Creativity and Innovation - Essay Example

In my case, it is the latter that made me realise my creative potential, and helped me to plan my career as an Interior Designer Event Manager in future. Over the years, a number of theorists through case studies, research methods and experiments, have attempted to understand the innovation and creativity amongst individuals, in a better way. All these efforts have significantly contributed in broadening the comprehension of the subject, in spite of the disagreement in between the theorists along with their hypotheses that still remain to be substantiated fully.

But, it has been unanimously agreed that there are no definite rules concerned with the sources of creativity. According to Teresa Amabile, the Head of the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business School and also a doctorate in Psychology has stated that creativity is actually a confluence of Creative Thinking, Knowledge and Motivation. Creative Thinking relates to the problem approaching mechanism of the people, which is dependent on the working and the thinking style of the individuals.

Knowledge refers to the relevant understanding that an individual brings in order to bear a creative effort. Teresa Amabile stresses on the fact that motivation is an accepted key to creative production, and most of the important motivators are passionate and are interested in the work. Knowledge has been described as the relevant information that an individual brings in order to bear a particular problem. According to Howard Gardner, there are two types of knowledge that are required for creativity, namely, long term focus and in depth experience.

Creativity rests on the particular ability to combine previous disparate elements in new ways that implies the need for much broader focus along with varies interests. Key aspects of Creative Thinking, as suggested by Amabile, comprise of the following:Combining knowledge from the previously disparate fieldsComfort in disagreeing with the others and trying to find out solutions that depart from status quo The specific ability to step away from a particular effort and return later with some fresh perspective The ability to persevere in dry spells and difficult problemsMotivation, on the other hand, comprises of intrinsic interest, childlike curiosity and perseverance that border obsession, collectively set the individuals, who in turn, change the culture apart from rest of mankind.

It has been noticed that much of the work of Amabile focuses on the role of intrinsic motivation and finding out the ways in which the intrinsic motivation can be improved both in the workplace as well as in the classroom. (Karlyn Adams, September 2005, A)The revised view of Amabile acknowledges the fact that probably two types of extrinsic motivation exist namely, non-synergistic motivation and synergistic motivation. Non-synergistic motivation refers to the controlled motivations and synergistic motivations refer to the enabling and informational motivations; synergistic extrinsic motivators actually enhance and support intrinsic motivation, while non-synergistic motivators hinder the inherent or the intrinsic motivation.

In relation to this, Amabile stresses that in educational contexts, the reward for schoolwork should always be viewed in the light of their impact on the creativity. This intrinsic motivational theory is well reflected in the lives of great creators, like that of Picasso, Einstein and Gandhi. All these great personalities