What is the difference between creativity, invention, and innovation?
As I define it, creativity is novel ideas that are communicated, useful, and appealing. Creativity occurs when an individual visualizes a new pattern in their mind. It is the ability of the mind to recognize these new patterns and to generate new patterns that create the basis for a new product or service. It is the ability of humans to then communicate these patterns to other humans. When I had the idea for making a bookmark while singing in the church choir, it was a creative idea, but not an innovation. Typically, creativity is a fuzzy idea and can’t be clarified until it is made into a prototype, where you can touch it and test it and show it to others. At this point the creation becomes an invention. Thus I define invention as the stage where a creative idea has been reduced to practice. When I made samples of bookmarks, gave them to others to use, and had tested them carefully; when we put them on the store shelves for sale, they were still not an innovation. They only became an
