Creativity Toolkit I: Changing Perspectives

Thinking and doing the same things faster and better is not enough for innovation; we need creativity. Fortunately, creativity is a skill you can learn. This course will examine when, why, and how you can be creative so you can go through the creative process more efficiently and effectively. It teaches concrete steps to enable you to change your perspective to see new possibilities and solutions. It clarifies what to expect from the creative process and provides support for how you can sustain your progress. It also provides guidance on leading a supportive culture for creativity. The result is an ability to increase your own creativity and that of your teams and organizations so as to recognize and develop new opportunities. You will be able to: - Identify and generate opportunities to be creative and launch the innovation process - Intentionally and confidently enter and proceed through the creative process - Foster and sustain the creativity of others This course is part of Gies College of Business’ suite of online programs, including the iMBA and iMSM. Learn more about admission into these programs and explore how your Coursera work can be leveraged if accepted into a degree program at https://degrees.giesbusiness.illinois.edu/idegrees/.

• Course Orientation
• You will become familiar with the course, your classmates, and our learning environment. The orientation will also help you obtain the technical skills required for the course.
• Module 1: Being Creative
• In this module you will learn why creativity matters, what creativity is, and how to get started being creative.
• Module 2: Raw Materials and End Products
• In this module you will learn a way to break down what it is we are currently thinking so that we can consider changing it to generate new outcomes.
• Module 3: The Creative Journey
• In this module, you will learn that creativity can be joyful, intrinsically motivating, and even liberating. You will also learn how to manage your organization so that your employees find ways to persist through the process as well.
• Module 4 Supporting Creativity
• We want to be more creative ourselves, and we also want to support the creativity of others. In this module, we examine how to help encourage creativity in our teams and organizations. We explore how the cultures we set can support creativity though supporting members’ motivation to be creative and providing opportunities to be creative. We examine how core tasks around providing feedback, setting rewards, and managing resources and setting constraints can encourage rather than discourage creativity. We also review the role of context, and how the spaces in which we work signal creativity is welcome or unwelcome. Through our actions and leadership, we can foster openness, autonomy, and playful experimentation, and thereby support creativity in our teams and organizations.