Creativity and Innovation : The Bridge
Last week I shared a flow to Innovating.
"Creativity," which is the idea, is the first step. then comes the process known as "Design." Underneath design, there is "Technology," which serves as the means to an end, this is the tool. "Innovation" is what we want to achieve.
The word “Technology” was moved under “Creativity” in the previous email, although it should have been under “Design.”
we should have something like this:
Creativity — Design — Innovation
............................|
..................Technology
Every Innovation starts with an Idea. How can you innovate without hurting is the question.
The bridge that needed to be crossed from the shared flow is "Design and Technology." Design as a method? I want to be clear that design is involved from "idea to production" of the Innovation process, not just the end product, despite what some people might think as most are familiar with the aesthetic part of design but not as a process. Through testing and prototyping, the design process will assist you in determining the best path forward for production. More importantly, it aids in preventing the wastage of resources, including available finances.
The term "Design Thinking" can also be used to describe the design process. You may be familiar with that phrase, but in case you aren't, Tim Brown, executive chair at IDEO and the author of Change by Design, provides a definition "Design thinking is a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success.” Design thinking is a method that focuses product and service development decisions on customer needs. It often entails an empathy-driven process to define complicated problems and produce solutions that address those problems. I am aware that there are other methodologies or processes that could be used when it comes to innovation, but what interests me about design thinking is that it is human-centered; the capacity to empathize with users, customers, and other people in order to understand their feelings and thoughts as well as what they do and say, which helps with the appropriate insights into knowing what to do and what not to do, is what makes it so intriguing.
In the "The Creativity In You" story from "Moving from Communication to Execution," I discussed how I had originally suggested "a design conference," which would have involved inviting designers from around the globe. The idea sounded great, but besides the fact that we couldn't afford to finance it, none of us had any experience planning such an event, until a team member suggested we start with secondary schools. Surprisingly, pursuing that notion increased our self-assurance, established a track record, and made failure more manageable. Although I had previously participated in facilitations, organizing the seminars gave me a better experience with public speaking, it allows me to hone my leadership, management, and other interpersonal skills. The failure and resource waste would have been enormous, assuming we had access to funding for the larger event at the time. Prototyping is effective in design thinking. In a comparable way, if we had used the 'Design Thinking' methodology, the anxiety of back-and-forth meetings and trying to figure out what to do when we couldn't acquire sponsorship for the bigger event would have been lessened.
Something interesting happened when we were planning to organize the seminar at a university that also happens to be my alma mater. Our resource person at the department we proposed to partner with on hosting the seminar requested that we put our previous events into a proposal so he can share them with the Head of Department as proof that we've been organizing similar events. The department granted our request, and the seminar held and was really impactful from the feedbacks gathered.
As a tool, technology can be used to improve and facilitate the effectiveness of the innovation process. Technology is a means to an end; it is not the solution, despite what some people believe. It's a tool that the user chooses to employ. It is the user who decides whether technology is beneficial or harmful, according to a quote I have.
We can innovate without hurting if design and technology are used appropriately.
I will subsequently share on Overcoming Creativity Myths Series. The header will remain the same for a while with different subheadings.
Cheers!