**1. Introduction**

Creativity has been repeatedly identified as an important factor in the growth and development of organizations and society as a whole, yet is a complex and difficult subject to examine and understand [1]. Managers and leaders of modern organizations need to be able to facilitate creativity and innovation in uncertain environments. Taha et al. [2] said, "creativity is seen almost as a prerequisite to manage change and renewal, it is a key skill for leaders and organizations" (p. 1921). It has been said that creativity loves constraints [3] and so at a time when many organizations feel under increasing pressure and constraints seem aplenty, creativity offers one means of relieving some pressure and navigating an uncertain future. Yet creativity alone, generally defined as the generation of novel and useful ideas [4], is not sufficient. This is because novel and useful ideas by themselves do not create and capture value for a business, its stakeholders or society. In order to do this creative ideas need to be implemented in practice and in so doing become innovation [5]. In the words of Robinson [6], noted for his work on creativity in education, "Innovation is applied creativity"

(p. 142). Creativity itself can be viewed as a process [7] and is clearly an essential part of innovation, but it is just one part of a broader process. In order to help managers and leaders get the most out of creativity, particularly in challenging times, we need to do more to help them understand both the process of creativity, but also how this is applied in practice and therefore how it relates to the broader process of innovation.

Most management education, including MBA programmes, still focus on discipline specific knowledge, largely developed through analysis that draws on theories that were created in the relatively stable environments of the last century. Today's managers and leaders face more turbulent environments and so need to develop skills based on synthesis, creativity [8, 9], experimentation [10], and learning from intelligent failure [11–13]. Walsh and Powell [14] said, "solutions to the wicked problems offered in contemporary society require creativity and innovation—aspects that may be difficult to incorporate into the curriculum of a functionally oriented MBA programme" (p. 150). More creative approaches to modern management education are therefore required.

In order to educate managers and leaders to have a better understanding of creativity and innovation we need to first look upstream to what enables creativity. Creativity within organizations is notoriously stifled when restrictive organizational culture does not support, or even suppresses, novel thinking. Such cultures do not encourage questioning the status quo, itself defined as a key factor in encouraging innovation [15]. An inherent assumption that we know what we are doing and we have done this before is ultimately what can spell trouble for organizations when they encounter volatile, uncertain, complex or ambiguous situations (VUCA) [10]. The thinking and approaches that were successful in the past do not necessarily translate to success in the future in such conditions. One of the key attributes or mindsets that enable organizations to better navigate these conditions is curiosity [16]. Having an open and enquiring mind enables people to challenge long held assumptions that come under strain when conditions change. Simply asking why is sometimes seen as challenging authority but is more often a sign of healthy curiosity. Asking such questions enables people to discover what sits beyond the obvious and brings new understanding. Nurturing curiosity in organizations is necessary for enabling more creative and ultimately innovative solutions to wicked problems.

Similarly we also need to better understand and educate managers on how to apply creativity in order to drive innovation. In other words how to implement creative solutions in order to create and capture value. Successful innovation rates continue to remain low and frequently it is this implementation link that is the major barrier [17]. A mindset that helps enable implementation of creative solutions is clarity [16]. Having clarity of purpose and being able to communicate this succinctly makes it much simpler for others to understand the relevance of any innovation for them and therefore decide when to support the change. Again this becomes more relevant in VUCA environments because implementing change in new situations often involves drawing resources from beyond an organization's current asset base. Being able to draw on open approaches to innovation and form mutually beneficial partnerships are often required [18]. As a result designing for implementation should be considered an essential element of the innovation process, rather than something that is carried out afterwards, as with many current innovation process models. Again this is something that is enabled by clarity.

This chapter will fist look into curiosity, creativity and clarity in further detail including their relevance for leaders and managers. It will then bring them together to describe an overall innovation process based on phases of discovering, understanding, creating, testing, resourcing and implementing (DUCTRI). An illustrative case will then describe how this process has been fruitfully deployed and refined in an MBA course over the past 5 years.
