to solve a problem need not reflect the time you faced the problem!
In our everyday life, we encounter all kinds of problems. These problems often make us unhappy or frustrated. We try our best to solve these problems, but it’s not always easy. Creativity can help us solve these problems – which might be highly complex – by helping us find an innovative solution. A creative solution.
When we look at a problem in a new way, we can sometimes find a solution we hadn’t thought of before. One of the most important aspects of creative thinking is divergent thinking, which means we’ve multiple solutions for solving a problem. It’s less logical and linear and more associative and lateral.
Technical information for the chapter
This crash course on fundamentals on creativity offers content to develop the following five soft skills necessary for creativity in individuals.
Attentiveness – the action of paying close attention to something. This includes traits such as the ability to focus; attention to detail; observation; thoroughness; listening skills; consistency; dedication; patience; and commitment.
Critical Thinking – objective analysis, synthesis and evaluation. This includes making connections and lateral thinking.
Strategic Thinking – forward thinking, planning, and analysing. This includes also confidence in making choices of its own.
1. It Accompanies Innovation
For something to be innovative, there are two requirements: It must be novel and useful. While creativity is crucial to generate ideas that are both unique and original, they’re not always inherently useful. Innovative solutions can’t exist, however, without a component of creativity.
2. It Increases Productivity
Creativity gives you the space to work smarter instead of harder, which can increase productivity and combat stagnation in the workplace. Routine and structure are incredibly important but shouldn’t be implemented at the expense of improvement and growth. When a creative and innovative environment is established, a business’s productivity level can spike upward.
3. It Allows for Adaptability
Sometimes events—both internal and external—can disrupt an organization’s structure. For example, the COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed how the present-day business world functions. In such instances, imaginative thinking and innovation are critical to maintaining business operations.
Creatively approaching challenges requires adaptability but doesn’t always necessitate significantly adjusting your business model. For example, you might develop a new product or service or slightly modify the structure of your operations to improve efficiency. Big problems don’t always require big solutions, so don’t reject an idea because it doesn’t match a problem’s scale.
Change is inevitable in the business world, and creative solutions are vital to adapting to it.
4. It’s Necessary for Growth
One of the main hindrances to a business’s growth is cognitive fixedness, or the idea that there’s only one way to interpret or approach a situation or challenge.
Cognitive fixedness is an easy trap to fall into, as it can be tempting to approach every situation similar to how you have in the past. But every situation is different.
If a business’s leaders don’t take the time to clearly understand the circumstances they face, encourage creative thinking, and act on findings, their company can stagnate—one of the biggest barriers to growth.
5. It’s an In-Demand Skill
Creativity and innovation are skills commonly sought after in top industries, including health care and manufacturing. This is largely because every industry has complex challenges that require creative solutions.
Benefits for academic staff:
- Openness to innovativeness in one’s own teaching.
- Explores new ideas basing on fundamentals of creativity
- Audit tool gives a concrete measure of creativity at the individual level.
Benefits for students:
- Introduction to creativity
- Provision of new skills
- Valuing creativity in the classroom encourages students’ expression of opinions and ideas.
- Fosters students’ independence and empowers them to take risks, leaving room for mistakes and improvements.
- To investigate a student’s creativity.
- To go further beyond audit tool
- To boost creativity of academic staff
- Audit tool repetitions
- Discussions around advancing creativity
- Teach online, blended or off-line.
- Lecture + thought-provoking ideas
- Activities completed in the classroom or elsewhere.