Three quotes today courtesy of my bloglines feed from the quotation page. One in the title, two below.
Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority
Thomas H. Huxley
When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong
Arthur C. Clarke
All relate to the problem of innovation and discovery. People tend to confuse symptoms with causes in management theory, and one such confusion is the focus on creativity programmes. Creativity to my mind is a symptom of innovation rather than its cause. So if you create the pre-conditions for an innovation ecology you will then find evidence of creativity along with innovation itself. I covered those preconditions in two previous posts, here and here.
However as these quotations indicate, innovation in in the history of human systems has generally required pig headed obstinacy in face of establishment orthodoxy. Huxley and Clark make this explicit, Gauguin is more subtle.
Comments (2)
Another thought provoking post Dave!
I wonder how you would define 'creativity' and 'innovation'. To my mind innovation is the successful implementation of creativity. Innovation is using creativity to achieve some end... I wonder if this is how you differentiate?
Although I have heard of innovation and creativity being used as synonyms, (which has lead me to understand a number of 'creativity' programs as mis-labelled 'innovation' programs)
I do agree that no matter what the word is that people use, all too often they use it as a noun rather than a verb... and rather than asking how they can lead people to behave more creatively or innovatively, they 'nominalize' and ask how they can "increase innovation". Cognitively freezing the process.
Maybe we should talk less about creativity, and innovation and more about creating and innovating...
Is this semantics, or does it matter?
Regards,
Jason
Posted by Jason Bates | December 28, 2006 4:09 PM
Posted on December 28, 2006 16:09
Thanks Jason - I would talk about two types of innovation: incramental and eureka. The first improves what we have within known limits the second creates something new. Creativity (or the ability to think in different ways, to see a different perspective and to express it) links to one of the three conditions namely perspective shift. It is a way but not the only way. I think the words mean different things and part of the problem is that creativity programmes are now formulaic interventions
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December 28, 2006 5:21 PM
Posted on December 28, 2006 17:21