1.5. Value of radical creativity

Why is it worth focusing our attention on radical creativity? Why do societies need radical creativity?

---

Creativity scholars like Gilson et al. (2012) theorise that radical creativity distinguishes from other forms of creativity through the generation of new ideas that are revolutionary to a field, assume high risk-taking, shifts in paradigms and the way people live. In the Creativity and radical creativity sub-chapter, one way we defined radical creativity is as an impact that brings a major change to a unit of society. From this perspective, radical creativity can be understood as a disruptive innovation that enables progress in economy, technology, art, health, science, and education.

For instance, Audretsch et al. (2006) discuss how the radical creativity reflected in the entrepreneurial activities of new and small firms is the most important player in the 21^st century economy. The emergence of the entrepreneurial economy can be traced back to Joseph Schumpeter, the economist and political scientist of the early 20^th century known for his theories on business cycles and creative destruction. In his 1994 book, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, he wrote:

“The function of entrepreneurs is to reform or revolutionise the pattern of production by exploiting an invention, or more generally, an untried technological possibility for producing a new commodity or producing an old one in a new way, by opening up a new source of supply of materials or a new outlet for products, by reorganizing an industry and so on.” (p. 132)

As we can see, this quote is an implicit definition of radical creativity in the context of entrepreneurship as a facilitator of technological advancement. Schumpeter thought that large corporations resist change, which drives entrepreneurial people to start new firms so they can pursue innovative activities.

On the 1^st of April 1976, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne founded Apple Inc., the start-up that would become renowned as the iPhone maker and grow to have a worth of 2.4trn dollars in 2023. Their initial goal was to sell the Apple I, a personal computer kit hand-built by Wozniak. As a fully assembled circuit board containing about 30 chips, this product was markedly different from its contemporaries. However, users still had to add a case, power supply, keyboard, and display to make it fully functional.

The company’s big breakthrough came with the introduction of the Apple II in 1977, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputers. This product was significant in popularizing personal computers and set the stage for Apple’s future innovations and successes. The start-up formed by three visionary co-founders determined to change the world succeeded in becoming one of the global technology leaders, 50 years later. Currently, under Tim Cook’s leadership, Job’s successor, Apple gave rise to new gadgets, like the Apple Watch and AirPods.

To sum up, start-ups can play a crucial role in generating radically creative products. Start-ups can grow into influential innovators that enable progress, economic growth, and an improved quality of life for members of society.

Moreover, large companies can generate disruptive innovations and become important players in economic growth. Later in life, Schumpeter coined the term “creative destruction”, which referred to the necessity that all firms, small and large, had to innovate to “keep their feet, on ground that is slipping away from under them” (Silverthorne, 2007). Business professionals cannot afford not to reinvent themselves. Someone, out there, is always thinking about what to improve or disrupt, at a specific point in the value chain or at a specific feature of an existing product.

Can you think of a start-up that had a humble beginning but in time revolutionized the market?

Creative solutions in uncertain times

Innovation and creative ideas have been pointed out as markedly valuable on a national scale.

---

On the 4^th of October 2023, the Economic Defence Course was organized for the ninth time here at our university in collaboration with the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper. The goal was to increase the politicians’ understanding of the principles of economy and business operations so they could gain a deeper awareness of how their decisions can impact the operating conditions of Finnish companies and the national economy.

The underlying principle of the course is that a welfare society cannot survive without innovation and thriving businesses. Professor Samuli Knüpfer emphasized that Finland needs investments to support skilled people with bold ideas and approaches to innovate. Without innovation, there’s no increase in societal well-being.

Back in the 2017 Economic Defence Course, Professor Matti Pohjola emphasised a similar reasoning of economic growth requiring the ideas of knowledge workers, as follows:

“Since 1860, two-thirds of (economic) growth have come from ideas and one third from training and education. The proportion produced through fixed assets has been low. Ideas used to come from industry, today it is from information technology. Above all, ideas are generated in knowledge-intensive service sectors.”

Where do knowledge workers get their ideas from? Neuroscience studies show that the human brain is capable of creative thinking which is based on complex and random workings between perception (what stimuli we pay attention to and how we interpret it), cognition (what we know) and behaviour (what we do) (Abraham, 2018). As for radically creative ideas, they often come from paying attention to default assumptions about how a specific aspect of reality works and daring to challenge those assumptions. Differently said, radical creativity usually starts with you noticing and questioning the usual beliefs about how something in the world works. For example, scientists at the FinnCeres Research Center in Aalto challenged the way environmental resources are used and asked themselves,

“What if we used wood for energy, without emissions?”

