Creative Thinking and Innovation Course

Course overview

Build disciplined creativity that produces useful alternatives and stronger innovation choices.

Creative Thinking and Innovation builds the disciplined creativity needed to move beyond familiar answers and generate useful alternatives for products, services, processes and business challenges. Participants learn how to frame creative challenges, recognise cognitive barriers, use structured ideation methods and evaluate ideas without destroying exploration too early.

Participants work through structured exercises and a realistic innovation challenge, progressively applying creative thinking and the innovation context, problem reframing and opportunity perspectives, structured idea generation and the later course modules to make evidence-based decisions rather than treating innovation tools as isolated techniques.

The course emphasises practical judgement, usable outputs and workplace transfer so that participants can apply the methods immediately after the programme and adapt them to their organisation’s strategy, governance and innovation environment.

Learning outcomes

What participants will be able to do.

By the end of the course, participants should be able to:

Explain how creativity, invention and innovation differ and connect.
Diagnose common individual and organisational barriers to creative thinking.
Frame problems and opportunities in ways that stimulate useful alternatives.
Apply multiple structured ideation and reframing techniques.
Facilitate divergent and convergent thinking within teams.
Evaluate ideas using transparent criteria without premature closure.
Develop selected ideas into clearer innovation concepts.
Create a personal and team action plan for strengthening creative practice.

Who should attend

Designed for professionals building innovation capability.

Managers, team leaders and professionals responsible for improvement or innovation.
Product, service, process and transformation teams.
Business analysts, project professionals and facilitators.
Technical specialists who need to generate alternatives and solve complex problems.
Professionals preparing for broader innovation leadership responsibilities.

Prerequisites

Practical, professionally relevant entry requirements.

No formal innovation qualification is required.
Participants should bring one real business, customer or operational challenge where possible.
A willingness to experiment, collaborate and challenge assumptions is important.

Course structure

A five-part journey from creative challenge to evaluated innovation concept.

The sequence may be delivered across five days or adapted to another approved format while preserving the learning outcomes.

1

Module 1

Creative thinking and the innovation context

Creativity, invention, innovation and value.
Creative confidence, curiosity and disciplined exploration.
Cognitive fixation, assumptions and organisational barriers.
Divergent and convergent thinking.
Selecting a workplace creative challenge.

2

Module 2

Problem reframing and opportunity perspectives

Challenge statements and reframing.
Questioning assumptions and boundaries.
Analogies, perspectives and lateral prompts.
Constraint removal and constructive provocation.
Building an opportunity frame.

3

Module 3

Structured idea generation

Brainwriting, SCAMPER and forced connections.
Morphological thinking and combination techniques.
Idea quantity, variety and novelty.
Individual versus group ideation.
Managing energy and participation in creative sessions.

4

Module 4

Idea evaluation and concept development

Evaluation criteria and staged filtering.
Desirability, feasibility, viability and strategic fit.
Bias in idea selection.
Concept statements and value hypotheses.
Selecting ideas for exploration or experimentation.

5

Module 5

Creative practice, facilitation and workplace transfer

Mini innovation challenge.
Facilitating constructive challenge and psychological safety.
Building creative routines and team habits.
Communicating ideas for feedback.
Personal creativity and application plan.

Learning experience

Apply ideas—not simply remember terminology.

The course uses a structured mix of explanation, facilitated discussion, realistic innovation challenges and workplace-focused application.

Analyse

Integrated innovation case

Participants diagnose a realistic innovation situation and progressively build the course-specific innovation approach.

Practise

Tools and working templates

Exercises produce practical maps, canvases, decision aids, experiments, analyses and other course-specific working outputs.

Decide

Scenario-based workshops

Teams assess evidence, compare options, manage uncertainty and make defensible innovation decisions.

Reflect

Professional judgement

Facilitated reviews connect innovation methods with leadership behaviour, governance, ethics and accountability.

Apply

Workplace transfer

Participants identify how to adapt the methods to their own innovation challenges and organisational environment.

Reinforce

Knowledge checks

Short reviews, peer challenge and facilitator feedback confirm understanding and identify areas requiring further development.

Completion requirements

Demonstrate participation, application and professional judgement.

Participate actively in discussions, exercises and innovation workshops.
Complete the principal course outputs assigned during the programme.
Contribute to the final application or decision workshop.
Complete knowledge checks and a personal workplace action plan.

Participant outputs

Typical course outputs include:

Creative challenge statement and reframing map.
Structured idea portfolio generated through multiple techniques.
Idea evaluation matrix and shortlist.
One developed innovation concept.
Creative-session facilitation checklist.
Personal workplace application plan.

Delivery options

Choose the format that fits your people and business requirements.

Instructor-led

Live Classroom

Facilitated face-to-face learning with group exercises, case work, discussion and immediate feedback.

Instructor-led

Live Virtual Classroom

Interactive online delivery with facilitated workshops, collaborative activities and real-time discussion.

Flexible

Blended Learning

A structured combination of preparation, live facilitation, assignments and follow-up application.

Organisation-specific

Corporate and In-Company

Customised delivery aligned with the organisation’s strategy, terminology, innovation environment, governance and capability priorities.

Frequently asked questions

Course information and participation.

Do I need previous innovation experience?

The expected experience varies by course level. Foundation programmes require no formal innovation qualification; intermediate and advanced programmes benefit from relevant workplace exposure. The prerequisites above provide the course-specific guidance.

Will participants receive practical tools?

Yes. The programme uses structured templates and produces practical outputs that participants can adapt to their organisations, subject to local governance, legal and methodology requirements.

Can the programme be customised for an organisation?

Yes. Corporate delivery can incorporate organisation-specific innovation challenges, strategy, cases, governance, terminology, tools, portfolio priorities and expected outputs.

Does completion provide a professional certification?

The course develops practical innovation capability and provides an INDENTRA course-completion record where applicable. It is not presented as a third-party professional certification unless separately stated.

Can the five Modules be delivered in another format?

Yes. INDENTRA may adapt sequencing, exercises and delivery format while preserving the stated learning outcomes and overall learning effort.

Take the next step

Strengthen creative confidence, challenge assumptions and turn promising ideas into practical innovation opportunities.

Discuss public delivery, a corporate cohort or a tailored programme aligned with your organisation’s innovation priorities.

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Creative Thinking and Innovation