What's the Difference Between Innovation and Creativity?
Sunday, January 21, 2007 at 09:05AM 
I’ve been listening to Phil McKinney’s Killer Innovations podcasts. I am trying to understand how social media and social networking can contribute to innovative practices within an organization. One important impact might be the manner in which “innovation” is managed.
I have expressed in the past some skepticism about whether innovation can be “managed.” Some of my concerns are discussed by Jeffrey Phillips in his post “You Can’t Manage Innovation.” One reason for some of my own confusion was my failing to distinguish appropriately between innovation and creativity.
Innovation can be thought of as a process. It is the impact of social media on this process that I am exploring. A practical example is how to manage the introduction of certain types of blogging into an organization as a tool for internal communications. The blog and its features provide a wide range of structured and unstructured approaches to communication, information management, and relationship development. Assessing and planning for how this complex mix can support the innovation process is an interesting management challenge. For example, you need to strike the right balance between concepts of structure and process on the one hand, and freedom and spontaneity on the other.
Creativity is less of a process than a personal characteristic. People differ greatly in their ability to think creatively. One type of creativity is the spontaneous generation of new ideas of which some people are capable; extreme examples of this type of creativity are people like Mozart and Edison. Another kind of creativity is the ability to discern connections and relationships between existing facts or phenomena. Some people are creative on their own; others thrive on interaction with others.
Social media and social networking, when applied within an organization, can help to promote both innovation and creativity. I’ll be exploring these topics and their management implications in the coming weeks and welcome comments and suggestions from others who are wrestling with the same ideas.
- To see other posts related to “innovation,” click here, or use the tags listed below this article.
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Reader Comments (6)
Most employees want to get credit for their ideas and, as a result, hold them close to their vests.
A collaborative process like this would be a good thing if the company can get everyone to trust each other (not to steal the idea, not to punish - particularly socially - bad ideas, etc).
Unfortunately, humans being humans, only the really self-motivated people are going to participate in this type of collaboration since there is, effectively, no credit for ideas for any single person and it's just another "thing to do".
As always, this sort of thing needs to be led by example to get people comfortable with it. When you see some of the boss' bad ideas in public, you might not be shy about sharing yours.
Dan
Looking forward to future posts on the subject.
Thanks for the comments.
I was thinking about your statement "Most employees want to get credit for their ideas and, as a result, hold them close to their vests. " -- I guess I need to study up more on group dynamics. Seems to me that keeping ideas to yourself could also guarantee you NEVER "get credit" since no one knows you originated an idea. But also, just originating an idea isn't enough, you also need to nurture it, and part of that nurturing involves collaboration and discussion to work out the kinks.
- Dennis.
I agree totally. Even if you make tools available universally, nothing beats "word of mouth" to promote acceptance.
What kind of metrics are you tracking?
- Dennis
that they can rely on as allies and not least for support.