Majority of us believe that creativity is an inborn thing and cannot be developed or nurtured. But that’s not the case anymore.
While rejecting this myth, renowned Professor Srikant Datar, faculty chair of the Harvard University Innovation Lab, believes human beings tend to fall into certain patterns of “fixednesses” – or fixed ways of thinking – which suppress creativity, innovative thinking and problem-solving techniques.
“People say innovation and creativity can’t be learnt – it’s either God-gifted or you are out of luck. So I went on Sabbatical to test that idea of what people say that it can’t be taught or learnt. I came away from Sabbatical test completely convinced that you can learn creativity. The theory is simple; we have certain kind of fixednesses – functional, relational, cognitive or structural. In order to break those fixednesses, there are specific techniques you can use. I have consistently seen that by using these methods, you can think in very different ways than the traditional thinking. We can make individuals, companies, products, services and business models all more innovative by simply applying innovative method of innovation. The course programme is very short and helps people develop those skills as you can break fixed ways of thinking,” said Professor Datar.
