Innovating with creativity: methods, tools and strategies.
Edited by Simone Budini
Today more than ever, the ability to innovate is the main competitive advantage for companies. Innovation is not just about technology or new products-it is a way of thinking, an attitude that enables companies to respond with agility to emerging challenges and opportunities . In an increasingly dynamic and uncertain environment, developing a creative approach is critical to staying relevant and generating sustainable value.
There are various approaches to developing this aptitude that Edward de Bono called “lateral thinking,” i.e., a methodology for tackling complex problems by exploring alternative, out-of-the-box solutions. While traditional logical thinking follows a linear and analytical path, lateral thinking encourages unexpected connections and innovative approaches. There are various techniques for developing lateral thinking: provocation and perspective shifting: (questioning basic assumptions to explore new possibilities); the use of analogies (comparing seemingly unrelated situations to generate new insights); and inversion (reversing the perspective of a problem to discover unthinkable solutions).
The purpose of these techniques is the generation of novel ideas. This, too, is not mere unstructured creativity, but a crucial process for any company that wants to innovate. It is not just about having brilliant insights, but about building an environment in which ideas can be born, developed and transformed into concrete solutions. Among the most effective methodologies for idea generation are structured brainstorming (focused sessions in which participants come up with ideas unfiltered, fostering collective creativity), brainwriting (a variation of brainstorming in which ideas are written down before being discussed, to reduce the influence of group dynamics) the SCAMPER (a method that helps generate new ideas by modifying existing elements, through operations such as replacing, combining, adapting, modifying, eliminating and rearranging), or De Bono ‘s own famous “Six Hats for Thinking” (a tool for exploring a problem from different cognitive perspectives, stimulating richer, more multifaceted thinking).
A special way of approaching challenges in innovative ways, especially in a world of rapid change such as ours, futures thinking is an interesting discipline for companies that want to anticipate emerging trends and proactively prepare for the challenges to come. Futures thinking is not an exact prediction of the future, but a method of exploring alternative scenarios. Various avenues are pursued for this exercise: horizon scanning (identifying weak signals of change to capture emerging trends); scenario planning (constructing possible future scenarios to evaluate appropriate strategies and action plans); reverse engineering the future (starting from a possible desired future and tracing the actions needed to achieve it); and backcasting (analyzing what present decisions can positively influence the future).
Regardless of which methodology one prefers, the point is to adopt a creative and innovative approach no longer as the prerogative of startups or technology companies, but as a necessity for any business that wants to thrive in an ever-changing world. Managers and business leaders must develop soft skills that include lateral thinking, the ability to generate ideas, and strategic vision about the future.
An innovative organization creates a work environment that stimulates creativity, fostering diversity of thought and experimentation; develops flexible business processes that can adapt quickly to new ideas and opportunities; adopts collaborative innovation tools, involving multidisciplinary teams and external stakeholders in the creative process; and integrates the future into decision-making, using foresight methodologies to anticipate change.
A company’s ability to constantly reinvent itself depends not only on the resources at its disposal, but on the mindset it adopts. Innovation is not an isolated event, but an ongoing process that requires curiosity, courage and openness to change. The future belongs to those who can imagine it and build it with creativity and strategic vision.
Simone Budini is Founding Partner and Impact Manager of Humanistic ESG benefit company; Project Leader of CeSID (Center on Sustainability, Inclusion and Digitization) at Luiss Business School, and lecturer at Umbria Business School. Co-manager of SDNS Italy, the leading United Nations network on Sustainability Research. He is a member of the CTS of NeXT (New Economy X All) and a board member of the International Humanistic Management Association.
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