Engaging the Creative Minds: The ENGAGE Models

Companies need creativity and innovation on a continuous basis to achieve and sustain long term profitability. Research literature indicates that it usually takes about 10 years for individuals to amass diversified experience, acquire deep insights and apply their knowledge effectively in order to become productive in the pursuit of invention and innovation. It would be of great value to our society if individuals´ creative and inventive minds could be actively engaged to significantly shorten this development period. This paper advocates the possibility of systematically expediting the development of this creative process by applying the ENGAGE model. The model consists of (1) Excite the inquisitive and curious minds with external stimuli, (2) Nurture different thinking strategies to produce new ideas beyond the conventional, (3) Gain new information and perspectives by evaluating data with new ideas (4) Apply insights and interpretations to glean new knowledge from information, (5) Grow new wisdom from processing and distilling new knowledge, and (6) Empower new wisdom to procreate creative and innovative outcomes. In order to frequently generate new ideas, creative people need to pursue new thinking strategies, which are outlined by a second ENGAGE model: (1) Explore Metaphors and analogies, (2) Notice lessons from failures and mistakes, (3) Garner divergent perspectives, (4) Adopt idea combinations, (5) Go after intellectual prompts, and (6) Envision relationship graphically. Having a preponderance of creativity and innovation is no longer opulence, but a necessity for many enterprises to survive in today´s marketplace. It is believed that by consistently emphasizing both the creative process and the thinking strategies indicated in these two ENGAGE models, individuals and companies could become inventive and innovative much sooner than otherwise, when pursuing either the traditionally closed or the newly promoted open innovation paradigm, or both, and contrib- - ute more effectively to the wellbeing of their enterprises and to the society at large.