Developing creative and innovative thinking and problem-solving skills

Abstract

A specific financial services organisation in South Africa realised that they had to join the innovation revolution in order to remain commercially competitive due to unexpected competitors entering the traditional financial services domain. The evaluation question asks whether employees in a financial services organisation can develop creative and innovative thinking and problem-solving skills through an intervention such as a workshop, and can a benefit for the business unit and organisation be identified. This qualitative study employed Utilisation Focused Evaluation (UFE) to address the evaluation question. Questionnaires, pen-and-paper tests and interviews were used to gather data. Descriptive statistics were applied to report the data. The most critical finding confirmed that individuals can acquire creative and innovative thinking and problem-solving skills. The acquisition of these skills though is not sufficient on its own to establish a culture supportive of creativity and innovation. The study culminated in the creation of The Triple I Creativity and Innovation Model. The Triple I Creativity and Innovation Model illustrates how a workshop with distinctive training design features can impact the individual, the business unit and the organisation in order to initiate, ideaneer and ignite creativity and innovation.