Update
So, it has been some time now since the last time i added any content of value to this site. Believe me, this is not because i have lost interest in communicating my insights when it comes to psychology applied in an everyday setting - but simply an uncontrollable variable called reality 
I am not the one for complaining since the reasons i have been absent are all related to successes in other areas. Still, i have missed the opportunity to use this blog for reflection. So for those of you who have contacted me directly to ask whether i am to return from this self imposed blog exile, I owe you all a big thanks for making me remember that my time spent here is of use for someone else
I cannot promise weekly entries, but going forward i do promise to become more active again.
Thanks again for encouraging me to keep going,
Omar
Protected: Media psychology
I am still here
To all of you that have sent me an email lately; don’t worry, this blog is here to stay. In fact, as soon as I complete some extra assignments over the next two weeks you will see me post again on a more regular basis…. and i might even attempt finishing designing this blog
Thanks again, guys, for your interest and support
Omar
A comment on Creativity and Innovation
In today’s business environment, competitive advantage becomes less and less about having unique products and/or suppliers. Rather, competitive advantage is the ability to identify and capitalise on information. Understanding what the customer wants and acting on it before anyone else, or learning a smarter way of utilising web 2.0 technology before the competitors. The two main keywords here are learning and development - that is the organisation’s capacity to learn, and the organisation’s capacity to use that learning.
There are many different concepts, theories and practices that are thought to explain parts of how to either increase the organisation’s capacity to learn, or how to use learning into developing new products or processes. We can refer to the Learning Orgainzation, Organisation Learning, Knowledge Management and so on. Two of the more well known concepts for the public are creativity and innovation, to such extent that we often refer to these as management fads. What is for certain is that there is a massive industry of consultants built around creativity and innovation - with a few serious and credible entities (e.g. Edward De Bono and IWP), but with the majority presenting quick fixes, hence becoming fads.
Now this is not going to be a post where I moan about the abundance of self proclaimed management gurus out there, don’t worry. But even amongs the more credible professionals out there, there is not always a clear cut definition and distinction between creativity and innovation. Based on my own research and experience, it is useful to view creativity as mental processes and behaviours that the individual engages in, whereas innovation is often understood to be the structures and processes at work that facilitate creativty. The “management gurus” do have one thing right, though. Everyone can be creative. However, not everyone can express it effectively, and even fewer are able to implement creative ideas. Rather than focusing on whether a person is creative or not, we need to address whether the environment, be it the personal sphere or within an organisation, allows for creativity to take place! It is not enough to hire creative people if your organisation doesn’t have processes and structures conducive and supportive for creativity to take place in the first place.
Why psychologists need to understand research
From time to time I get asked by psychology students I lecture why they need to learn about research and statistics, as after all “I am studying psychology because I want to help people.”
The answer is threefold:
1. We need to legitimise Psychology as a proper profession. Maybe you have a friend who is the source of all knowledge, who can cite matching proverbs whenever you offer some insights you gained from your psychology classes. In fact, he might even be so cheeky and say “I could have told you that without studying psychology”. Proverbs are interesting as they often describe a situation rather accurately. But it is also interesting to note that proverbs are often contradicting each other, eg “The more, the merrier” vs “Two’s company; three’s a crowd”. In fact, a funny exercise is to ask him which of these two is the right one, and you would probably see him struggling. However, with the help of research we would learn when the first proverb applies and when its opposite is true, and this would separate you from your friend.
2. We need to replicate findings from other studies. Imagine that there are two competing Burger restaurants; Big Joe’s and Big Moe’s. Big Joe’s then publishes a study saying that their hamburgers are the best in the neighborhood. Now, I would hope that the owners of Big Moe’s would challenge that by asking for details on how the research was conducted. Once we know this the next step would actually be to copy the same steps to see if we would get the same results. This is called replication. One reason to do so is to verify that the results found in a particular study would be found again should we do the study again. This is a way of ensuring that the results really are trustworthy or genuine. This is especially important if you have research done in a different country or culture, as what goes or is found in for instance in USA might not be applicable in China.
3. Finally, a part of doing research is actually to communicate your findings. Researchers have to follow an agreed structure when it comes to how to write about their research and their findings. Since this structure is standardised, it is easier to communicate the findings to interested people all over the world, ensuring that those who would be interested in the study would get to know the results. New groundbreaking results on how to treat people with schizophrenia would for instance be shared across the world and not just known to those conducting the research. By sharing the results we would also avoid spending resources on reinventing the wheel over and over again.
As you can see, part of your success in psychology depends on your ability to understand and evaluate the research done in psychology. But the same can be said about any profession, especially in the business context - something I will get back to later.
