Creativity, Innovation & Prototyping

Earlier this year I was reading To create the future, selectively abandon the past from the In Trust Magazine and the author suggested exploring the idea of a “business model canvas” outlined in Business Model Generation produced by the Strategyzer team as a way to fulfill one’s mission as well as respond to changing circumstances. (You can read more about how the business model canvas applies to Winebrenner by clicking here)

One of the points in Business Model Generation is that creative ideas need creative expressions.  In other words, when we ask people to think creatively about something we need to produce more creative visualizations than we typically provide.  The decision by Winebrenner’s Board of Trustees to set tuition at $300/month was a creative decision that requires a fresh visualization while also providing a great opportunity for experimenting with creative expressions.

It’s worth pausing to note two things I’ve learned about creativity and innovation. First, reading and listening to others’ ideas about creativity and innovation helps challenge my own thinking.  Second, an organizational atmosphere of experimentation is vital to being creative and innovative.

Knowing that we needed a fresh way to describe our approach to tuition, I simply turned on my camera on my laptop and created the following as a prototype for a doodle or animated video:

I sent this to our Coordinator of Marketing who used the prototype as a framework for a fuller script that eventually resulted in this:

Experimentation and prototyping are key ingredients for developing a creative culture within an organization.  Creative ideas can emerge from many locations – a willingness to risk new expressions is vital if we desire others to understand that we’re not attempting to create what’s been done in the past.

– Dr. Brent C. Sleasman
– Image by geralt on Pixabay