APPLICATION OF INNOVATION, DESIGN THINKING AND CREATIVITY
Introduction
Creativity, critical thinking, and innovation are skills that enhance the success of an entity. They provide the enhancement of new ideas such as those for competitive advantage in businesses. By generating new ideas and staying relevant in the marketplace, an entrepreneur gets an edge above the competition. Creativity is essential in enabling one to go “out of the box” in exploring new concepts that later turn into an innovation.
Upon the completion of my degree, I shall enter the occupation of urban planning. Urban planning can be defined as the professional work of designing and guiding development in an urban area. The occupation consists of formulating physical development plans and spatial regulations that are aimed to achieve a healthier, better place to live and work, as well as getting around that definite urban area.
Activities of an urban planner include social, economic, and environmental efforts aimed at bringing order and sanity to a town or city (Hamdy, 2017). In general, urban planning encompasses political and technical processes that aim to regulate the use of land, conserve and protect the environment, design of the urban set-up for instance roads, parking and public spaces and development of infrastructure in an urban area such as communication lines, sewerage, and transportation. An urban planner can either work for the government or offer private services to both the government and the private sector. Urban planning entails the formulation of design in a graphical representation of plans, designs, and development perspective, as well as the formulation of rules and regulations towards the achievement of set development agenda.
Urban planning has evolved through historical times and is constantly evolving with the ever-changing technology. The daily schedule of an urban planner may entail receiving applications from clients, formulation of plans, marketing as well as analysis of the most recent market trends. Therefore, it requires the utilization of digital tools to run all the operations one by one or concurrently. Digital tools are online resources, websites, links, or programs that make definite errands at ease to complete. Digital tools are accessed via online platforms and browsers without the need to install them on local computers. In the future, most businesses shall operate on the digital platform.
Many organizations have already implemented digital activities in their daily processes. Additionally, learning digital tools provides students with essentials for sharpening their critical thinking as well as the development of logical reasoning. Individuals and organizations can manipulate digital tools in enhancing their operations and communication with the clientele. Digital tools are divided into different categories as per their designated tasks. The categories include productivity tools, time and task manager tools, social media tools, design, project management, social media, e-commerce, and many more (Treem and Leonardi, 2013). The urban and regional planning profession can manipulate the different digital tools for practice purposes such as accessing digital applications, marketing, and enhancement of productivity in the organization.
Each urban planning task has to entail a project management phase that upholds communication and collaboration between different team members as well as documenting each phase of a definite project. Urban planners work best in teams, sharing various designs and brainstorming throughout the project development. The use of Basecamp too in the project management category shall proclaim efficiency in communication and collaboration between those working in different or simultaneous projects. This shall enable easy and central access to resources and concepts for project tackling.
The Trello tool provides a graphical representation of the projects at hand and makes it easy for viewers and to know the status of ongoing and completed projects. For instance, Trello may allow the state department of planning to showcase different projects to the planning on the current state and offer a window of public participation before the projects get implemented. Additionally, the Asana is a popular project management tool that can be integrated with the urban planning software such as Geographical Information Systems (GIS) applications to facilitate organization and planning of projects (Lior, 2020).
Social media is an essential digital tool that can be manipulated to acquire information from clients and the public. Urban planners can market their services through different social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter (Chadlii and Ros, 2016). Additionally, social media can be used to acquire feedback from the public or the clientele, offering the opportunity for feedback in terms of public participation. Social media platforms offer the exhibition of services and products to the organization’s followers (Catapult, 2017). Moreover, it is an efficient tool to meet different partners and stakeholders.
The urban planning professionalism has grown over time, evolving from a governmental board to macro and micro consultant firms. The current marketplace requires technical professionals to deploy extraordinary strategies to survive in the competitive marketplace. Creativity shall commence by the way of interacting with individual customers and the entire public relations processes (Importance of Innovation…, 2013). Creative thinking shall enable the urban and regional firms to stay steps ahead of their competitors; this shall attract partners and clients that choose a more productive firm. A study by Forrester Consulting establishes that there is a strong link between successful business outcomes and creative thinking. The urban planning field is all about problem-solving, careful analysis of the urban needs should complement rational alternatives and come up with the most valuable solutions in the workplace as well as handling different projects (Entrepreneurship, 2017). Each business is constantly aiming at increasing productivity. This is through ensuring customer demands are met and being flexible in the industry. Innovativeness can be simply thinking outside the box in all company’s operations. For instance, deploying the most effective and viable digital tools shall attract customers, and on the other hand, increase efficiency in handling projects.
During the semester, I was able to deploy creativity in coping up with anxiety related to the Covid-19 pandemic. The outbreak of the pandemic caused strong emotions among all ages of society (CDC, 2020). I experienced worrying and anxiety about my health and the health of my loved ones. The anxious period affected my sleep and eating patterns, moreover, I had difficulty in concentrating. After trying out different anxiety-relieving approaches such as watching and reading without success, I discovered playing piano reduced my worries and fear of the pandemic. Playing the piano required some kind of dedication, which I provided. My sessions on the piano were prosperous, I became less anxious and overcame the pandemic fear. My creativity towards playing the piano was a great source of relief and provided ample space for boosting my self-esteem.
Conclusion
The current digital platform appreciates creativity, innovation, and design thinking. Manipulation of digital tools is a way of justifying the different forms of creativity and innovation; this has developed unlimited benefits in various spheres of lives.
References
Catapult, F. (2017) Digital Tools Can Make Planning More Transparent – Future Cities Catapult, Future Cities Catapult. Available at: https://futurecities.catapult.org.uk/2017/02/08/digital-tools-can-make-planning-transparent/ (Accessed: 19 May 2020).
CDC. (2020) Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/managing-stress-anxiety.html (Accessed: 21 May 2020).
Chadli, S.Y., Idri, A., Ros, J.N., Fernández-Alemán, J.L., de Gea, J.M.C., and Toval, A., 2016. Software project management tools in global software development: a systematic mapping study. SpringerPlus, 5(1), p.2006.
Entrepreneurship, I. (2017) Importance of Creativity and Innovation in Entrepreneurship, LSUS Online. Available at: https://online.lsus.edu/articles/business/creativity-innovation-in-entrepreneurship.aspx (Accessed: 19 May 2020).
Hamdy, H. (2017) Urban Planning: definition, problems, and solutions, ierek news. Available at: https://www.ierek.com/news/index.php/2017/01/17/urban-planning-definition-problems-and-solutions/ (Accessed: 19 May 2020).
Importance of Innovation and Creativity for Success of an Organisation (2013). Available at: http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/organization/importance-of-innovation-and-creativity-for-success-of-an-organisation/21142 (Accessed: 19 May 2020).
Lior Steinberg (2020) Humankind.city. Available at: https://www.humankind.city/post/free-digital-tools-for-urban-planners (Accessed: 19 May 2020).
Treem, J.W., and Leonardi, P.M., 2013. Social media use in organizations: Exploring the affordances of visibility, editability, persistence, and association. Annals of the International Communication Association, 36(1), pp.143-189.