Education and the Future of Innovation

Creativity is as important as literacy in education, according to Sir Ken Robinson.

Creativity is developing, generating something new of value and insight.  I love this because Sir Ken states it spot-on in saying if you are not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything new.  And what an elegant way to state what is fundamental to innovation.  In order to innovate you have to be prepared to be wrong, to fail.  And, leadership has to be prepared to support failures.  Those is innovation often say, fail fast and often.

I think we have to recognize that we have to be prepared to be wrong in order to innovate.   What is sad is that as we grow and evolve we are trained to avoid failure, to be wrong as little as possible.  What this teaches us is to learn what the box is and how to climb in.  Don’t explore, stay within the lines.  To create is to open oneself to scrutiny and judgement.  But, what you see in stories of innovation is creativity and a preparedness for failure.  Think of Edison, Einstein, the Wright brothers, and many others.  What I additionally love about what Sir Ken Robinson purports is that we are all intelligent and there are many levels and facets of intelligence.  The only hope for the future is understanding the richness of capacity within ourselves and within all people.

Emily Riley: Innovation Practitioner