Radical uncertainty

So far, we discussed the relevance of radical creativity for the progress of society. Moreover, there is another crucial aspect that compels us to embrace radical creativity: the uncertainty of life and the need to forecast.

---

In the 2022 edition of the Economic Defence Course, Professor Eeva Vilkkumaa emphasised that we live in a reality characterised by radical uncertainty. Strategic decisions must thus be made under unexpected change and ambiguity. To this view, she found it important to enhance the creative capacities of human experts to imagine future scenarios that have never been put into practice. Yes, in a world of databases, computing power and analytics, we need creative thinking before employing analytical methods to identify possible trajectories.

“For example, we were approached by a company that was considering transitioning into a new market and wanted to look into the different uncertainties involved,” said Professor Vilkkumaa.

“We outlined ten uncertainty factors related to the new market and three or four different trajectories for each of them. Through combining these, we built nearly 800,000 scenarios from which we could use analytical methods to select four scenarios that were both credible and as different from each other as possible.”

COVID-19 is one of the most recent events that may remind us of the uncertainty that is an integral part of life. However, the human brain is designed to seek certainty and prediction (Hirsh et al. 2012). Hence, one way to transform uncertainty into certainty is to identify problems worth solving and learn what makes a problem a problem (Beghetto 2017). For example, during the pandemic, in the medical field, the widespread transmission of pathogens has created an urgent need for antimicrobial and antiviral materials. So, researchers at Aalto University and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland started thinking of a wood-based self-sterilizing material.

“The first thing we thought about was definitely face masks. So, what if we not only stop the aerosols from our breathing but also deactivate them, to make the masks even safer?”

This was said Eduardo Anaya Plaza, Academy Research Fellow at the Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems. Under the umbrella of the FinnCERES Flagship Programme, a visionary concept emerged: self-sterilizing material for disaster-stricken areas where electricity is a luxury.

In short, as long as we have unforeseeable dynamism in teams, organizations, markets, and society, we need radically creative problem-solving.

The individual engaging in radical creativity

While uncertainty and unexpected change call for workers to employ their creative thinking to solve challenges in their organizations and communities, why is it useful for individuals to be radically creative?

---

Petrou and Jongerling (2022) looked at the COVID-19 crisis as the contextual factor that activates employees’ creative thinking. They examined creativity as a personal strategy to deal with the COVID-19 crisis and distinguished between incremental creativity (minor modifications to current practices) and radical creativity (major departures from current practices). They found that employees embracing incremental creativity experienced lower exhaustion and positive changes in performance throughout the pandemic. In contrast, the radically creative individuals reported increased task performance as well as adaptation to changes and learning. They didn’t observe any effects on wellbeing.

So, while incremental creativity may be less emotionally consuming, radical creativity is more likely to be taxing in terms of resources (e.g., time, mental energy, interpersonal conflicts etc.). In general, people resist unique and radical ideas, which means that radically creative people need to put in additional effort to convince others of the usefulness of their ideas. Therefore, it is only incremental creativity that may benefit employee well-being. Zhang et al. (2020) found that radical creativity leads to higher work performance but does not improve (nor harm) the employees’ wellbeing.

In short, we need people who are willing to take radically creative actions and prioritise a future of progress and greater good in society in the long run. We need radical creativity to create disruptive and innovative products and enterprises that enable social welfare in changing situations. To this view, organizations must create the conditions for enabling individuals’ radical creativity in their domains of choice. For instance, Venkataramani et al. (2015) found that employees’ radical creativity depends heavily on diverse informational resources accumulated from the social network ties of their immediate leaders.

At Aalto University, the willingness to support radically creative research led to the development of a new research funding call. Radical ceramics – rethinking geopolymers was one of the projects selected for funding. The sustainability action booster is another initiative that illustrates the support for creativity and experimentation at Aalto University. In August 2023, Aalto students with big visions of a sustainable future had the opportunity to apply for a grant for their actions.

What’s even more interesting about this initiative is the team who came up with the idea of this grant. Jasmin Järvinen, project manager, and Emma Rosenberg and Vera Väänänen, two student trainees, were in direct contact with students. They kept hearing that students wanted to start sustainability projects on campus. So, the super stellar team of three women came up with the idea for the coolest grant initiative that stands out from other grant initiatives out there, through, firstly, an easy and quick application process: they simplified the process so the applicants can focus on what truly matters – bringing the sustainability projects to life. No more endless paperwork or complicated requirements. Secondly, they chose to emphasize the process, not just the end results. They support the journey as much as the destination. It’s not just about the outcome; it’s about the impact the applicants make along the way. Whether it’s inspiring others, building a strong community, or learning valuable lessons, every step counts.

