CREATIVITY VS. INNOVATION

Hello again, I know for sure you are as impressed as I am about this subject, and to be honest even for me it is still difficult to explain which one is which. But I'm willing to go into as much detail as possible so that when you're done reading this you can happily go out on the streets and share this information and use it in the right way.



First let's read together the definitions of creativity- the ability to produce original and unusual ideas, or to make something new or imaginative (Cambridge,2020) and innovation a new idea or method that is being tried for the first time, or such ideas or methods. (Cambridge,2020)

"Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, the just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while." - Steve Jobs

If these words still don't make sense to you then let's keep talking, when we talk about creativity it can be shown in many ways, creativity is difficult to measure as it is very relative.
When we talk about innovation it is measurable, because innovation generates a change in an established system. Based on a viable idea.

"What is often lacking is not creativity in the idea-creating sense but innovation in the action-producing sense, i.e. putting ideas to work." Theodore Levitt

So basically creativity is the search for solutions or alternatives to a problem to be solved. The more alternatives we find, the more creative we are. Now, innovation does not have to do with the search for ideas, but with the production of those ideas. Creativity uses lateral thinking, our divergent perspective. While innovation necessarily has to use linear thinking.

So even though both are relating at the moment of creating something which can make it very difficult to differentiate, it is important to realize that creativity is not what is being sold, what is being sold is innovation.

There is no point in hoping for a breakthrough idea - what matters is the ability to generate many ideas and act with drive and ambition to achieve a meaningful goal. Ideas don't make people successful - it's the other way around. (CHAMORRO-PREMUSZIC)

 So I hope you have understood the difference between these two concepts. For me it is important to be creative but it is more important to know how to innovate.

Thomas Edison, the greatest innovator of all time, put it well:

"Innovation is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration."

References

Dictionary.cambridge.org. 2020. CREATIVITY | Definition In The Cambridge English Dictionary. [online] Available at: <https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/creativity> [Accessed 10 March 2020].

Dictionary.cambridge.org. 2020. Innovation | Meaning In The Cambridge Learner’S Dictionary. [online] Available at: <https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/learner-english/innovation> [Accessed 10 March 2020].

Harvard Business Review. 2020. Innovation Is Not Creativity. [online] Available at: <https://hbr.org/2010/08/innovation-is-not-creativity.html> [Accessed 10 March 2020].

Business Insider. 2020. There's A Critical Difference Between Creativity And Innovation. [online] Available at: <https://www.businessinsider.com/difference-between-creativity-and-innovation-2013-4?r=MX&IR=T> [Accessed 10 March 2020].

Both), C., 2020. Creativity Vs. Innovation: What's The Difference?. [online] Business News Daily. Available at: <https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/6848-creativity-vs-innovation.html> [Accessed 10 March 2020].
Hoganassessments.com. 2020. [online] Available at: <http://www.hoganassessments.com/sites/default/files/uploads/Tomas_QA_R1.pdf> [Accessed 10 March 2020].