Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Andrew Webster on March 3, 2011 at 19:16

I love the delineation of creativity and innovation.  Most people seem to think that creativity is the need - which I understand, but I've also seen creativity applied to the wrong problem many times, as we all have.

Permalink Reply by Mark Watson on March 4, 2011 at 4:45

Welcome to the group, Andrew.

I agree that 'blue sky'  (or ocean depending on your camp) thinking has its place, and incremental innovation works well in say humanitarian situations where the risk to life is too high.

But as Verganti (an engineer) suggests 'creativity' has its place in setting goals for incremental innovators to build bridges to.

2007 at the first ConnectEd Conference on Design Education held in Sydney, a keynote spoke on Bridge Design as incremental innovation, each new bridge a thinner, leaner design than the predecessor, some disasters have evolved from this cautious approach. Blue sky creatives would question the need for a bridge and suggest alternate transport.

So I still can't quite get what people find so hard about the 'C' word when brilliant minds like Amabile etal have dedicated their lives to its exploration.

Permalink Reply by Nat Maras on June 10, 2012 at 13:42

Hi Mark,

I'm guessing that 'specific end' means achieving a desirable goal?

If so, it is that 'specific end' that make sense when you've got an issue/ problem to overcome or a need to address. I'm hoping that in future 'jams' we could introduce a problem as a 'design challenge' and a measurable outcome as a 'specific end'. In that sense, it would give us some constraint.

Albeit not the intention of the jam, I felt it was missing. Certainly missing from the majority of business analysts I've come across. Useful steps I think to frame ideas as propositions for customers: initial pitch, business model generation canvas, investment logic etc. I've found a step through guide on structuring the pitch in Jerry Weissmans 'power presentation' to be extremely useful.

Permalink Reply by Frederic Dalmau Arnal on June 10, 2012 at 21:05

I tend to skip 'processes' and talk about Disciplines. Process is usefull for reducing variability, specially for unskilled, while Discipline creates excellence in hands of skilled. So how to process creativity? And innovation? And design? Design is a discipline where you add skills to a specific end not only creativity. If we try to find a nice highlight i'd say: Design as connectivity deployed to a specific end.

Enjoy it!