Preface

Principles of Creativity in the Workplace

Notebook on a bed with "A little space to be creative" written on it.
Creative Space by Toa Heftiba, Unsplash, is licensed under Unsplash License.

This book is a living collection of thoughts, reflections, challenges, and resources passed on to Kris Hans in August 2020 by Rod Corbett. Rod collected his knowledge along with many others to help the reader gain a better understanding of the principles that can be applied to develop creativity in any workplace. This book is meant to serve as the primary textbook for MGMT 2275 — Creativity in the Workplace at Mount Royal University, and can be used by learners who are studying how they can develop their own creative abilities and support the development of others that they may be in a position to supervise, lead, and support.

This work is organized into pages that deal with each principle of Creativity in the Workplace. The principles are numbered for convenience of referencing and listed in the table of contents or via The Principles link at the bottom of each page.

The word and concept of a principle are used throughout this book. The working definition of the word principle is a fundamental assumption or understanding that is generally accepted and applicable to generic contexts in a valuable way. The focus of this book is on several principles that are valuable when applied in any workplace context to enhance creativity and produce valuable innovations.

The book also includes many examples, stories, and links to other writings and presentations that reinforce these principles. This book will continue to evolve, grow, and develop over time through student input and feedback. As big believers of Open Education Resources (OER), the book is purposely being authored in an online environment so people can collaboratively contribute to the content development to share it freely with anyone who finds it useful through a Creative Commons license.

This project has been made possible through the generous support of the MRU Library and Academic Development Centre OER Grant. Their commitment to advancing open education has been invaluable in the development of this resource, enabling its expansion and adaptation for free access.

The best way to get the most from this book is to do the following:

  • engage in its explanations,
  • reflect on the stories, examples, anecdotes, and questions,
  • view the embedded videos and read the linked articles,
  • accept the challenges and tasks found throughout the pages to practice applying and thinking about these principles.

You are welcome to make the most of this book to develop your creative abilities in your workplace.

Image of Rod Corbett in front of a window.
“Slides 11.2 MGMT 2275,” CIW W20 — Invitation to Collaborate, August 15, 2020.

This electronic book was originally authored by Rod Corbett for the purpose of helping you develop your creative abilities in your workplace. Rod began developing this book in 2012 with his last revisions taking place in 2017 and made the book available to the public through Creative Commons licensing. This work was primarily prepared as a textbook for a course he taught about Creativity in the Workplace, but is presented in a form that anyone interested in studying these principles may also benefit from working through the principles and challenges. The Creativity in the Workplace course was originally developed by Ilene M. Gilborn, MCE, CPA(CMA). FCPA(FCMA).

As of August 2020, Kris Hans first adapted and edited Rod’s original book into a Medium publication/website to ensure maximum accessibility across platforms, including mobile devices with small screens. In a significant evolution facilitated by the generous support of the MRU Library and Academic Development Centre OER Grant awarded in December 2022, the book has been further adapted and migrated to Pressbooks for Fall 2023. This format not only broadens the book’s accessibility but also enhances its interactive and collaborative features. While the book can still be printed using your web browser’s print function, many of the embedded videos and interactive elements are exclusively accessible online.

Special thanks are extended to Kailie Stobbart and Christopher Hoang for their invaluable contributions in transitioning this work from its original Medium format to Pressbooks. Their expertise and dedication have not only enhanced the accessibility and interactive elements of this book but have also ensured its alignment with open educational resources standards. Their work has been instrumental in bringing this project to a new level of academic excellence and public accessibility.

Your feedback is very welcome to help further refine and improve this book. Please feel free to contact Kris Hans via his website at https://www.krishans.ca/ with any comments, feedback, questions, and suggestions.

In the spirit of open educational resources, we have made this book available to the public through Creative Commons licensing. If you wish to make copies of this book, please attribute it to Rod Corbett as the original author and Kris Hans as contributor/editor.

Corbett, Rod, Creativity in the Workplace. Principles of Creativity in the Workplace. Edited by Kris Hans. Calgary, AB: Self Published, 2020. https://medium.com/creativityintheworkplace.

The following resources, do not fall under the CC-BY-NC license for this book.

  • Appendix A: Connecting the CIW Principles to Fields of Human Resources, Marketing, Finance, and Accounting.
  • Appendix B: Implementing MGMT 2275 Creativity in the Workplace Principles to Public Relations and Communications.
  • YouTube videos that are listed in the Bibliography.
  • Third-party images from stock image websites (eg. Unsplash).

 

License

Icon for the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Principles of Creativity in the Workplace Copyright © 2023 by Rod Corbett & Kris Hans is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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