Reflective Paper on Creativity, Innovation, and Design Thinking Course

This reflective paper provides an overview of a student's learning experience in a course focused on creativity, innovation, and design thinking. The paper begins with an introduction that highlights the student's initial expectations of the course and how they evolved throughout the semester. It emp...Read More

Running Head: Reflective Paper
Creativity, Innovation and Design Thinking
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note

1CREATIVITY, INNOVATION AND DESIGN THINKING
Introduction
The following reflection paper highlight an individual assessment by looking back on
what we have learnt in our entire course and is providing an initial expectation on the changes
which took place while learning and implementing various theories. The creativity journal is
emphasized on the course learning starting from week 1 where I could record at least one
daily instance where I could exercise the creative problem in, my work place and solve the
issues. The reflection paper is providing with the reflection of the course and the changes
which took place over the semester. Followed by the paper highlights the learning outcomes
and explains the use of threes outcomes in future period (Jordan and Lande 2016). The areas
where these theories are implemented are team formation, creativity, strategy formulation and
completing assessment. Lastly, it will comprise of an example from the daily life during the
course period where I had used the theories of creativity and the effective ways of solving the
problems.
Discussion
As in am currently pursuing my majors in management studies my preliminary
reaction towards the “Creativity, Innovation and Design” was a core unity that comprised of
confusion as the name relates to the graphical design and marketing-oriented course. With
those preconceived notions I came under the impression of focusing on physical and digital
remaining logos and also mastered product packaging to become more productive and
creative thus was appealing to the evolve the targeted demographic (Zaugg and Warr 2018).
Pursuing through global media has uncovered me to a variety of practical applications of the
plan which had also added to my predetermined expectation of this course. During the week
one session we were asked to introduce ourselves and this has created an ice-breaking session

2CREATIVITY, INNOVATION AND DESIGN THINKING
which enabled all of us to communicate with each other. However, in the next week, one of
the essential aspects of the course learning was obtained which dealt with creative people.
Creativity deals with the generation of people who uses the novel and useful ideas. Creativity
is defined as an esseeential art that is used to generate ideas and solve the problem for a given
task (Carlgren, Rauth and Elmquist 2016). The aspect of pursuing the general media has
uncovered me to much practical applications of design which has further added my
expectation for this course. For an example, Kellogg has practically honed their marketing
aspects on the corn flakes and crunchy nut. However they have kept their product packaging
more attractive and had headed a visual appealing to the children. The idea of selling high
sugar content meal combined with design techniques marketed to the kids has approached
under serious scrutiny (Carlgren, Rauth and Elmquist 2016).
However, in the course learning I had inculcated the idea of handling problems and
have established ways of thinking and solving issues which may sometime not work. This has
therefore assisted me to work harder in my work place as the works in the company are
complex and requires the understanding of thinking and solving techniques. Today’s problem
requires creative idea and solution attracted to it as it had taught me to think in two ways
either divergently or convergent manner. I have observed that thinking in a divergent manner
had assisted me open up my mind and boosted idea generation. However, thinking in a
divergent manner has assisted me in giving rise to many new ideas in my course learning and
well as in my career.
The creative problem which I have recorded over my period of learning was a lack of
understanding between different team members. For me the learning outcome was based on
team formation and stimulating creativity and innovation in my team (Edwards et al, 2015) I
had observed in my previous group assignment that it was easy to communicate between the

3CREATIVITY, INNOVATION AND DESIGN THINKING
two members who had belonged from the same cultural background. However, this
assignment had assisted me to create and seek new diverse relationship. In the case of the
differences in the cultural background there was a difference in idea generation and I
personally preferred to think in the divergent manner (Liedtka 2015). This notion was
preconceived in my mind that when there are cultural differences, the ideas do not seem to
match. Therefore I was completely wrong and had experienced a pool of ideas and was able
to converge to more realistic ideas. The team members were allowed to pitch in their creative
ways. Before the next session could start we went through all the five innovative steps and
researched the most applicable solution (Liedtka 2015). However after useful research from
five innovative ideas, we concluded into two ideas where the other three ideas were also
essential in the design thinking process.
I currently work in an automobile industry which comes with many of its issues and
grievances of the customers who make a purchase from our store. However, these problems
require me too often call for multifaceted and draw creative solutions. There are people in my
team that have their ideas and creativity to solve the problem whereas with the help of my
course learning it had encouraged more to think in a differently manner and draw conclusions
to solve problems. There are times where we fall out on the crunch of our previous solutions
which had hindered the innovation and productivity of the automobile store. Therefore in the
future when I tackle my own issues for a service at my work place I will draw my own
experience with few good members or rather a diverse team and seek input from all the
members in the team with different expertise.
On the other hand, other learning outcomes I was able to draw on the presentation and
communication skills to pitch creative ideas. However in the automobile industry it is
convoluted and complex in nature (Bowler 2014). It is also observed that the veterans of the

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automobile industry often reject the novel ideas and move ahead with the previous solution.
The pitching ideas were either physical or verbal communication that directed a body of
authority in order to persuade them and garner a call to actions. However it is important for
an individual needs to inculcate the skill of communication as it assists in stating various
types of creative ideas and explaining the veterans about the different creative processes of
solving the issues. Lastly it can be said that the knowledge of design thinking had allowed me
to realize that the actual beauty of the design lines falls into a process rather than its end
results.
Conclusion
Hence it can be concluded that in assessment three which catered on self reflection
has summed up various ideas and major points in my life which I had faced during the course
learning period as well during my future career. The reflection piece above highlights the
initial expectations of the course learning which had changed over the semester. Further, the
semester had helped in building a strong foundation in significant areas like pitching, creative
ideas, design thinking and many more. The areas of the creative process have helped me to
overcome my problems in the group assignment and enabled me to ponder more on idea
generation. The creative journal has helped me to realize my areas of problem and rectified
the area of improvement.

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Reference
Bowler, L., 2014. Creativity through" maker" experiences and design thinking in the
education of librarians. Knowledge Quest, 42(5), p.58.
Carlgren, L., Rauth, I. and Elmquist, M., 2016. Framing design thinking: The concept in idea
and enactment. Creativity and Innovation Management, 25(1), pp.38-57.
Edwards-Schachter, M., García-Granero, A., Sánchez-Barrioluengo, M., Quesada-Pineda, H.
and Amara, N., 2015. Disentangling competences: Interrelationships on creativity, innovation
and entrepreneurship. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 16, pp.27-39.
Jordan, S. and Lande, M., 2016. Additive innovation in design thinking and
making. International Journal of Engineering Education, 32(3), pp.1438-1444.
Liedtka, J., 2015. Perspective: Linking design thinking with innovation outcomes through
cognitive bias reduction. Journal of product innovation management, 32(6), pp.925-938.
Zaugg, H. and Warr, M.C., 2018. Integrating a creativity, innovation, and design studio
within an academic library. Library Management.