Discussion: Disciplined Imagination

https://www.creativejeffrey.com/creative/uncreativity.php

This article was very insightful and I was particularly delighted with the author's use of "she" when referring to the hypothetical salesperson/manager/innovator. The article supports the ideas we have been learning in class about the innovation process. Innovation is not the responsibility of a select few creative individuals but can and should come from all levels of an organization. Creativity is an essential driver of innovation, and innovation is the driver of value creation within individuals and organizations. Conventional thinking has its function and provides structure and continuity, but should not stifle opportunities for growth. The article goes on the suggest that relying solely on conventional thinking leads to failures of innovation, missed opportunities, to limitations in decision making and problem-solving that are disastrous to a business. An organization that does not innovate from within will fail to differentiate itself and eventually stagnate. Therefore disciplined imagination needs to be cultivated and creativity supported with physical and mental space to sufficiently challenge prevailing mindsets and stimulate the generation of unique ideas.

Prevailing mindsets are dominant understandings of concepts that serve to provide shared contexts. But this is a type of convention thinking that we must seek to recognize and sidestep to allow ourselves access to original ideas and make swift and unanticipated decisions. To overcome traditional and creatively limiting idea generation processes, Jeffery Baumgartner suggests a creative thinking process he calls Anti-Conventional Thinking (ACT, follow this link for a quick introduction to ACT (Links to an external site.)). Rather than generating a list of many relevant but bias-limited ideas that go uncriticized, he suggests reframing the problem statement to the largest and most exciting perspective, then encouraging discussions that generate more outlandish ideas that are challenged and spur further unconventional ideas.

Prevailing mindsets do change, but only at the speed of larger cultural changes. Questioning of biases and the prevailing mindset must be integrated into any successful innovation process.