365-1053-00L  Innovation, Creativity and Personality Traits

SemesterSpring Semester 2020
LecturersD. Laureiro Martinez, S. Brusoni
Periodicityyearly recurring course
Language of instructionEnglish
CommentExclusively for MAS MTEC students (4th semester).


AbstractIn this course we use the latest research on how individuals can improve at solving problems creatively to foster their careers, and the performance of their organization.
Objective1. Participants will generate a richer notion of innovation and creativity by reflecting on the role of individuals on the innovation processes, the cognitive abilities and personality traits that are involved in this process
o Through a personal assessment, participants will learn how the discussed cognitive abilities and traits are observable and measurable
o Through a personal assessment, participants will learn about their own cognitive abilities and personality traits related to innovation and creativity and in comparison with other groups with similar backgrounds.

2. Participants will gain awareness of the use of their own creativity and problem-solving skills and will learn the reasons why these type of processes can foster creativity and innovation in their daily life and their jobs
o Through discussions with field experts and the knowledge from their self-assessments, participants will gain insight on the fit or misfit of career paths and cognitive abilities and personality traits
o Through the workshop debrief session, participants will learn the reasons why these type of processes can foster creativity and innovation.

3. Participants will create one and receive one concrete and actionable plan for helping someone overcome one weakness in their own work environment. Participants will also learn from the plans created by their peers.
ContentIn this course, we introduce the process of innovation and the role that individual creativity has on it. Individual creativity is composed of many abilities. This course gives the participant tools and methods to make many of these hidden, yet critical, abilities observable and measurable. On this basis, the participant can develop a concrete action plan to improve on them.

The course has three parts. In the first, we introduce the process of innovation and creativity. We go deep in this process and explain the role that individual cognitive abilities and personality traits have on innovation and creativity. We make these ideas concrete by providing each participant with the experience to take a self-assessment. The self-assessment gives the participant concrete feedback on their cognitive abilities and personality traits, also in comparison with their peers. We call this “self” assessment as all feedback is provided only to the participant for them to make their own conclusions.

In the second part of the course, industry experts come and give guidance to participants on how to use their cognitive abilities and personality traits at the workplace. They explain how these abilities are critical to career development, and career transitions. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses and the experts explain how matching one’s profile to one’s career can lead to efficient and fulfilling outcomes.

The third part of the course involves a design-thinking workshop where participants work in pairs. Each participant is tasked with finding an actionable plan for helping another participant with improving the ability of their choice. In this part, we reconnect to the first part of the course: participants can choose a specific ability learned on their self-assessment. After the workshop is finished every participant has a prototype that should help them in the process of personal development after the course is over.

In this way, this course is meant as a starting point for personal development. It introduces the process of innovation from an individual point of view and presents the core abilities needed in the process. It provides guidance for matching careers and abilities. Finally, the course gives a concrete action plan, in the form of a personalized prototype solution to continue the personal development after the course is finished.
Prerequisites / NoticePlease notice that participation in the entire two days of the course is a requirement. Due to the short duration of the course and its highly interactive nature, there are no exceptions.