Creativity and imagination are linked to the capacity of thought inherent to the human being from birth. In the same way, creativity for companies is a fundamental attitude to build solid paths of success and future.
Who can be creative?
It is curious to see how a concept so apparently simple and so fashionable in our time conceals behind its original meaning a multitude of definitions and of implicit complex relationships.
Creative ability is really linked to the inherent thinking of the human being since birth. It does not make any sense, today, to promote the idea of being or not being creative in our life, since creativity is an inseparable capacity of our human condition. We could say, that comes to us as a series in the adventure of our life. It is true that we do not all understand the term of creativity in the same sense as the others, but therefore it is undeniable that we all have that ability to be and to demonstrate it in different ways, according to our way of being.
Therefore, our creative capacity, being a personal attribute of each, cannot (nor should) join or subtract from the definition itself as human beings. In the same way, that the human being is defined by his intelligence among other abilities, we must also add that we are all creative in different ways and in different ways. In reality, anyone who claims not to be creative may lack other personal attributes, but never some kind of creativity in their life.
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Definition of creativity:
It is not very interesting to propose another list of different definitions about the same concept, but we can identify aspects or considerations common among all of them and highlight them to value in depth the key concept of creativity.
We can learn to value the concept of creativity with the main features that define it:
– The creativity to which we refer is a part of every human being.
– Creativity is a system of perception or global process of ideas (intertwined mental processes).
– Creativity has a multiform component. (It is expressed in different forms and levels)
– Creative thinking is a mental process that is born of acquired knowledge, imagination and personal or group experience.
– It is an ability inherent to the human being to create ideas or new things.
– Creativity is associated with the different, novel and unexpected.
– Creativity responds to a concrete purpose. (For example: solving a problem or improving some need or situation, etc.).
– Sometimes creativity is surrounded by a “halo of luck” and serendipity heuristics.
– Creativity produces another creative of combined dynamics. (Creative dynamics produce more creativity)
– Human creativity has no limits and is infinite to have a constant cumulative and incremental factor with the contribution of new knowledge / experiences.
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The key concept:
Creativity is one of the engines of the world in terms of interaction between people and the economic, political and social challenges…
Let us think that without creativity we would not have survived the “Stone Age” or there would be no technological innovations such as the popular “invention of the wheel” or the discovery of fire. Remember that if you have an idea you are being imaginative, but if you also solve a dilemma you are being creative.
Creativity is an implicit dynamic of learning and developing our life at all levels for a concrete purpose. For this reason, creativity is often more conditioned by changing social needs than by the study of the different.
Although we say that the creative is often different or novel, perhaps the correct thing would be to say that creativity responds to different types or levels of perception of current knowledge. A creative process will be born from the previous knowledge acquired. There is no single way to be creative, but only one suitable combination of different variables that make it possible. If you are unable to solve a problem it is because you have not yet come up with the combination of factors necessary to solve the dilemma of your problem.
After years of study scientists have demonstrated the non-existence of the erroneous belief of the well-known duality between the two hemispheres of the brain. Today the continuous interconnection of certain parts of both hemispheres of the brain is evident for the normal functional development of the human being. Despite what was believed until recently, the brain does not separate the two hemispheres of the brain to carry out certain logical or creative actions. What the scientists determine today, with the new advances, is the evidence of the permanent interconnection of certain specific areas of the brain independently of the hemisphere.
However, we can recall the “ancient studies” of some scientists to relate attributions assigned to the brain. Many times we reduce the creative only with the new and different, while we avoid a more global vision below planning, work and personal or professional development, based on a much more methodical work of our thinking and perception.
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Creativity for innovation in your company:
Creativity and innovation for companies
The business innovation also requires a process developed that starts from the imagination of personal experience or business and go through the management of our resources and add some imagination to cope with adverse or different situations.
There can be no innovation without creativity and no imagination. Thus, imagination and creativity will give us different solutions when it comes to innovating in business processes or situations.
The world is full of challenges and opportunities for companies to know how to take advantage of, eliminating every possible element of uncertainty in this process. To pose these dilemmas is to better define objectives, to delimit the economic, social, or geographic framework; evaluating innovation systems; assess the risk factors of a problem; Combining different options and factors; and also evaluate the results achieved. All this process can promote creative solutions for our company and better policies than our competition.
In the world of business, it is very useful to briefly mention the author Kenichi Ohmae to analyze the three types of intellectual processes during the solution found:
1- The mechanical process: We react by rearranging the elements, changing the site, but does not act on them or modify them.
2- The intuitive: That optimizes an element. (“See the trees but not the forest”)
3- The strategic one: That transforms and modifies the configuration and takes advantage of its more integral perspective.
How to deal with new challenges, challenges and business opportunities?
We recommend for the search of innovation:
– Improve and update the old.
– Remove obsolete services.
– Think about the possible effect on our environment.
– Develop our imagination with every production situation.
– Have an open attitude towards the client and other points of view of other related actors (suppliers, distributors …).
– Combine and play with ideas, projects.
– Preplanning the process completely (study why? and how?).
– Reorder, and alter the order of the process and its consequences.
– Study new markets with options for the future.
– To study the needs of the clients.
– Invest and clutter ideas to get others.
– Finding where to find new customers.
– Improvements in the system of each department: commercial, distribution, warehouse, financial, shopping…
– Improvements in communication.
– How we could modify our business activity.
– Disconnect from routine problems for a moment and think or imagine in our ideal company.
– Aim lists of ideas and try to re-connect them.
– Questioning approaches.
– Internal team meetings to discuss improvements and new ideas.
– Consult with other opinions of customers and suppliers.
It is very advisable to write a small report or dossier of improvements with all the information collected, following logic of sections such as: situation, project, product, challenge, problem, costs and investment, opportunity and our idea.
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Reinvent or die:
Creativity and innovation for companies
Innovation in all areas of our organization should not be something punctual, but rather a mandatory task within the monthly routine.
The innovations do not have to always assume great drastic changes, but rather respond to subtle and staggered changes for the company and its audiences.
Recall that the basic process for any organization is the combination of so-called inputs (resources, materials) after a process of transformation and production we obtain other outputs (services, products). Within this process, innovation must be part of one of the basic pillars of the organization (as input).
In reality, to reinvent yourself is to get rid of old beliefs, that which holds you back and binds you to the chair of immobility or to think always the same.
Think that your business as an entrepreneur should not pretend to be based on a single great idea, but on the constant effort and personal passion to put something new. Do not always stay in your comfort zone or you will be lost. The companies of tomorrow must have a great capacity of response to adapt and to evolve themselves.
That which invites you to break the chains with your education or your way of being, and invites you to be better. That is reinventing itself!
Within our objective to achieve business success with innovation, we propose some indicators to measure the agents of business change. Among these are: leadership, orientation towards innovation, creative action and project consolidation.
The more sensitized we are with the perception of our stakeholders and the agents of change; the easier it will be to apply our creativity and innovation to business evolution.
Finally, to say that the creativity applied to the companies to generate innovation is one of the fundamental keys of the future for the development of the businesses. Our projects must grow and mature as people.
