I think the most important skill I learned in this class is that creativity can be tapped into. I remember the session we learned that most people don’t think of themselves as creative – I fully fall into this category! I remember when I was younger I used to be very crafty and artistic; however, as I’ve gotten older, I feel like I have lost some of my “creative touch.” Especially as I have gotten deeper into my marketing coursework, I get frustrated with my inability to come up with “innovative” or “creative” ideas. However, Professor Luchs’ reminder that we all are creative, and have the capability for great ideas, was really inspiring. It’s simply a matter of thinking differently than we normally do to aid in this creative process. To me, this is the most important takeaway of this class — everybody is creative, it is simply a matter of thinking in a way that is different than normal.
Another aspect of this class I particularly enjoyed was learning a structured way to brainstorm. Oftentimes, a group brain dumps ideas and talks through them and picks the best one. I think giving our thinking direction with the “How Might We” statements, and then redoing the process to take our brainstorming in different directions was incredibly useful. By coming up with different types of ideas, whether they’re aimed at sustainability or convenience or practicality, and then choosing the best few ideas from each to decide between is a unique approach I’ve never seen. I enjoyed our “How Might We” process so much that I pitched the process to my consumer behavior group to come up with our industry’s innovation.
I think another important takeaway I have from our class is learning that it is okay, even encouraged, to fail. It can hurt your ego when somebody shoots down your idea, or doesn’t vote for it in the decision process; however, I think that by failing marketers learn the important rule that not everybody is the same as them – ideas you love are not always going to be as well-received by others. Therefore, hearing early and honest feedback is an integral part of coming up with an effective strategy or idea. So, I feel like this will be an important part of the design process to remember as I move forward in my academic career and continue to collaborate with other group members.
Lastly, another course objective I feel I got a solid grasp on is “enhancing communication skills.” As Professor Luchs structured our groups with a variety of students with majors and backgrounds, I particularly enjoyed getting to work with people who had different learning styles and thought processes as myself. Learning how to communicate in a way that made everybody happy and kept tensions low, while still being productive is something I have struggled with in the past. However, I think this group worked out well, and although at times it was challenging to be productive, but we got along well and helped foster each other’s creativity. This success in teamwork encompasses our secondary objective of “integrating discrete knowledge into a more holistic understanding of the interdependency of people, functional disciplines, socio-cultural systems, and physical resources.” Interpersonal skills are just as important, if not mores so, than academic ones especially as we start to enter the working world.
In summation, I have truly enjoyed taking this sustainability & innovation course. As I’m a declared finance major, this course was completely out of my comfort zone, and I LOVED it. Not only did Professor Luchs succeed in teaching us new methods of thinking, but he fostered our creativity and inspired us to think out of the box and move out of our comfort zones.