SEMINAR ON

CREATIVITY AND

INNOVATION
SUBJECT: MANAGEMENT

SUBMITTED TO:

DR. (MRS.) LAXMI RANA Ph.D. (N)

PRINCIPAL

VMACON, SALEM

SUBMITTED BY:

HARIOM PARASHAR
 II YEAR M.Sc. (N)

VMACON, SALEM

INDEX
S. No. CONTENT PAGE NO.
1. INTRODUCTION: CREATIVITY 1

2. DEFINITION OF CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION 1

3. CREATIVE PROCESS 1

4. STAGES IN CREATIVE THINKING 2

5. CHARACTERISTICS OF CREATIVE PEOPLE 2-3

6. BARRIERS TO CREATIVITY 3

7. TECHNIQUES TO ENHANCE CREATIVITY 4

8. STIMULATING CREATIVITY IN STAFF 5

9. REWARDS FOR CREATIVITY 5-6

10. SUMMARY 6

11. BIBLIOGRAPHY 6
 CREATIVITY
INTRODUCTION
An important factor in managing people is creativity. A distinction can be
made between creativity and innovation. The fundamental driver of continuous
quality improvement and cost reduction is innovation failure to promote
innovation leads to lower quality.
DEFINITION
Creativity
The term creativity refers to the ability and power to develop new ideas.
[KOONTZ.H, 1998]
Innovation
Innovation is the process of taking a creative idea and turning it into a
useful product, service or method of operation. [ROBBINS.P.S 2005]

THE CREATIVE PROCESS

The creative process has two aspects
 Innovative creativity
 Adaptive creativity
 Innovative creativity
It is the ability to come up with truly new idea. For example the artificial
lens for cataracts. Inventors use innovative creativity.
The creative person forms new patterns from many seemingly unrelated
ideas. The process usually starts with a problem. Problems are opportunities in
disguise.
 Adaptive creativity
 It is displayed when people find better ways to do their work. Adaptive
creativities are putting old ideas together in new ways or simply putting the
creative ideas of others into practice.
Entrepreneurs exhibit adaptive creativity because creative people are
often unable to work out the details of their ideas. We need the both types of
creative people, the inventors and the entrepreneurs.
STAGES IN CREATIVE THINKING
The process of creative thinking is said to pass through the following five
stages.
1. Saturation
The thinker becomes absorbed with a problem and collects all facts and
information relating to the problem.
2. Deliberation
The investigation the problem deeply to secure further ideas, collected
ideas and fact are analyzed, classified or rearranged from many view points.
3. Incubation
The severe strain of thinking compels the thinking to take relocation from
the conscious and purposeful search for solution, although he broods over the
problem and caries it in his subconscious mind.
4. Illumaination
The central theme appears like a flash of light after a period the solution
seems to him to be fresh, exciting and full of promise.
5. Verification
Ideas developed in the preceding stage are experimented for their
effective use. If required necessary modification and adaptation are introduced
by going through the cycles of creative thinking again and again.
CHARACTERISTICS OF CREATIVE PEOPLE
Confident is always a better way of doing things, they challenge systems
processes, procedures, tradition, practices and policies and rules. Most creative
people share many of the following characteristics.
  They possess innumerable bits of information [Kaleidoscope
forms new pattern from many disconnected pieces]
 They blot out what to them seems irrelevant or unimportant
 They are curious open and sensitive to problems. They may
bombard their superiors and other with questions many starting with why,
why not what if.
 They are optimistic risk taker, who like challenges and rarely talk
about failure.
 They often appear preoccupied. At times they work furiously.
 They dislike rigid routines, monotonous tasks and restrictive
policies.
 They tolerate isolation and ambiguity.
 They value independence and autonomy.
 They often enjoy with innovative process more then the result of
innovation.
 They bounce ideas off others and build on the suggestion of their
associates.
 They are voracious readers.
 They are often nonconformist’s regards by their peers as
different.
 They may like to hang out with other creative people
BARRIERS TO CREATIVITY
The following situation and circumstances can creativity
 Prejudging ideas
 We tend to accept idea more readily from authority figures or people. We
respect and reject those from marginal performers.
 Fear of failure
 This is a significant inhibitor of creativity
 Restrictive policies, rules, rituals and procedures.
 Strict controls and limited budgets.
 Complex or slow approval procedure for suggestion and projects.
  Demands for a consensus
 Understaffing and excessive work group assignments
 Lengthy chain of command
 Group norms
 Disparaging or discouraging remarks.
The creative manager
All too often it is assumed that most people are noncreative and have little
ability to develop new ideas. This assumption unfortunately can be detrimental to
the organization, for in the appropriate environment virtually
All people are capable of being creativity varies considerably among individuals.
As a result, the creativity of most individuals is probably under utilized in
many causes, despite the fact that unusual innovations can be of great benefit to
the firm. However, individual and group techniques can be effectively used to
nurture creativity, especially in the area of planning but creativity is not a
substitute for managerial judgment. It is the manager, who must determine and
weight the risks involved in pursuing unusual idea and translating them into
innovation practices.
TECHNIQUES TO ENHANCE CREATIVITY
Two popular techniques are available. They are brainstorming and
synectics
Brainstorming
One of the best known techniques for facilitating creativity has been
developed by Alex. F. Osborn, who has been called the father of brainstorming.
The purpose of this approach is to improve prove problem solving by
finding new and unusual solution. In the brainstorming session a multiplication of
ideas is sought. The rules are a following,
1. No idea are ever criticized
2. The more radical the idea are the better
3. The quantity of idea production is stressed
4. The improvement of ideas by others is encouraged
 Brain storming, which emphasizes group thinking, was widely acceptance
after its introduction. E.g. Researcher’s activity also the acceptance of new ideas
is usually greater when the decision is made by the group charged with its
implementation.

