The creative imperative: The role of creativity, creative problem solving and insight as key drivers for sustainability

Mitchell, Ingrid Kajzer; Walinga, Jennifer

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.09.162

Cited by 93 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 103 publications

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“…The first is the mediator (a) discounting the present generation's cost. As mentioned in the Introduction, the role of creativity or insight in attaining sustainability has attracted a great deal of scholarly attention [7,[10][11][12]. Few studies, however, have explicitly discussed the mechanisms by which sustainability is secured in reframing and devising creative solutions obtained from procedures proposed in the general literature of creative problem solving (CPS) or insight problem solving (IPS).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Third, this visualization technique is useful to realize the convergence of divergent ideas that are partly generated by paradoxical thinking. (Note that Mitchell and Walinga [7] list divergence and convergence as typical examples of creative-problem solving characteristics essential at all organizational levels in creating a sustainable future.) Convergence is especially important in the context of problem solving for sustainability because problem solvers must address interconnected social, environmental, and financial concerns [51][52][53].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As resolving unsustainability problems with linear and rational approaches is impossible, the application of creative problem solving (CPS, i.e., searching for a novel and useful solution) has attracted a great deal of scholarly attention. According to Mitchell and Walinga's [7] review of various studies, Guilford [8] was the first to describe CPS as including three distinct components:…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While CPS initially appears to be a productive approach to facilitating sustainable practice, Mitchell and Walinga [7] argue that problem solvers are not explicitly helped to discover different ways to frame problems by being aware of entrenched cognitive, social, economic, and institutional barriers that lock onto certain trajectories, while locking out sustainable alternatives. Mitchell and Walinga [7] further argue that the approach of insight problem solving (IPS) overcomes the limitation of CPS; it focuses particularly on the "Aha!" experience [13] that results from sustained effort in which sudden insight breaks the impasse with systemic problem formulation and elegant sustainable solutions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Taking a Future Generation’s Perspective as a Facilitator of Insight Problem-Solving: Sustainable Water Supply Management

Nakagawa

2020

Sustainability

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Human societies face various unsustainability problems, often characterized as “wicked” in the sense that they have no single definitive formulation. Thus, the role of creativity or insight in solving such problems has attracted a lot of attention from scholars. Therefore, this study investigated how an emerging methodology, Future Design (and its unique intervention of asking problem solvers to take a future generation’s perspective), can facilitate insight problem solving (IPS) and the generation of sustainable solutions. In a municipality in Japan, nine officers from a bureau responsible for water supply management participated in a series of seven Future Design workshops. In two groups, these officers created visions of water supply management 30 years into the future, taking the perspective of a future generation working in the same municipality. On the basis of in-depth transcription analyses of these workshops, we obtained a hypothetical framework demonstrating that four factors mediate the influence of perspective taking on IPS: (a) Discounting the present generation’s cost, (b) contrasting the future with the present, (c) deconstructing hierarchy, and (d) intellectual joy. While the first three mediators (a, b, and c) were considered to be contributors to the problem reframing and IPS via constraint relaxation, the fourth (d) was considered to do so via positive interpretation. Further, the reason why taking a future generation’s perspective is likely to lead to sustainable solutions, useful for the future—rather than the present—generation, is also discussed.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Taking a Future Generation’s Perspective as a Facilitator of Insight Problem-Solving: Sustainable Water Supply Management

Nakagawa

2020

Sustainability

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“…Interestingly, those results build on the literature that links creativity and sustainability. Previous studies showed that several tools might be used to increase creativity to solve sustainability problems (Awan, Sroufe & Kraslawski, 2019; Kajzer Mitchell & Walinga, 2017). However, creativity is a socially based activity (Burns, Corte & MacHado, 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of human sustainability in professional service firms. Evidence from Italy

2020

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Sustainability is a central topic for an increasing number of companies, as a part of their business strategies. Human sustainability, that is, preserving and improving the quality of human life, in other words, maintaining and advancing human capital, appears as one relevant issue in that context. Humans and human capital are the foremost resources for professional service firms. Their role in the international economic scenario will most likely depend on how they deal with human sustainability and the wellbeing of their people. In this perspective, the paper investigates the antecedents, and organisational implications, of human sustainability in such firms using a structural equation model (SEM) developed on 4,301 questionnaires filled by Italian Chartered Accountants. Findings shed new lights on some implications of human sustainability. Results show that human sustainability has a direct and significative impact on a firm's ability to innovate, fostering creativity and intellectual capital, thus being significant for corporate performance. As a practical implication, firms should accordingly shape their business strategies towards accounting for human sustainability aspects.

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Between Innovation in Process Engineering and Creativity

2020

Process Engineering Renewal 3

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The creative imperative: The role of creativity, creative problem solving and insight as key drivers for sustainability

Cited by 93 publications

References 103 publications

Taking a Future Generation’s Perspective as a Facilitator of Insight Problem-Solving: Sustainable Water Supply Management

Taking a Future Generation’s Perspective as a Facilitator of Insight Problem-Solving: Sustainable Water Supply Management

The role of human sustainability in professional service firms. Evidence from Italy

Between Innovation in Process Engineering and Creativity

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