Creativity and Innovation

Creativity and innovation are often used as if they meant the same thing, and that confusion leads organisations to run another ideas workshop when the real gap is implementation. This module separates creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship, drawing on Levitt, Guilford, Amabile, Csikszentmihalyi and Torrance, contrasts evolutionary and revolutionary innovation, tackles five common myths, and closes with Pixar's Braintrust.

Creative thinking runs on two paddles: generating options and then choosing between them. This module offers a practical toolkit, from de Bono's Six Thinking Hats and Osborn's rules of brainstorming to SCAMPER, brainwriting, the Lotus Blossom, Buzan's mind mapping and Harris's attribute listing, then covers convergence tools such as the New, Useful, Feasible test and weighted selection, so that sessions end in decisions.

Genius is often treated as a rare gift, but Robert Dilts showed it can be modelled from primary sources as a set of learnable strategies. This module examines three: Walt Disney's Dreamer, Realist and Critic method, Aristotle's observation, classification and induction, and Einstein's combinatory play as described in his letter to Jacques Hadamard, and shows how to build these disciplines into your own team's work.

Design thinking is widely used and often reduced to sticky notes and coloured pens. This module sets out what it really is, compares Stanford's d.school, IDEO, the Design Council's Double Diamond and IBM's Enterprise Design Thinking, weighs the critics' case and draws out four core practices. Airbnb's turnaround and the Government Digital Service's redesign of gov.uk show the discipline working in private and public settings.

Once a good idea exists, what decides whether it spreads, and whether it overturns the established way of doing things? This module explores Rogers's diffusion of innovations, Moore's chasm, Christensen's disruptive innovation and jobs to be done, and Keeley's Ten Types of Innovation, uses ChatGPT and M-Pesa as contrasting cases, and draws out practical lessons for public and voluntary sector leaders.

Innovation looks different once profit stops driving it. This module moves from Chesbrough's closed and open innovation and his funnel to why the public sector cannot simply copy the market, the levels and drivers of public innovation, and Nesta's barriers and enabling mechanisms, from ideas factories to decommissioning. Procter and Gamble's Connect and Develop and e-Estonia's X-Road show openness designed in deliberately.

Culture does not innovate; people do, and teams take their cue from what leaders actually do. This module covers the five discovery skills from Dyer, Gregersen and Christensen's The Innovator's DNA, eight lessons for building an innovation culture, Edmondson's psychological safety, constraint as a source of creativity through Evelyn Glennie, and ideation as a team ritual, contrasting 3M's bottom up route with Apple's vision led one.

Without measurement, innovation is just a collection of stories. This module shows how to audit innovation with the rigour applied to risk and governance, using the Cranfield Innovation Health Check, Rao and Weintraub's six building blocks of culture, ISO 56002, a maturity spectrum and a core, adjacent and transformational portfolio. It builds a practical public service scorecard and draws lessons from NHS England's work on spreading innovation.

Entrepreneurship is a mindset, not a job title, and it belongs inside councils, housing associations and charities as much as in start ups. This module runs from Schumpeter's creative destruction and new combinations to Sarasvathy's effectuation, Ries's Lean Startup, Osterwalder's Business Model Canvas and Pinchot's intrapreneur, with M-KOPA as a case, building habits for spotting an unmet need and testing a small idea before committing.

This capstone introduces no new theory; it puts the whole programme to work on three real decisions. You will read the Preston Model of community wealth building, IKEA's democratic design and Finland's national Housing First strategy through frameworks such as questioning, the crazy quilt, Rogers's diffusion, constraint as method, Keeley's Ten Types and jobs to be done, and draw common threads for your own leadership.