Difference between Creativity and Innovation - Coursework Example

creativity report al Affiliation) Total Word Count 506 INTRODUCTION In the current business world, a lot of confusion relates to innovation and creativity. In certain quarters, people claim that innovation and creativity are immeasurable. However, in the process of success, it is necessary to identify the performance of the two components, and relate it to the success of a business. Therefore, with the rapid changes that define the nature of doing modern business, it is critical for all companies to distinguish between the innovative and creative ideas that contribute to their performances. Besides, the nature of business is devoid of compromise, limitations, and barriers to the effects of creativity and innovation. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION The major component that distinguishes innovation from creativity is focus. Creativity, certainly, is the exploration and presentation of the potential that an individual’s mind has in line with conceiving new ideas. The concepts that arise from creativity manifest in a myriad of ways, often from the environment in which people live, what they hear, see, taste, or touch. In addition, creativity can manifest from experimental thinking within a person. The art of creativity is subjective, hence making it difficult to measure. There are several types of creativity. The exploratory creativity is the generation of new ideas by using structured concepts. Combinational creativity involves combining familiar ideas to come up with a new idea. Transformational creativity, on the other hand, is the generation of new structures through transforming or changing certain dimensions of a structure. Creativity is a process that entails creation of new ideas. These are the processes responsible for creation of new products. It involves both subconscious and conscious thinking on the part of the creative thinker (Green, 2010). Besides, creativity is stimulated at an individual or group level as it is an activity that is neither isolated nor accidental. It involves continuous regular participation in breaking patterns and solving problems. On the other hand, innovation is measurable. Innovation introduces changes to a system that is existent and relatively stable. The major aim of innovation is to make a present idea viable and more efficient. Innovation deals with the unmet and unrecognized elements of a system, and applies specific creative resources to come up with a solution that is proper and appropriate (Mannix, Neale and Goncalo, 2009). Besides, innovation in itself involves additional investments with the aim of reaping more returns on an idea. It is impossible to force the innovative ideas in an organization. However, a common language towards innovation is necessary in measuring the milestones of innovation in an organization. Design thinking measure innovation through the overlapping spaces of inspiration, ideation, and implementation. It provides an approach that is consistent in defining challenges. Through design thinking, organizations identify their problems and design a mechanism to tackle these problems. Consequently, it is through organizational thinking design that innovation connects to creativity. Organizations employ innovation to visualize the performance of an idea after its conception from creativity. Leaders, therefore, play a critical role in deriving an innovative strategy that is not only long-term but also successful. Besides, leaders have the task of ensuring that employees pursue innovation consistently. For instance, Proctor and Gamble, under the former CEO A.G. Lafley, embraced the culture of innovation. During his period, the value of the company grew by over $100 billion. In the year 2000, P&G had $10 billion consumer brands, but currently, it has over 22 billion consumer brands (Mannix, Neale and Goncalo, 2009). In many advanced economies, whereas innovation pays the bills, creativity is the admission price EXPLANATION OF THE PROBLEM BEING SOLVED AND THE CREATIVE SOLUTION Creative thinking solves a number of problems in organizations. This explains the necessity for companies to embrace creativity in solving such problems that involve the internal and external operations of the company. In a healthy business environment, competition poses a challenge for each company. With the revolution of production trends in each sector of an economy, organizations employ creativity in containing the problem of competition. Through generation of advanced technology, the problem of competition is contained. In addition to that, the diversification of a company’s products helps to counter the competition from other companies in the industry. Another problem that involves the use of creativity is the satisfaction of consumer tastes. With the current expansion of businesses into multinational markets, companies face the challenge of satisfying the diverse needs of various customers across the borders. Besides, cultural and language barriers makes it difficult for companies to suit the vast preferences of international consumers. In line with maintaining product quality, creativity is important in the Product and Service design (Turnbull and Eickhoff, 2011). Through value addition, simplification, and standardization, creativity fulfills the needs of diverse customers. It is only through creativity that companies improve the customer’s loyalty to a product. This is due to the uniqueness and convenience that comes with creativity. The problem of efficiency in production faces