Creativity and Innovation in the spotlight
World Creativity & Innovation Day serves as a reminder of the power of human creativity and innovation and the boundless potential that resides within each of us, to imagine, create, innovate, and contribute to solving global challenges, driving progress, and shaping our future.
Creativity and innovation are not abstract concepts; they are the essence of our evolution and development. Humanity’s greatest achievements have stemmed from the ingenuity and imagination of individuals and communities in the pursuit of new ideas, opportunities, and solutions to our greatest challenges and complex problems.
Why care about creativity?
From scientific breakthroughs to artistic masterpieces, creativity and innovation are the driving forces behind our collective advancement as a society and cannot be underestimated. Let’s explore the significance of creativity and innovation and how we can value and celebrate our greatest natural resources.
The need for creativity and innovation in our capricious and rapidly changing world, has never been greater. The complex challenges we face, such as environmental degradation, climate change, poverty, food production, housing, health, education, and technological disruption will not sort themselves out. We have created the world in which we live, and it is up to us to address the systemic issues that create inequity and inequality.
Image credit: Unsplash
Creativity and Innovation
These complex issues require new ways of thinking and being, courage, risk taking, and unconventional approaches to reconcile. The path to positive change is not always clear nor easy. Navigating the changes toward a different future requires a willingness to sit with ambiguity and uncertainty. Creativity and innovation hold the key to unlocking a better future for people and our for planet and there are enormous benefits and rewards to be had, whether it’s devising sustainable energy solutions, improving business systems and processes, designing inclusive technologies, or reimagining social infrastructures.
We know technology can be a catalyst for innovation and change, and we know it can be a double-edged sword. Advancements in artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and renewable energy hold immense promise. Equally they raise ethical, social, and environmental concerns. This is a paradox for us to contend with and one that requires our moral imagination.
Innovation is the process of capturing and turning creative ideas into tangible outcomes. However, in all of this let’s not forget the human factor. Fundamentally innovation is about improving people’s lives, which if used for the greater good has a positive impact on society. Innovation is not just about turning a profit, it is about creating value and in the process both are possible.
Innovation involves experimentation, collaboration, and a willingness to challenge the status quo. An innovation mindset asks how can we imagine, design, create and innovate organisations, institutions, systems, products and services that have humans and other sentient beings at their heart? Afterall we are not robots.
Humans are complex and creative, and when given the opportunity to participate and contribute can transform the world around them. Creativity is our greatest natural and sustainable resource, even though our brains have a natural predisposition to routine and business as usual thinking. So, it really is a case of use it or lose it with creativity. We need to be intentional with our creativity and be open to serendipitous creative insights and aha moments, which generally emerge from a prepared mind. We can learn creative thinking skills, learn to take calculated risks, and learn.
Innovation considers the feasibility of creative ideas and whether to progress, develop, implement, and commercialise. It is the process of identifying, creating, capturing and adding value. The alternative to innovation is stagnation.
Image: Maverick Minds Creativity and Innovation
Whether you are an Artist, Inventor, Business Leader, Community Worker, Medical Practitioner, Financial Advisor, Engineer, Builder or Baker, WCID is a reminder that each of us has the capacity to imagine, create, and innovate, and the more we create and innovate together, the greater the outcome.
While April 21 is a designated day the spotlight should always be on creativity and innovation. At its best creativity and the innovation is about making the world a better place. Let’s pause to celebrate and embrace the spirit of creativity that leads to human flourishing.
To put the spotlight on Creativity and Innovation in your workplace, business, community, or family, what can you do? Here’s a few suggestions –
- Have a conversation about creativity and innovation with the people around you.
- Ask what creativity and innovation means to them.
- Ask curious questions and listen deeply to what the person has to say and what it is you can learn.
- Try something different – if you keep doing the same thing…
- Identify something you can change that would make a difference?
- Find the fertile ground to sow your ideas.
- Visit an art gallery, listen to music, go to the theatre, read a book, walk in nature, go to the source of creativity.
- Adopt a creator and innovator mindset – curiosity, empathy, open minded and open heart, self-reflection.
Maverick Minds provides facilitation and coaching services for individuals, teams and organisations. We love collaborating and working creatively with others. Get in touch to find out how Maverick Minds can help build you build creative capacity and move toward innovation in your teams and organisation.
www.maverickminds.com.au
An increasingly complex world needs better thinking, new thinking and creative thinking. Creativity is a skill that be developed and enhanced with methods and techniques that can be learned, practised and applied.
(Rethink: The Story of Edward De Bono in Australia, Leo D’Angelo Fisher)