Greg Burton again on apprentice mind -- "Creativity is an individual function - innovation is a social function. This may seem obvious, but if we are really looking for "applied creativity" we're looking for innovation. And the cultural changes or learning changes that apply 'creative skills' to individuals won't do a thing unless they change the social innovation climate."

Over the years I've been gathering up definitions for creativity and innovation. There are a lot of the them, since just about everyone in the business of innovation and creativity finds it necessary to define these terms in order to align their thinking about what they are doing.

There are some themes that tend to repeat themselves, though, and although there are also some themes that tend to repeat themselves. One of them is this individual/social split.

Another one is a functional kind of split, as in "creativity is a behavior; innovation is a process." This kind of functional split lends itself to sayings like "you can have creativity without being innovative, but you can't be innovative without being creative."

Why am I going on about this now? Because I think that clear understanding of how creativity and innovation work are critical to understanding how the apprentice mind approach benefits both. And that's my argument -- the apprentice mind approach does enhance one's ability to learn and practice creativity and innovation as well -- just in slightly different ways.

You can learn to think laterally all day long, but you'll be missing something -- probably many somethings -- if you never question your preconceived notions. And there is nothing about lateral thinking skills or the way they are taught that guarantees you'll look at something with a fresh mind. Edward de Bono's process sneaks in the random word stimulus to jump your mind off its usual track and to shock you into apprentice thinking. But what if you already viewed the world with apprentice mind -- imagine how much more powerful deliberate lateral thinking would be.