Creativity, Innovation, and Change

  • Herb is currently taking the Creativity, Innovation, and Change course, and hopes to earn an Adventurer Certificate in this course.
  • Intelligent Fast Failure is one of the key concepts taught in this course. Creativity involves prototyping (trying, and failing at) many things, in order to discover the solution that works best. As Thomas A. Edision said, "I have not failed. I've just found 1000 ways that won't work" and "To have a great idea, have lots of them."
  • Creative Diversity is a second key concept taught in the course. Everybody is creative in different ways, and when working with other people, it is important to recognize and appreciate that different people have different creative styles.
    • In the context of concern for structure, more adaptive people prefer to operate within boundaries, while more innovatieve people are more comfortable operating at the edges of or breaking boundaries.
    • With regard to organization, more adaptive people prefer to maintain continuity, while more innovative people are less concerned with continuity and are more likely to shake things up.
    • In the context of continuous improvement and problem solving, more adaptive people prefer a well defined, disciplined, and detail orient approach, while more innovative people often prefer to change progarams, policies, and processes in radical ways.
    • In the context of change management, more addaptive people prefer change that improves existing progrmas, policies, and processes, while more innovative peple are more likely to propose restructuring or replacing these.
    • In the context of communication, more adaptive people prefer orderly, give and take discussions, while more innovative people are not overly concerned with establihed conventions for communication.
    • In the context of teamwork, more adaptive people are more comfortable seeking harmony, while more innovative people often prefer to work outside of teams.
    • More innovative people often view more adaptive people as obsessed with details and always following the rules, while more adaptive people often view more innovative people as lacking attention to detail and noncompliant.
  • CENTER is the third key concept taught in the course. CENTER stands for Character, Entrepreneurship, owNership, Tenacity, Excellence, and Relationship.
    • Character is who you are, or who you want to become.
    • Entrepreneurship is taking smart risks and running smart experiments to help you achieve your goals.
    • owNership is taking responsibilty for your choices.
    • Tenacity is holding on to your goals through difficult times and failures.
    • Excellence is achieved through hard work, Tenacity, and owNership.
    • Relationship is about family and friendships.
  • These three concepts are interrelated in many ways. In Releationships with family and friends, we encounter Creative Diversity. And Tenacity and owNership are required as we experience the failure in Intelligent Fast Failure.