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Learning Innovations:
New Course
Enhances
Creativity With
Lessons from
Science, Arts,
and Business
"This is a challenging
presentation—I couldn't
just pull my usual slides
out of the carrousel," confessed
James M. Wilson
before the class in Jon M.
Huntsman Hall. Wilson,
John Herr Musser Professor
of Research Medicine and
Head of The Gene Therapy
Program at the University
of Pennsylvania, is used to
explaining to fellow scientists
how he led a team of
researchers to create new
adenovirus vectors being
used to develop genetic
vaccines against biologic
weapons, Ebola virus, and
SARS coronavirus.
But on February 7,
2006, Wilson was addressing
an audience of Wharton
MBA students. The topic
was not the nuts and bolts
of his groundbreaking research
in gene therapy—it
was the creative process that
has allowed him and his
team of scientists to break
that ground.
The class was "Creativity,"
a new elective in the Spring
2006 term—the brainchild
of one of Wharton's experts
on innovation, Yoram
"Jerry" Wind, the Lauder
Professor, professor of marketing,
and director of the
SEI center for Advanced
Studies in Management.
Wind is co-author of The
Power of Impossible Thinking:
Transform the Business of
Your Life and the Life of Your
Business (Wharton School
Publishing).
It was fitting that speaking
to MBAs required Wilson to
move beyond his usual comfort
zone—exiting comfort
zones is an important part of
the creative process. Wind's
research has found that creative
breakthroughs often
happen at the intersections—and even the collisions—of disciplines. Wind
intentionally introduced
those collisions into the
course by inviting prominent
weekly guest speakers
from an array of industries.
Other lecturers included
architects Bob Venturi and
Denise Scott Brown, founders
of Venturi, Scott Brown
& Associates; Howard
Morgan, founder and director
of Idealab; Raph Koster,
chief creative of officer of
Sony Online Entertainment;
Mark Hagerty and Lloyd
Shorter, Musician and
Musical Director of Relache;
and Barry Sternlicht, chairman
and CEO of Starwood
Capital Group.
Said Wind, "There are
both similarities and differences
between the approaches
of a composer
and a scientist, between an
architect and a curator. We
can learn from the synthesis
of their approaches."
For example, in Wilson's
advice from the field of
science, he described how
his research team recovered
from a devastating setback
in gene therapy by radically
changing direction. "People
from outside the field often
make new discoveries," he
said. "The people who will
revolutionize science are not
specialists, but those who
see the systems approach."
The new course in creativity
encourages that kind
of innovative thinking. Said
Wind, "There are some
who believe you are born
creative or not. I don't buy
it. Some people are naturally
creative, but everyone
can enhance their ability to
think creatively."
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