ENGG950 Innovation and Design: Use Creativity And Design Skills

it impacts organisations on their growth and solve problems as well through human creativity.

At the beginning of the course, I realized that it was a unique class from the others that i had attended. I expected to learn the relationship between creativity, design and innovation and how it impacts business growth and sustainability; I also expected to learn some of the things that inhibit innovation and creativity in individuals as well as teams and organizations. I also hoped to learn some of the characteristics that make organizations successful and how a business might emulate such traits, and I also expected to learn communication skills in business and professional contexts. I also expected to learn how to assess risk and uncertainty in an organization. I would say, all my expectations were met because I understood the core concepts of creativity, design and innovation and the role it plays in teams and organizations. I also learned more skills that go hand in hand with the process of creativity, design thinking and innovation.

Additionally, I learned that “organizations that do not innovate do not survive”. For them to innovate they have to go through a process which involves the creative process, critical thinking then finally innovation (Dalton, 2018). During the creative process, you allow your mind to go wild, to think of an idea that will work. At this point in an organization, it is important to accommodate everyone’s concept or suggestion because the mind is on the move. Hence, every opinion is welcome, and once you have all the suggestions and ideas, you can proceed to the critical thinking.

During the critical thinking process, this is where ideas that are felt worthwhile are picked and scrutinized before being implemented (Castelle, 2018). It is at this point where various discussions are held, and the creativity idea turned into a product or service. The product is then released to the market, and the innovation process is said to have happened once the product is out in the market. It is important to note that during this whole process, communication is of essence (Wijewardena, 2018). This is because in a team or an organization, there exist different personalities and it is important to understand one another for efficient communication in an organization.

When conflicts arise during such a process, it is crucial as well to manage them in order to avoid chaos and a lot of negative energy during such operations. So when conflicts arise, you can decide to bring in a third party to settle the conflict to avoid possible biasness (Alio, 2014). It is also important to note that the team is fundamental during this process hence maintaining team cohesion is of importance. Therefore, it is important to keep the team united at all costs during this crucial period.

In the future, I feel like these skills will help me whenever i am tasked to conduct such exercises in an organization. Effective communication, this enables your team not to have false information or get misled during the process and also to pass the correct information at any given time. Maintaining the cohesion of the team, is also crucial in that, whenever the organization is divided, the creative minds of the members will be lost and thus getting innovations will be quite a challenge (Tohidi and Jabbari, 2013). Innovation is crucial for any person whether employed or into business, effective communication and planning is an essential tool when preparing to go through the process of creativity, design thinking, and innovation.

During the whole semester, I also realized creativity has its myths which have misguided people. However, it is important to note that creativity, design thinking, and innovation is a crucial tool when it comes to individuals and organizations. The concept awakens the people's minds and gives them insights on what the market value looks like. It also helps the organization stay afloat and also be aware of the current competitors. I must say this class opened up my mind in terms of having to be creative, think critically and also the implementation of the final product. Most importantly are the skills I learned from this whole process and how to communicate effectively.

References

Alio, D. (2014). 'Creativity, Innovation and Design'. [online] Princeton University Press, USA. Available at: https://www.princeton.edu/news/2014/07/10/creativity-innovation-and-design [Accessed 1 Oct. 2018].

Castelle, T. (2018). Design Thinking and Creativity for Innovation. [online] edX. The University of Queensland, Australia. Available at: https://www.edx.org/course/design-thinking-and-creativity-for-innovation [Accessed 1 Oct. 2018].

Dalton, B. (2018). Creativity, Innovation and Design. [ebook] University of Technology Sydney, Australia. Available at: https://summer.skku.edu/_res/summer/etc/Creativity.pdf [Accessed 1 Oct. 2018].

Scull, J. (2013). Explaining The Process Of Creativity, Innovation And Change. [online] Medium. Available at: https://medium.com/@jules000120/explaning-the-process-of-creativity-innovation-and-change-6033930fe9d9 [Accessed 1 Oct. 2018].

Tohidi, H. and Jabbari, M. (2013). The important of Innovation and its Crucial Role in Growth, Survival and Success of Organizations. Procedia Technology, Elsevier, London. 1, pp.535-538.

Wijewardena, N. (2018). Creativity, Innovation and Design - RMIT University, Australia. [online] Www1.rmit.edu.au. Available at: https://www1.rmit.edu.au/courses/051470 [Accessed 1 Oct. 2018].