Synectics
Originally known as the Gordon technique [creator William j. Gordon] this
system was further modified and become known as synectics.
In this approach the members of the synectics team are carefully selected
for their suitability to deal with the problem, a problem which may involve the
entire organization.
The leader of the group plays a vital role in this approach only the leader
known the specific nature of the problem. The main reason for this approach is to
prevent the group form reaching a premature solution to the problem.
STIMULATING CREATIVITY IN STAFF
The suggestions for stimulation creativity in department or unit are
follows,
 Identify the innovation people ,and strive to known them better
 Emphasize creativity during the original and training of new
employees
 Tolerate failure and mistakes as cost of innovation and progress
 Provide the necessary resources and psychological boosters
 Expose them to in house and outside leading, including seminars
and professional meetings
 Consultants and guest speakers
 Publication audiotapes videotapes and computer programs
 Customer input
 Vendors and sales representation
 Dispense lots of praise and rewards.
REWARDS FOR CREATIVITY
  Bonuses that follow specific accomplishments are more
motivation then end of year bonuses.
 The rewards may relate to team work, quality new services and
customer satisfaction
 Give prizes not for suggestion but also for criticism that lead to
improvements
 Shower them with recognition. Encourage them to publish
Other rewards are,
 Increased work space, equipment and resources
 A personal library
 Appointments to teaching staffs of academic institutions
 Relief from tedious tasks
SUMMARY
So far we have discussed about definition of creativity and innovation, the
creative process, stages in creative thinking, characteristics of creative people,
barriers to creativity, techniques to enhance creativity, stimulating creativity in
staff and rewards for creativity.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
 Chatterjee S.S. (1996), “An Introduction to Management, Its
Principals and Techniques”, 12 th edition, World Press (P) Ltd.,
Calcutta, Pp 51-57
 Koontz H. (2004), “Essential of Management – An international
perspective”, 6th edition, Tata McGraw hill publishing, company
Ltd., New Delhi, Pp 308-11
 McConnell R.C. (2006) “Management Skills for New Health Care
Supervisors,” 4th edition, Jones and Bartlett publishers, USA, Pp.
38-92
 Robbins P.S. (2005), “Fundamentals of Management, Essential
Concepts and Applications”, 5th edition, Pearson Education
publication, New Delhi, Pp 51-57