Debunking the myths about creativity and innovation

Volume 7 Number 3 March 14 - April 10 2011

Leading Australian scholars show that there is much more to creativity and innovation than the many myths and popular misconceptions indicate. By Silvia Dropulich.

Creativity is founded upon deep knowledge and immersion in a field or domain of knowledge and practice whether art, science, music, design or architecture etc.

We cannot continue to accept the nonsense about the mystique of creativity and see it as something that only some people in the arts and crafts do, but not others, according to Professor Leon Mann, Director of the Research Leadership Unit at Melbourne Research.

Professor Mann, along with Professor Janet Chan of UNSW, are the editors of the soon to be launched book Creativity and Innovation in Business and Beyond: Social Science Perspectives and Policy Implications, published by Routledge, New York. The book is the outcome of an ARC grant to the Academy of the Social Sciences for a project on ‘Creativity and innovation: Social Science perspectives’.

“The book helps debunk such common misconceptions about creativity as any ‘new’ idea is creative (no matter how mundane), and that creativity is what arts and crafts people do while innovation is what scientists, engineers and manufacturers do,” Professor Mann explains.

He believes that these myths and others persist largely due to ignorance and confusion about what constitutes creativity and innovation.

Some of the other popular myths about creativity include: the idea that creativity is the solitary activity of the lone inventor; that it is about inspiration or ‘eureka’ moments rather than years of deep preparation and perspiration; that children are more creative than adults until the stuffing is knocked out of them in schools; and that everyone can be trained to be more creative by learning a few techniques tricks such as ‘brainstorming’.

The book is comprised of 16 chapters ranging from the psychology of creativity and its educational consequences to the concept of creative ‘play’ to foster innovation based on new design and virtual technologies, to legal perspectives on creativity and intellectual property rights and the economic geography of innovation.

The contributors are all leading Australian scholars (three from the University of Melbourne, Professor Andrew Christie from the Melbourne Law School, Professor Joshua Gans from Melbourne Business School, and Professor Leon Mann) who draw on their own research and on international data, cases and examples to provide a global perspective especially on national innovation systems and especially the message that what works to foster innovation in one country or industry sector does not necessarily work in another.

There are many books on creativity and innovation, however, almost all of the books in the field address either creativity or innovation but seldom the two together, according to Professor Mann.

“Therefore another contribution of the book is to underline the imperative of bringing the two processes together and identifying the dynamic interconnections between creativity and innovation,” Professor Mann says.

The book also examines creativity and innovation from the perspectives of a wide range of social science disciplines including history, economics, economic history, economic geography, sociology, psychology, social psychology, management, law, political science, policy studies, and education.

Creativity and Innovation in Business and Beyond will be launched by University of Melbourne Vice-Chancellor, Professor Glyn Davis, on March 30 at the Alan Gilbert Building Executive Lounge. Contact Anna Cross on telephone 8344 2000, for further information.