Coursera Course: “Creativity, Innovation, and Change” started today

We find comfort among those who agree with us —
growth among those who don’t.
Frank A. Clark

I’m currently trying out the Coursera Course “Creativity, Innovation, and Change” and it’s … interesting. They have a completely different approach than I have.

When I deal with creativity, it’s how can I get the ideas I need, how to deal with them, e.g., how to master the topic, generate ideas, capture them, collect them, realize creative projects. It’s more the infrastructure that allows you to be creative with the counter-intuitive proposition that creativity needs organization and how to achieve it in the degree you need (for more information I refer to the book/PDF).

The course itself seems to focus more on motivational aspects and fears — and while I have also dealt with some of these issues (e.g., see sections “Finding Something to Live For”, “Having too many Interests”, “Prioritizing Projects”) the approach is different.

Hmm, similarities are there as well — judging from the first five lectures, they seem to build much their reasoning on personal experience distilled in principles. I would not use the word “principle”, but there are phases in my approach (Mastering the Topic, Generating Ideas, Capturing Ideas, Collecting Ideas, Realizing Creative Projects, and Archiving Creative Projects) and also personal experience (combined with some literature on the topic). But still, I see my way more on changing the infrastructure to be creative — some organizing to not only have ideas but to actually realize creative projects.

So, it’s going to be interesting. 🙂