many organizations in the business environment. Certain barriers exist in an organization, such as poor infrastructure, bureaucracy, waste management, safety and high costs in manufacturing. Poor infrastructure hinders the smooth flow of materials in an organization. Bureaucracy in management, on the other hand, makes the process of decision-making slower and time consuming. A poor waste management mechanism is a problem that affects the company’s social corporate responsibility of keeping the environment clean. Through developing alternative and efficient infrastructural means, creativity solves the problem of poor infrastructure. Creative thinking involves coming up with simplified channels that make it easier for the products to reach the final consumer, hence eliminating bureaucracy in the process. In addition to that, the creativity to recycle waste into other products of financial gain eliminates the problem of waste management. Creativity also adopts technologies that are safe and cost effective for a profit making company. Labor is a critical component in the success of an organization. Several problems hinder the effective operations of a labor-intensive organization. Language and cultural differences, for example, define the problem of ineffective communication within the company’s workforce (Lauring and Klitmoller, 2015). Currently, the competition in the business world obligates companies to adopt effective strategies for managing their human resource. Through creativity, companies can create loyalty and innovation in the company. Such activities as employee motivation and rewarding are creative tactics that encourage the spirit of competition on employees, hence instilling the spirit of teamwork amongst the employees. HOW CREATIVE CULTURE COULD BE CREATED WITHIN THE ORGANISATION By stressing the importance of creativity in an organization, the staff comes up with new ideas and forwards them to the management. Besides, the organization should allocate time for brainstorming, through workshops and teamwork to explore and refine ideas within the organizational workforce. Organizational storytelling is a technique that involves the employees and management bonding together and sharing their experiences (Turnbull and Eickhoff, 2011). Through this technique, people actively solicit ideas within the organization. In addition to that, the management should be supportive of the ideas that people offer instead of watering them down. This encourages the employees to challenge each other towards the approach of creativity. Besides, tolerating mistakes is another way of building the creativity of an organization while rewarding the most creative ideas through award schemes. Finally, the organization should spend time and money in implementing the ideas that arise from organizational creativity. PROCESS AND BARRIERS TO CREATIVITY The process of creativity involves dealing with both external and internal frameworks that facilitate imagination. Besides, creativity has processes that define it. Fluency is the process of provision of volumes of ideas. Flexibility is a creativity element that involves the application of familiar concepts in newer concepts. Originality involves the creation of new ideas, with the ideas being unique. Awareness is the imagination involving perceptions of possibilities and connections beyond the normal status. Motivation is a creativity element that drives the ability to think about new ideas (Green, 2010). Creative ideas must have the ability to be useful in external criteria. Besides, such ideas must be feasible enough to be practical in the application to the business environment. A number of factors hinder creativity. Social and National conditions like the lack of freedom of movement and expression affect the degree of an organizational creativity. Lack of respect, dishonesty, and intolerance on the part of the management also hinders the junior employees from forwarding ideas to the autocratic management. Individual attitude and behavior affect the willingness of individuals to contribute to creative forums. The age differences also acts to deprive the older people from being as creative as their younger counterparts are. Other factors include the fear of uncertainty and negative mental perceptions towards the need for creativity in an organization. SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS Organizations should embrace creativity by carrying out motivational exercises that instill the courage to forward creative ideas to the management. Besides, creative thinking should be incorporated in universal educational syllabi to create the universal demand for creation of new ideas that improve the quality of human life (Turnbull and Eickhoff, 2011). Besides, companies should take stern actions against leaders who inhibit the growth of innovative ideas in the organizational framework. In conclusion, creativity continues to revolutionize the business environment with new technologies coming up frequently. References Green, A. 2010. Creativity in public relations. London: Kogan Page. Lauring, J. and Klitmoller, A. 2015. Inclusive Language Use in Multicultural Business Organizations: The Effect on Creativity and Performance. International Journal of Business Communication. Mannix, E., Neale, M. and Goncalo, J. 2009. Creativity in groups. Bingley, UK: Emerald. Turnbull, A. and Eickhoff, M. 2011. Business Creativity – Innovating European Entrepreneurship Education. Journal of Small Business & Entrepreneurship, 24(1), pp.139-149. 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