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by Kal Bishop, MBA
Sustained myths about Creativity and Innovation lead to
confusion, bad practice and bad
decision-making. Some of them
include:
1. Creativity requires Creative Types While some theorists assert
that there are creativity traits such as tolerance for ambiguity and
intolerance to conformity, these assertions are countered by the
fact that traits are hard to identify and are not stable nor
transferable across situations. Further, motivation is a critical
factor. Additionally, creativity is a cognitive process and thus
measurements like “she looks creative” are poor benchmarks. All
the research shows that everyone can produce novel, useful, varied,
diverse ideas and looking for certain types to come up with them
reduces total valuable output.
2. Money is the best Motivator Material reward is a synergistic
extrinsic motivator. That means that it is a factor that enhances
intrinsic motivation but may not in itself cause maximum creative
effort and output – there are at least six other motivators that
are as valuable. Additionally, the exact level of material reward
very positively correlates to that received by peer groups.
3. Time Pressure drives Creativity Yes and no. There are at least
three conflicting forces: a) Time pressure increases creative
output. By forcing idea production, setting goals and incremental
deadlines, a greater number of ideas are produced than if a “do
your best” approach is taken. This action benefits from the
positives of prolific production and other processes. b) Time
pressure may be a non-synergistic extrinsic motivator. It reduces
the level of engagement in the endeavour and inhibits intrinsic
motivation. c) Short-term time pressure does not allow the mind to
engage in the endeavour at various cognitive levels. It does not
allow rich ideas to formulate through the process of incubation.
4. Competition outperforms Collaboration Competition causes many
people to shut down and introduces many negatives such as core and
peripheral groups, politicking and restriction of information.
Collaboration, on the other hand, allows the intellectual cross
pollination that is the raw material for good idea generation.
5. Creativity and Innovation can be used interchangeably. The
terms Creativity and Innovation are often used interchangeably but
they are, in fact, separate and distinct. Creation can be described
as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation is
idea selection, development and commercialization. The distinctions
alone lead to numerous conclusions. Among them is the fact that: a)
Creativity and Innovation leaders require at least six different
competencies (including one holistic) to even begin Managing
Creativity and Innovation (actually, many more are needed). b) Both
Creativity and Innovation require different structures, processes
and skill sets. c) Workshop facilitators should split sessions into
distinct parts and formulate frameworks and processes to maximize output at each level.
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