Entrepreneurship Research Guide : Creativity
This guide is a collaborative effort between the Wisconsin School of Business and the Business Library.
One: Articulate your challenge
How might you enhance/create/improve/redesign/expand/re-imagine/grow…
- What is the problem you’re trying to solve?
- What is the impact you’re trying to achieve?
Two: Sharpening the ability to generate new ideas
- Analytical – Deconstruct a problem into simpler parts
- Search – Use experience and information to make unexpected connections to find existing opportunities
- Imagination – Imagine solutions without constraints (“blue sky”)
- Perspective change – Adopt the viewpoint opposite of what you believe or assume the identity of someone else
- Relationship – Seek to make connections between unrelated objects/people
- Group – Develop ideas with others or enhance their ideas
Three: Sample techniques/frameworks
- Attribute listing/Anthropological morphismWith attribute listing you describe all of the components/attributes of the product, process, or problem and then list all the possible alternatives to these components.
- BrainstormingWhat’s the best way to brainstorm? While there are basic rules that make the process meaningful and effective, there are literally dozens of ways to actually inspire creative ideas. Many facilitators use more than one technique in a single brainstorming session in order to keep the creative juices flowing while supporting different styles of thought and expression.
- Role PlayingRole-playing takes place between two or more people, who act out roles to explore a particular scenario.
- SCAMPERThe SCAMPER method helps you generate ideas for new products and services by encouraging you to ask seven different types of questions, which will help you understand how you can innovate and improve existing products, services, problems and ideas.
Suggested readings
- Amabile, T. M. (1998). HOW TO KILL CREATIVITY. (cover story). Harvard Business Review, 76(5), 76-87.Creativity is undermined unintentionally every day in work environments that were established—for entirely good reasons—to maximize business imperatives such as coordination, productivity, and control. Managers cannot be expected to ignore business imperatives, of course. But in working toward these imperatives, they may be inadvertently designing organizations that systematically crush creativity. The author's research shows that it is possible to develop the best of both worlds: organizations in which business imperatives are attended to and creativity flourishes.
Conceptual Blockbusting by Call Number: Request from UW SystemISBN: 0738205370Publication Date: 2001-10-30James Adams's unique approach to generating ideas and solving problems has captivated, inspired, and guided thousands of people from all walks of life. Now, twenty-five years after its original publication, Conceptual Blockbusting has never been more relevant, powerful, or fresh. Integrating insights from the worlds of psychology, engineering, management, art, and philosophy, Adams identifies the key blocks (perceptual, emotional, cultural, environmental, intellectual, and expressive) that prevent us from realizing the full potential of our fertile minds. Employing unconventional exercises and other interactive elements, Adams shows individuals, teams, and organizations how to overcome these blocks, embrace alternative ways of thinking about complex problems, and celebrate the joy of creativity. With new examples and contemporary references, Conceptual Blockbusting is guaranteed to introduce a new generation of readers to a world of new possibilities.
- The Field Guide to Human-Centered DesignA step-by-step guide that will get you solving problems like a designer.