Creativity
Contents
Definition
Creativity is Imaginative behaviour characterized by originality and expressiveness
Description
Creativity and Knowledge Management
Introduction, definitions, background
Knowledge management and creativity would seem to be two completely different ideas and disciplines, but in fact they can and do enable and enrich each other and in the process of doing that enhance innovation.
Knowledge management is defined as: the process of capturing, developing, sharing, and effectively using organizational knowledge. It refers to a multi-disciplinary approach to achieving organizational objectives by making the best use of knowledge.
Creativity is defined as: the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; originality, progressiveness, or imagination: the need for creativity in modern industry; creativity in the performing arts. Another definition says that creativity is the reorganization of experience into new configurations: a function of knowledge, imagination, and evaluation.
Innovation is defined as: a new idea, more effective device or process, it can be viewed as the application of better solutions that meet new requirements, unarticulated needs, or existing market needs. The term innovation can be defined as something original and more effective and, as a consequence, new, that "breaks into" the market or society.
According to “inGenius: A Crash Course on Creativity,” by Tina Seelig, creativity can be learned.
Nonaka discusses the idea of “ba” in his book, “The Knowledge Creating Company,” as well as other published articles; “ba” is the idea of making space for (knowledge) creation. This idea of space is through the use of physical and/or virtual space, and includes the idea of (emergent) relationships and mental/intellectual/emotional space (reflection, and just being).
Connection between creativity and knowledge management
Knowledge management is the set of tools that underlies any knowledge-based activity; everything is knowledge-based. The question is how to facilitate, enhance, and improve efficiency and effectiveness of any process/activity through the use of knowledge management activities.
Improved efficiency and effectiveness come from finding new, creative, innovative solutions. How do we do this?
How do we use creativity and innovation to enhance knowledge management? Two books can give us insights on solving this problem. The first is in the process of being written, the other was published in 2000. The book that is in the process of being written is by Ger Driesen and is about what we can learn about learning from Vincent Van Gogh; the second was written by Michael J. Gelb and is entitled, “How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day.”
From Van Gogh we learn:
- Think inside the box (apply scarcity/constraints)
- Practice/study
- Reflect
- Understand your own story/motivation
- When you master a level change the rules
- Value solitude, not loneliness
- Circumstances: join them or beat them
From Leonard da Vinci we learn:
- Curiosity
- Independent thinking/diversity
- Sharpen your senses (listen/mindfulness, appreciate beauty)
- Embrace uncertainty
- Balance logic and imagination
- Balance body and mind
- Make new connections
To do these things we need to have the space, or as Nonaka identified, the Ba for knowledge creation.
Using these activities as well as specific knowledge management activities to aid in innovation helps us to move between the organized knowledge and the unorganized knowledge that exists. The KM activities that aid in innovation are:
- Business driven action learning (learn through doing)
- Coaching and mentoring
- Communities of practice
- External assessment and benchmarking
- Knowledge capture from projects
- Knowledge exchange
- Knowledge harvesting from individuals
- Lessons learned
- Peer assists
- Project learning
- Organizational Learning, Training
Organized knowledge includes things that have been documented, in books, journals, repositories, libraries, databases, and slide decks, that we know/have access to. Whereas unorganized knowledge is knowledge that hasn’t been discovered yet either because the experiments haven’t been preformed or it resides in the heads of people we haven’t met yet.
What allows us to pass back and forth between organized and unorganized is the use of critical thinking. Critical thinking allows us to question what we know and to ask questions to discover new knowledge, but it also allows us to take the new knowledge and organize it into new or existing models. Critical thinking allows us to apply “the rules” but it also allows us to question and break “the rules” in order to make new discoveries and learn.
Critical thinking
Related Articles
References
- HBR To Get More Creative Become Less Productive
- Concept of Ba
- Definition of Knowledge Management accessed on Dec 4, 2015 at 4;07pm CET.
- Definition of Creativity accessed on Dec 4, 2015 at 3:55pm CET.
- Definition of Innovation accessed on Dec 4, 2015 at 4:12pm.
- inGenius: A Crash Course on Creativity, by Tina Seelig accessed December 4, 2015 at 4:25pm.
- Critical Thinking on Wikipedia
