We must give in to our curiosity. Just like kids in playground having a ride on new swing for the first time or a puppy experiencing new surroundings. There is excitement, there is trepidation, but there is a willingness to be positive and to come out the other side, bigger, stronger, with greater confidence and feeling safe.
For all the definitions of creativity and innovation that abound, from an organic perspective, creativity is the art of conception. Innovation is the art of successful gestation. Scott Berkun goes on to suggest that the best definition of innovation is significant positive change. When we create we are looking for the original, the new. When we innovate we want to put these new and original ideas into place.
Every day, the drafting of legislation, policy and procedure seeks to obfuscate simplicity in such new and eventful ways (almost at times it would seem with potentially sinister or class divisional intent) to explain things that simple, logical phrases already do. Our language is full of ‘sayings’. Sayings that have stood the test of time because they never lose relevance and are always logical, fundamental and unequivocal. It’s simple. When you cheat, you lose.
Opinions and Perspectives are simply that. Not fact and not truth. Given this presumption, though, society’s common thinking is that perception or perspective is truth. Is fact. Each and every one of our world’s views’ provides us with a frame of reference from which we develop these perceptions, these ‘truths’. What we see, hear, smell, touch, taste and feel (don’t forget the sixth sense) construct our own opinions and perceptions. They are our warm security blankets.
We lose track of time. Why? Because we were in awe. The wonder of the moments seemed to suspend time for us and we truly lose track of time and reality. Creativity has this type of impact upon us. Great creative experiences hold us in rapture, whether we are the creator or the receiver, both positions defer our liability to pay now. We can buy now. Creativity gives us credit. Not in monetary terms but in time.
Process and Structure all too often stifle innovation. There is never enough focus on product/content. The sales and marketing processes take over and drive the direction of organisations, paying lip service to the quality or otherwise of the products/content being proffered.
True learning and true education forces us to take long-term approaches. To realise and accept that learning is long haul. Results do not come over night, but when they do, the long-term results are so much greater than simply the sum of their parts (which is the classic short-term strategy).