INNOVATION
‘CREATIVE THINKING NEEDS SOME SORT OF SYSTEM OR STRUCTURE.
Last year Damini Kumar, director of design and creativity, National University of Ireland (NUI),Maynooth found her- self in the company of Erno Rubik (inventor of the Rubik’s cube), renowned French designer Philippe Starck and 22 other experts who were nominated to be European Ambassa- dors for Creativity and Innovation. In light of 2009 being named EU Year of Creativity and
Innovation, the ambassadors’ purpose for the year was to pro- mote creativity and innovation among industry,communities and institutions to ensure they play a central role in future policies. “The economic crisis is challenging everyone to find new
ways of thinking and acting. Over a period of nine months we [the ambassadors] wrote a manifesto for the European Commission. “It started off as a really long document and one of our
missions was to make it short so it wouldn’t be just another policy or strategy document.We wanted it to be something that anyone could pick up and read, from the postman to a CEO to the Irish Government.” What resulted was a two-page document with seven pri-
orities and seven action points listed for each, representing the ambassadors’ universal views (see panel on page 32).
OF THE CREATOR VOL 3 ISSUE 3 2010 OWNER MANAGER 31
BEING CREATIVE FOR THE SAKE OF IT DOESN’T LEAD TO POSITIVE RESULTS’
It was presented to the president of the European Commis-
sion, José Manuel Barroso, last October and Taoiseach Brian CowenTDthis year. “They were both impressed and it is now being used in policies and strategy to some extent,” saysKumar.
WHY IS CREATIVE THINKING SO IMPORTANT?
For Kumar, creativity is simply about looking at problems and trying to solve them, and shemaintains it is something that can be learned like any other skill. “Being creative is to be curious.You need to start question-
ing things in order to be able to change them. Creative think- ing, however, needs some sort of system or structure. “You have to be clear on what problem you’re trying to solve
in the first place. In a business context this could be the need to generate revenue or reduce costs. You need to use tools and techniques to generate ideas to solve that specific problem.This should be channelled so it’s used in a productive way.There’s no point just sitting there brainstorming.” Kumar is trained in leading authorityDr Edward de Bono’s
creative-thinking approach. One of the systems she teaches is ‘Six Thinking Hats’, which has been used in the Northern Ireland Peace Process and by the US Supreme Court when the
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