Adaptive Creativity and Innovative Creativity

Synonyms

Blend; Divergent thinking; New; Originality

Creativity and Innovation

Creativity is doing or making something unique and useful, and the end result of this process is innovation. No innovation is truly newbecause everything created is an extension or combination of ideas that already exist. Innovation results from creators who are open-minded and thus able to recognize needs and make connections between unrelated diverse ideas or things that others do not. They apply existing ideas in unique ways, for example, Johannes Gutenberg (1398–1468) applied the techniques of a wine press to create his printing machine; the Wright Brothers, Orville (1871–1948) and Wilbur (1867–1912), applied their knowledge of bicycle manufacturing to the airplane; and Google’s founders, Larry Page (1973–) and Sergey Brin (1973–), applied a ranking method used for academic articles to create an Internet search engine. These creators did not make something new, but their attitudes and past knowledge...