Here’s a good question. What’s the difference between creativity and innovation? First of all, there is a difference.
Creativity according to Dictionary.com is: “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”
Innovation on the other hand is: ‘something new or different introduced’
So Creativity is the idea and Innovation is the same idea or the creativity applied. I like to say Creativity is Free (the name of this blog) because it’s usually easier to come up with ideas than to implement them. People are having great ideas all the time — and often the they are having the same ideas at the same time. But it’s the sorting out and finding the right idea and bringing it to life that defines innovation. Out of many hundreds of creative ideas, only a few may ever be implemented. For those precious few that are, we know of them as innovation — or simply, applied creativity.
For more posts on Creativity and Innovation processes – click here.
Great blog, simplifying complexity!
I’ve been thinking, and blogging, recently about the link between mistakes and innovation. In particular, whether organisations could usefully have a formal ‘Mistakes Policy’ in order to support innovation?
As you say, having the ideas is easier than implementing them . . .
I’d be really interested in your thoughts. (If this is an intrusion, please forgive me.)
Url: http://catchthevision.wordpress.com
Thank you for the comment. I do think companies should reward mistakes as long as they are genuine efforts and not just due to poor training. If employees are trying out creative new ideas, many will fail but employees should be rewarded for their efforts. There’s a book called ‘Weird Ideas that Work’ by Robert I. Sutton that talks about rewarding success and failure, while punishing inaction. So the idea is that the more you do, the more failures but also the more successes! And in order to keep people trying, you need to recognize the attempts as well. I plan to do a review of the book mentioned above soon.
Hi,
You are right…
It is easier to come up with ideas than to implement them. which is why we have more stargazers in today’s world than real innovators!
The other difference between Creativity and Innovation, is that Creativity usually draws from everywhere and is not bound to a set of values or context. Innovation however, demands you be creative within a set of values and context. The latter of course, is a lot tougher.
Great post!
What’s an interesting twist is that it often takes creativity to innovate…
inovation comes from creativity, and for sure there would be mistakes rolling up the idea into a considarable thing.. so does that mean the mistakes encountered along the idea is part of inovation.?
Usually the term “innovation” refers to ideas that have survived the ‘roll-up’ process and have reached the ‘implementation’ phase. However, many great ideas never see the light of day not because they aren’t good ideas, but because of a lack of resources/time/money to implement them right now. Also, a good idea for the future might not make sense today. Take for example of the electric car. It’s an idea that’s been around for ages but has never really taken off for a multitude of reasons.