The Creative Mindset

Mastering the Six Skills That Empower Innovation

It’s time to rethink the way we make innovation happen. Innovation doesn’t come from an algorithm; it comes from the personal creativity of individuals. And creativity is not a gift for the chosen few—it is a process that can be learned.

Jeff and Staney DeGraff, two master innovators who have taught and worked with over half of all Fortune 500 companies, introduce six essential creative-thinking skills: Clarify, Replicate, Elaborate, Associate, Translate, and Evaluate, or CREATE. Sequenced as steps, these skills simplify and summarize the most important research on creative thinking and draw on over thirty years of real-world application in some of the most innovative organizations in the world.

Individual creativity is an immense untapped resource that is available to all of us. As the spirit of chef Gusteau proclaims in the Pixar classic Ratatouille, “Anyone can cook.”