Creativity and innovation in the transport sector has seen this industry propel to higher levels of effectiveness, in terms of speed, time, and mass transportation of both goods and persons. The creativity and innovative thinking is not a new idea but it has been there since time immemorial, and has improved our lives as the years go by. This paper seeks to explain how the innovative thinking and the creativity process can be applied in real life situations advancing the transport sector.
Thesis Statement
- How can innovative thinking and the creative process be used in real life situations to bring advancements for transportation in the United States?
Relevant Facts
The creative process involves a cycle through four different realms of knowledge accumulation that is the preparation, incubation, illumination and the implementation stages. The preparation stage is the work phase where the innovator comes with the idea, identifies a problem and tries to see how he can solve that problem.
The illumination juncture is where the normal reasoning is suppressed to allow the mergence with the unknown. After the validation the innovative product is then implemented to benefit the society. Innovative thinking on the other hand is about exploring ideas, generating possibilities, and looking for many right answers instead of one answer.
Innovation and creativity has been responsible for most of the advancements in the transportation sector, and to understand how it can be used in the present real problems situations we have to understand how it was used in the earlier years in this sector. Innovation in the earlier years involved the acquisition of knowledge just as it does in this present time.
Knowledge can generally be acquired through experience, acquisition, and by experimentation (Bessant, & Tidd, 2007, p. 185). Learning from experience is the least effective method since it does not automatically translate into knowledge, and organizations and people can incorrectly learn when using experience as a medium.
Knowledge through experimentation on the other hand is more systematic and a central feature of research and development activities, and market research among others. Knowledge through acquisition on the other hand involves scanning internal and external environments to evaluate and filter potential opportunities from outside and inside an organization.
Innovative knowledge is of two types that is explicit and implicit, in which case the latter can be codified and expressed in numerical, graphical or textual forms for easy communication. Tactic or implicit knowledge, on the other hand is more of personal, context-specific, experimental and a bit difficult to communicate.
Other types of knowledge include: embrained, embodied, encultured, embedded, commodified, and encoded (Bessant, & Tidd, 2007, p. 186). Embrained knowledge to greater extent relies on the cognitive abilities and conceptual expertise. Embodied knowledge is action-oriented and is more of problem-solving and involves learning by doing.
Encultureed knowledge is socially constructed and open to negotiation. This knowledge involves socialization and acculturation. Embedded knowledge resides in systematic routines and processes and includes resources and relationships between roles, technologies, procedures, and is related to the notion of organizational capabilities. Last in the list, encoded knowledge is presented by symbols and signs and is inclusive of designs, manuals, blue prints and other electronic media.
Innovation is born from knowledge and creative thinking, and it is largely dependant on the source, type, form and how this knowledge is manipulated for effective use. The advancement in knowledge results into availability of more innovative ideas, which when implemented leads to advancements in the transportation sector of the United Sector.
References
Bessant, J., & Tidd, J. (2007). Innovation and entrepreneurship. West Sussex: John Willey and Sons.
Weiner, B. (2008). Urban transportation planning in the United States: history, policy, and practice. Washington, DC: Springer.