It seems like the perfect storm has been approaching in regards to creativity & innovation education. Two major articles have hit the news. The first is a Fast Company article about an IBM study that identified creativity as the most important leadership skill for the future, a skill we need to cultivate in a wide variety of individuals. Next, Newsweek had an important article entitled “The Creativity Crisis” about how research is showing that American creativity is declining. More specifically the article highlights that creativity scores are dropping for American students. Creativity is one of America’s core competencies so this is concerning news. There is an increasing need and passion to improve education so that students develop the important leadership skill of creativity…and because there are important challenges at hand in our society, action is needed. Creativity in action is innovation. I am more passionate than ever about innovation education and wanting to do something about it at the widespread national level. I believe this is critical for our society.
Authored by Darin J. Eich, Ph.D.
If growth is a top priority, innovative thinking skills should be encouraged and developed at all levels of an organization. Sure, there should be a great emphasis on external or open innovation and many of innovative ideas can come from your customers or other subject matter experts. Nonetheless, it is the employees of your company who will connect those ideas and develop their own ideas within your innovation system in order to fill your pipeline on a continuous basis. The first place to open innovation is within your organization. Imagine what kind of culture of innovation your firm could have if every employee contributed to the innovation process at a place where his/her unique strengths aligned with your needs? A variety of employees can contribute to each stage of innovation by: