What is Creativity? What is Innovation?
Creativity and innovation, at both the individual and group levels, have become the true wealth of nations in the 21st century, according to the findings of the special edition of the Creative Economy Report1. Year after year and with the technological revolution in all fields, this notion is becoming a matter of fact. Hence, creativity and innovation still to make it to the list of Top Priorities of organizations’ agendas.
What is Creativity?
The word creativity is used in describing some of the human mental behavior in all the fields, from Science to Arts. Robert E. Franken in his book “Human Motivation” defined creativity as: the tendency to generate or recognize ideas, alternatives, or possibilities that may be useful in solving problems, communicating with others, and entertaining ourselves and others.2
Creativity is a mindset, a skill set, and a tool set. It’s a framework for approaching problems. It involves brainstorming a lot of ideas, seeking novelty, deferring judgment, and building off the ideas of others.3
The question is: Does creativity mean to produce creative ideas? Or should it drive us to innovate?
We need to differentiate creativity and innovation.
Creativity is regarded as a key building block for innovation. Creativity entails a level of originality and novelty that is essential for innovation. Although creativity is a fundamental part of innovation, it is not accurate to interchange the terms. Innovation encourages the further processing of the output of the creative process (the idea) so as to allow the exploitation of its potential value through development.
“Creativity and innovation are relatives. If you want innovation to occur, creativity best be on the menu”
- Marci Segal
1UN, accessed 22/3/2021 (https://www.un.org/en/observances/creativity-and-innovation-day)
2http://www.csun.edu/~vcpsy00h/creativity/define.htm
3Accessed 22/3/2021, (https://wciw.org/about-wciw/)
For more about this topic, download our latest book "Creativity and Innovation Day" for FREE:
