Two Dynamos Powering Your Success!

How They Differ, Yet Work Beautifully Together

“The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible. – Arthur C. Clarke

Creativity and innovation are “beyonder” concepts that enable us to go far beyond self-perceived limits — to venture (with adventure) where we’ve never been before and to do what we have thought to be impossible and unattainable. You know we use the terms “creativity” and “innovation” and “creative” and “innovative” constantly in the media, in books and articles, at organization meetings and brainstorming sessions, for company vision and mission statements and in so many other ways every day. But, are they interchangeable? What do they really mean? If we are to enhance a culture in our organizations that maximizes positive change and on-going, far-out progress, then understanding the true meanings of both of these concepts will help us to better apply them for ideal results.

The descriptors (adjectives) of creative and innovative are most often used interchangeably, by people in business, government, academia and science. Many generally prefer using the term innovative because it sounds more substantial, impacting and practical to them. Creativity and innovation (as nouns) are more distinct, special-meaning terms, though they work together for success.

The word creativity comes from the Latin term creare meaning “to create, make.”?The word innovation comes to us from the Latin noun innovatio, derived from the verb innovare, meaning “to introduce (something) new.” It can refer to the act of bringing about something new or to the thing itself that is newly introduced. When we think of someone who is impressively creative or innovative, we might also describe them as having some combination of being clever, ingenious, brilliant, offbeat, unorthodox, imaginative, gifted, original, inventive, enterprising, resourceful, unconventional, out of the ordinary or artful.?

Do people generally admire those who are creative? You bet! Time Magazine with Microsoft and the Motion Picture Association of America did a survey of Americans. It was quite revealing that people value creativity more than some other important personal traits. According to the study, 94 percent of Americans value creativity in other people compared to 93 percent who value intelligence, 92 percent compassion, 89 percent humor, 88 percent ambition and 57 percent who value personal beauty. And 83 percent said that creativity is important in their professional lives.

Surprisingly, where do people often get their ideas? In their book, Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind by Scott Barry Kaufman and Carolyn Gregoire, they describe an interesting study done in 2014 that found 72 percent of people get their ideas in the shower. Other studies show that our brains seem to suddenly erupt ideas out of seemingly nowhere when doing “mindless’ activities like washing the dishes, bike riding or walking, for example.?Do you find that to be so in your case?

Significant Benefits of Creativity and Innovation

All progress in our world and society comes from the extraordinary creative minds of the artists, scientists, engineers, performers, discovers, technologists, academics, businesspeople, inventors and innovators over our entire history. Today, more than ever, having forward thinkers and visionary innovators who make breakthrough ideas happen, are so important to deal with our ever increasing problems and challenges. They are driven explorers and opportunists who seek, find and capitalize upon bold and daring ideas, discoveries and technologies for improving our lives. Here are just some personal, professional and organizational benefits of applying more creativity and innovation:

• Being creative is very stimulating, satisfying, fun and enriching in so many ways.
• Your organization’s competitive edge is sharpened.
• Revenues, profits and value proposition are boosted in your company.
• Continuous improvement grows in all aspects of your business.
• Employees become more motivated, energized and engaged by exercising their creativity and seeing their achievements.
• Professional careers grow and are strengthened and enhanced.
• You’re better able to recruit top talent along with retaining more of your excellent employees.
• Your organization’s brand, image and reputation are better served and promoted.
• Key operations becomes more effective, efficient, productive and higher quality.
• Creativity and innovation delivers long-term security, sustainability and prosperity.
• Customer satisfaction and loyalty are positively impacted.

According to an Adobe Hiring for the Future study, 94 percent of hiring managers say it is important to consider creativity when hiring a job candidate. Done in 2010, the IBM Global CEO Study interviewed over 1,500 CEO’s from 60 countries and 33 industries, concluding that one trait is the most important leadership one for the future. About 60 percent of CEOs polled cited creativity as the most important leadership quality compared to 52 percent for integrity and 35 percent for global thinking. They noted that “more than rigor, management discipline, integrity or even vision — successfully navigating an increasingly complex world would require creativity.” If that study were more recent, I believe they would rate creativity even higher now, especially after the COVID pandemic.

The Accenture 2015 US Innovation Survey notes that 84 percent of executives surveyed considered the future success of their organizations to be very or extremely dependent on innovation (and therefore creativity as well). The myriad strategic benefits for individuals, teams and organizations to boost their creativity and innovation performance cannot be overstated. These actions are essential for people and companies to ensure peak performance, to grow, to “do amazing things” and to continuously transform and reinvent themselves. It pays to be unique, exceptional and excellent.

English economist John Maynard Keynes profoundly said, “The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones.” It’s often a challenge for successful people in engineering, science, technology and many other fields whose ideas, strategies and solutions have been spot on only to realize that now their time has passed and that fresh new ideas and different approaches must replace their former ones that no longer work as they did before. American composer and music theorist John Cage offers this to those who cling to their outdated convictions, “I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I’m frightened of the old ones.”

People like Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, James Dyson, Ken Olsen (Digital Equipment Corporation), Elon Musk, Kelly Johnson (Lockheed Skunkworks), Henry Ford, Richard Branson, Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, Leonardo Da Vinci, Alexander Graham Bell, Bill Gates, George Lucas, Walt Disney, Steven Spielberg, Richard Feynman, Wright Brothers and countless tens of thousands of other extraordinary men and women of the past and present are thought of as being both wildly imaginative thinkers and innovation implementers. An extraordinarily creative person rids him or herself of all self-imposed limitations and sees the word impossible in quotes as only something that has not been done yet. It was Napoleon, in his typical genius, who supported that statement with, “Impossible is a word found only in the dictionary of fools.”

Boston Consulting Group ranked the 50 most innovative companies in 2021 (latest available) based upon a survey of over 1,500 innovation executives using the four variables of: 1. value creation; 2. industry disruption; 3. industry peer review and 4. global “mindshare” (votes from all innovation executives). The usual big company suspects included Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, Tesla, Samsung, IBM, Sony, Oracle, Toyota, Ikea, Disney, GE and others. SpaceX, of course, is the epitome of a visionary, ultra-innovative company. For 2022, Fast Company, Forbes, Monitor and other publications and websites featured companies that are not widely well known today. Yet, there are countless smaller companies and organizations doing spectacular disruptive technological, scientific and business work that might soon change our lives and world in most exciting ways.

What is Creativity?

It is estimated that there are more than 70 different definitions of creativity found in psychological literature, books, articles and elsewhere. While many of us know of, sense or experience something that is “creative,” it can prove to be a somewhat slippery concept that is hard to precisely define. But, let’s include some following examples that might give it some clarity and substance:

Creativity is…

– a continual surprise. It’s the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way.

– about seeing the intersection, pattern and value of a number of seemingly unrelated things or elements that previously had nothing to do with each other and combining them in a most astonishing way to create something new and better.

– the capability, act and process ( called “ideation”) of coming up with novel and useful ideas.

– a fresh, exciting way and perspective of looking at things.

– the critical basic foundation for developing new products, services, business models and all kinds of other innovations.

– about thinking, while innovation is about doing.

– a way of brainstorming and conceiving imaginative plans, approaches, concepts, strategies and solutions to problems and opportunities.

– pondering smart approaches that expand possibilities, options and alternatives to accomplish something.

– an iterative process of creating something new by forming, modeling, experimenting with, verifying results of, and communicating ideas through progressive stages of development.

– an expression for one’s own artistic satisfaction alone.

– the action of pressing and delving into the unknown rather than the known.

We All Have the Ability to Be More Creative

If I asked you, “Are you creative?” you might balk at feeling you are either not artistic in some form or otherwise gifted in coming up with interesting ideas of value. Many of us mistakenly believe that creativity is the exclusive realm of those who draw, paint, sculpt, make movies, do beautiful woodworking, interior design, build marvelous things, write books, plays or create songs, act, dance and entertain in performances, for example. With today’s digital technology, I’m amazed at people who are incredible graphic designers and those who use advanced computer multimedia programs to design realistic games, 3D animations and stunning photorealistic simulations. What talent!

Perhaps, you’ve experienced some “ideation difficulties” in past brainstorming sessions with teams you were part of seeing other people machine-gun ideas out without hesitation or effort. While these people are, indeed, creative, so are you (whether you believe it or not), but in different ways. Maybe you develop business presentations or speeches that are not just compelling, but interesting, entertaining, humorous and captivating. That’s creative. What if you came up with a marketing strategy that was really original, highly cost-effective and increased your company’s market share by an impressive margin? That’s also creative. Perhaps you thought up a highly unique fix to a manufacturing problem that stymied everyone else. Creative, again.

I’ve worked with many clients and colleagues who initially insisted they were not creative only to realize that, with some encouragement, coaxing and training on several creativity tools, they began to embrace and appreciate the results from their newly learned skill — which creative thinking is.?Each of us can discover and develop our imagination and “idea sprouting muscle” with practice and persistence.

Types of Innovations

The words “innovative” and “innovation” are often overused today, especially by companies touting their smart engineers, product developers and executives “who have created a culture that promotes it” from their employees. Most of us associate innovation primarily with some technological, applications, scientific and engineering breakthroughs. Artificial Intelligence (AI), advanced robotics, 3D printing, quantum computing, supersonic commercial aircraft, fantastic new materials (like graphene-based ones and exotic composites), holography, new medical treatments, augmented reality (AR) and “super batteries” for electric vehicles and planes are just some of today’s evolving, advancing and exciting innovations and the stuff of science fiction from a few decades ago.

In their article, Building on our History of Innovation for the Future of IBM, this impressive company with a successful longevity of over a century notes, “Innovation is the heart and soul of IBM and serves as the engine to make our clients and the world work better. We made enormous strides in the last year, and we plan to achieve even more in 2022.” As just one example of that, IBM worked with their partners to demonstrate the first 2 nm nanosheet technology for semiconductors that supports up to an astounding 50 billion transistors on a chip the size of a fingernail and offer enormous gains in efficiency.

Not all innovations are that dramatic in scope and impact, though. There are degrees and types of innovations from incremental, where there are slight-to-moderate improvements in consumer products (like TVs, cameras, appliances and cars), industrial equipment and other things, for example. Then, there are new, breakthrough discoveries and advances and radical changes over the last 50 years (like GPS, smart phones, flat screen TVs, streaming video, LEDs, Zoom, Wikipedia, Internet of Things (IoT) and various digital computing and other quantum leap digital technologies that equate to being major disruptions in their industry or field. Incremental innovations are often considered improvements to current products or services or mild inventions while radical innovations are relatively rare, but incredibly impacting on an industry, scientific sector or society, in general.?You might have heard this clever statement that paints the difference between small and big innovations, “The electric light did not come from the continuous improvement of candles.”?

What is Innovation?

Like creativity, there are numerous definitions of innovation, each giving a bit of a different slant, perspective and meaning to it. As you read the following definitions, realize that they portray innovation as having decided application, value and results for different purposes:

Innovation is…

– the application, implementation or commercialization of creative ideas and discoveries targeted to develop something new, different and?improved.

– the successful exploitation and ability to make optimal use of new ideas and concepts.

– the creation of new value in anticipation of future needs and demand.

– a powerful mindset where your employees focus on continuous improvement and constantly think outside of the box to bring about impressive change and outcomes.

– the multi-stage process whereby organizations transform valuable ideas into new or improved products, service, processes and business models to advance, compete and differentiate themselves successfully in their marketplace.

– a driver of re-imagining, re-inventing and re-making your business.

– the application of practical ideas, tools and techniques that make changes both large and small to products, services and processes that results in the introduction of something new for the organization that adds value to customers and contributes to the store of knowledge of the organization.

– a series of transformations or upgrades that create new or enhanced capability, functionality and performance.

– the way a company delivers superior value to their customers, shareholders and stakeholders.

– the future delivered in impressive and valuable fashion.

– that which will make a difference, add value, have a positive impact and increase capabilities and performance of organizations.

– an invention converted into scalable financial, social or cultural value.

Innovation is continuing to grow in prominence and application for all types of companies in all industries and with all kinds of organizations and institutions. U.S. federal, state and city governments and agencies continue to look for ways to operate faster, cheaper and better, while providing more and enhanced assistance to those they serve. A strategic national objective is to make America more competitive and innovative in the sciences, engineering, education, healthcare, technology and manufacturing. As an example, on March 16, 2022, National Science Foundation (NSF)?Director Sethuraman Panchanathan announced a new directorate within the United States focused on Technology,?Innovation and Partnerships or TIP during his session on Reinvigorating Science and Technology for the Future of U.S. Innovation.?

NSF's first new directorate in more than 30 years builds upon its commitment over 70 years to serve as a beacon of U.S. innovation, advancing research and education across all fields of science and engineering. The goals of TIP will accelerate the development of new technologies and products that improve Americans' way of life, grow the economy and create new jobs and strengthen and sustain U.S. competitiveness for decades to come.

Summary

Since this article is featured in Linkedin, it’s appropriate to note that Linkedin Learning stated, “Creativity is the single most important skill in the world.” You know that there’s always the chance of being criticized for or made fun of your unique, perhaps far-fetched “blue sky” ideas. Innovation as well (especially radical, disruptive types) always has risk and potential failure —with possible derision and mockery —associated with it typically by those less cerebrally endowed to understand and appreciate its value and process. Imagine what we would lose if the risks, occasional setbacks and detractors held back the hearty, persevering pioneers that chart our new exciting paths to progress.

Albert Einstein may have just said it right, when it comes to taking chances with a Think Different, Do Different Mindset in the quest to innovate boldly, “Do one thing every day that scares you.” Creativity and innovation can be delightfully and rewardingly contagious. If you haven’t “caught the bug” yet, do it and then pass it on to others. We’ll all be better off for it.

About the Author

Ray Anthony?is the?Chief “Innovader” in The Woodlands, Texas, USA. He is the author of 9 books and over 100 articles on organizational change, innovation, leadership, creativity, sales, presentation skills and other strategic business topics. His vanguard book,?Innovative Presentations for Dummies?(Wiley Publishing) shows how to powerfully reimagine, reinvent and remake presentations that win against the toughest odds. Ray is a successful, dynamic keynote speaker, executive coach, program developer, corporate trainer, videographer and creative who has worked with numerous Fortune 500 corporations and elite U.S. government agencies (CIA, NASA and USSOCOM) to help improve their operational performance and results through creativity and innovation. He can be reached [email protected]?or cell: 832-594-4747.