And all this started with Jasmin, Emma and Vera, listening to students’ dreams.

Thinking back over the past three months, please make a list of the names of all people within your organisation/school/community, with whom you have discussed new ideas, projects or learning. How many of these people are:

• Colleagues?
• Superiors?
• Casual friends?
• Acquaintances?
• Close friends?
• Family members?

How many of the people you talked with, introduced you to new acquaintances? What, if anything, changed in your life because of such discussions?

As we can see, in a culture of creativity and experimentation, radically creative ideas and initiatives can come from anyone in whatever professional role who dares to do something different, scary, and previously unheard of. These are the people who start building support networks and drive progress in small and large communities.

For instance, in 2004, the book The Rise of the Creative Class was cited as a breakthrough idea by the Harvard Business Review. Florida (2003) identifies a group of people, which he calls the Creative Class, composed of individuals like scientists, engineers, artists, musicians, designers, and knowledge-based professionals, whose work primarily involves creating new ideas, new technology, and creative content. The members of the Creative Class value meritocracy, diversity and openness to new experiences and play a crucial role in urban regeneration. The author argues that, for example, cities which attract the Creative Class flourish, leading to the revitalization of downtown areas and the development of new cultural and recreational activities.

Who are you? One of the people in the creative class or one of the people in support of the creative category?

Summing up, we need radical creativity for progress that is based on three fundamental pillars:

• Disruptive innovation: Radical creativity is reflected in major innovations and breakthroughs. Challenging assumptions that others take for granted leads to new ideas on how we can use natural resources like wood to develop new technologies and solutions to complex challenges such as climate change.
• Adaptation: Societies are constantly changing and evolving. Radical creativity helps businesses adapt to new realities by envisioning future scenarios and creating solutions that cater to the evolving needs and values of consumers.
• Problem-solving: Faced with crises, like the COVID-19 pandemic, conventional approaches need to be set aside. Radical creativity enables the generation of unorthodox solutions, like wood-based self-sterilizing materials, that can address the multifaceted uncertainty more effectively.

Finally, products of radical creativity are enabled by networks of knowledge workers who benefit from supportive social relationships that share perspectives and resources – material, financial and psychological – for the development of new ideas.

Over to you.

References

Abraham, A. (2018). The Neuroscience of Creativity. Cambridge University Press.

Audretsch, D. B., Keilbach, M., & Lehmann, E. E. (2006). Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth. Oxford University Press

Beghetto, R.A., (2017). Inviting uncertainty into the classroom. Educational Leadership, 75(2), 20-25.

Christensen et al. (2015), What is Disruptive Innovation, HBR.

Gilson, L. L., Lim, H. S., D’Innocenzo, L., & Moye, N. (2012). One size does not fit all: Managing radical and incremental creativity. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 46(3), 168–191. https://doi.org/10.1002/jocb.12

Hirsh, J. B., Mar, R. A., & Peterson, J. B. (2012). Psychological entropy: A framework for understanding uncertainty-related anxiety. Psychological Review, 119(2), 304–320.

Paraskevas Petrou & Joran Jongerling (2022): Incremental and radical creativity in dealing with a crisis at work, Creativity Research Journal.

Schumpeter, J.A., (1994), Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy. London – Routledge. ISBN: 0-415-10762-8

Venkataramani, V., Richter, A. W., & Clarke, R. (2014). Creative Benefits From Well-Connected Leaders: Leader Social Network Ties as Facilitators of Employee Radical Creativity. Journal of Applied Psychology

Zhang, Y., Li, J., Song, Y. and Gong, Z. (2021), “Radical and incremental creativity: associations with work performance and well-being”, European Journal of Innovation Management, Vol. 24 No. 3, pp. 968-983

Online article: Aalto platform – Radical ceramics: Rethinking Geopolymers 

Online article: Aalto platform, 14th September 2017, The economy grows on ideas and education

Online article: Aalto platform, 23rd September 2022, Eighth Economic Defence Course digged into the topic of risk

Online article: Aalto platform, 6th October 2023, The Ninth Economic Defence Course analysed the Government Programme

Online article: Aalto platform, 27th September 2023, Activist Afternoon

Online article:  Silverthorne, S., (2007), Rediscovering Schumpeter: The Power of Capitalism, Research & Ideas, Working Knowledge, Harvard Business School, Rediscovering Schumpeter: The Power of Capitalism – HBS Working Knowledge

Online article: The Economist, Business, Feb 9th 2023, What would Joseph Schumpeter have made of Apple?