Innovation Generation: How to Be Creative (edX)

Innovative thinking is one of the top characteristics global businesses look for in their employees. Yet only 1 in 4 of us feel that our creativity is where we want it to be. Why should this surprise us? Almost none of us has ever been taught how to be inventive.

This course is based on an extraordinarily successful program that has been presented at over 70 top American universities. Over the next 5 weeks Dr. Roberta Ness, an internationally renowned physician-scientist and an expert in innovative thinking, provides proven techniques to expand your originality. The method she will teach you is described by the acronym PIG In MuD: Define the problem, identify frames, generate all possible alternatives, incubate, meld to your best ideas, and disseminate. Your mascot will be Eggbert, an uptight, risk-avoidant pig who will learn a thing or two along with you. Along with Eggbert, you will sharpen your powers of observation, making surprising associations, expanding assumptions, pulling questions apart, and thinking backwards. Solving real-world problems in business and science, you will hone your creative thinking skills. In a final group project, you will be amazed by how creative you have become. Since the top projects will be voted up onto the home page and visible to all collaborating companies, you may even come across unique career opportunities when you and your ideas are “discovered.”
The funding for this course was made possible by the UTHealth Innovation in Cancer Prevention Research Training Program (Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas grant #RP140103). The content is solely the responsibility of the creators and does not necessarily represent the views of the Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas.
What you'll learn How to:

• Clarify a tricky problem that calls for a new approach
• Identify habitual ways of thinking and find novel alternatives
• Propose loads of innovative approaches using thinking tools such as analogy, reversal, expansion, narrowing, changing point- of view
• Find the best innovative approach to solve specific problems
• Spread your innovation and learn to effectively communicate your novel ideas