85006 - Creative Thinking and innovation

Learning outcomes

Creativity and innovation are essential to an organization’s capacity to manage the challenges raised by a rapidly changing environment. Creative thinking involves creating something novel or original. Innovation is commonly interpreted as introducing change into relative stable systems. Organizations also refer to design thinking as a way to capitalize on creativity to solve complex problems. Students of this course will learn about techniques to improve originality of their thinking as well as tools used by organizations to foster innovation. At the end of this course, students will be able to a) understand theoretical conceptualizations of creativity as well as organizational practices that facilitate innovation b) develop case studies analysis skills.

Course contents

Part I The necessity for creativity and its definition

Part II Creativity in the history of art and science.

Part II Theoretical foundations of creative thinking. Cognitive modelling.

Part III The DIMAI model. Strategies and processes for specific thinking stages.

Part IV Innovation: hurdles and strategies for success.

Part V Application of creative thinking to study cases.

Readings/Bibliography

Lecture notes.

Video lecture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEusrD8g-dM

Corazza G.E. (2016). Potential originality and effectiveness: The dynamic definition of creativity, Creativity Research Journal.

Agnoli S., Corazza G.E., & Runco M. (2016). Estimating Creativity with a Multiple-Measurement Approach Within Scientific and Artistic Domains,Creativity Research Journal, 28(2), 171-176.

Agnoli S., Franchin L., Rubaltelli E., & Corazza G.E. (2015). An Eye-Tracking Analysis of Irrelevance Processing as Moderator of Openness and Creative Performance, Creativity Research Journal, 27, 125-132.

Corazza G.E., Agnoli S., & Martello S. (2014). Counterpoint as a principle of creativity: Extracting divergent modifiers from 'The Art of Fugue' by Johann Sebastian Bach, Musica Docta, 4, 93-105.

Corazza G.E., & Agnoli S. (2015). On the impact of ICT over the creative process in humans, MCCSIS Conference 2015 Proceedings, Las Palmas De Gran Canaria.

Agnoli S., & Corazza G.E. (2015). TRIZ as seen through the DIMAI creative thinking model, Procedia Engineering, 131, 807-815, Paris.

Corazza G.E., & Agnoli S., Eds. (2015). Multidisciplinary Contributions to the Science of Creative Thinking [http://www.springer.com/us/book/9789812876171] . Singapore: Springer.

Corazza G.E., Agnoli S., & Martello S. (2016). A Creativity and Innovation Course for Engineers. In C. Zhou (Ed.), Handbook of Research on Creative Problem-Solving Skill development in Higher Education. Hershey, GA: IGI Global.

Corazza G.E., & Agnoli S. (2015). On the Path Towards the Science of Creative Thinking. In G.E. Corazza and S. Agnoli (Eds.), Multidisciplinary Contributions to the Science of Creative Thinking(pp. 3-19). Singapore: Springer.

Corazza G.E., Agnoli S., & Martello S. (2015). Introducing Irrelevant Information in the Creative Process: the DIMAI model for Fashion Design. In Cultures, Fashion, and Society Notebooks 2015. Pearson - Bruno Mondadori. DOI: 10.17464/9788867741236

Corazza G.E. (2016). La scienza del pensiero creativo come acceleratore per l'innovazione industriale. In Culture del progetto e Industrie Culturali e Creative.

Teaching methods

Frontal lectures and individual/group hands-on sessions.

Assessment methods

Additionally to the final exam, assessment is distributed across the course. For this reason, it is requested that students attend, as a minimum, 70% of classes. In class exercises and presentations, plus homework assignments are full part of the assessment. The final exam is an oral examination on the topics of the course.

Links to further information

http://mic.fgm.it

Office hours

See the website of Giovanni Emanuele Corazza