UTS Bachelor of Creative Intelligence and Innovation

81513 Past, Present, Future of Innovation

Elizabeth McGrory
14267710
Faculty of Health (B. Nursing)

Tutorial 2: Michael Northey

Group 6

Assessment 1: Change Makers Report

Type: Report

Weight: 30% Individual and group work, individually assessed

Digital due: THUR 7 JULY 10.00pm via Canvas

Length: max 1200 words + mind-maps/visualisations + questions

Purpose: The assignment invites you to explore creative intelligence and the enabling
conditions of innovation through the lives of Creative Intelligence
Changemakers. In teams you will create shared models of creative
intelligence.
81513: Assessment 1: Tutorial 2, Group 6

SECTION 1: RESEARCHING A CI CHANGE-MAKER & CONDITIONS FOR

INNOVATION
Include: Mind-map + 400 words

CI Changemaker: Elizabeth Kenny

1. Identify ONE creative intelligence change-maker. Research their lives, work and the
conditions which enabled them to innovate. Develop a mind-map to record your
research and include this mind-map in your final submission.

2. Write 400 words describing the key themes or characteristics of the enabling
conditions for creative intelligence and innovation gained from your research.
Include in-text references or footnotes.

Like many innovators, Elizabeth Kenny was faced with conflict and confrontation when she
shared her creative input, as seen through her implementation of alternative treatment
practices of those suffering from polio. Although it was later widely adopted across the globe,
she was ridiculed and made to feel insignificant simply because her solution saw bias against
societal norm. Whether due to her lack of traditional training (as she was a self-taught nurse)
which caused doubt and scepticism, or the fact that her treatment plan went against the advice
of individuals of a higher social and political status, she saw the impact and positive

Elizabeth McGrory Faculty: Health, Nursing

14267710
81513: Assessment 1: Tutorial 2, Group 6

outcomes her work had, so decided to pursue them. Although this external pressure of
seemingly having ‘no one in your corner’, it in turn it motivated her to continue her work
despite the outward hesitation. As in innovator, sometimes people not believing in your ideas
or thinking they are too far-fetched may just be the most enabling type of condition,
provoking further investigation and pursuit.

Dedication is a major enabling condition for creative intelligence and innovation and is an
attribute that Elizabeth Kenny excelled in. Her personal attribute of dedication for the cause
and her career as a nurse is seen through her work as a staff nurse in the Australian Army
Nursing Service during WW11. Her philanthropic and caring ways are paralleled through this.
Plato’s theory of knowledge is fundamental to the experience of Elizabeth Kenny and thus
innovation, with knowledge being the justified truth as determined by three elements -
Elizabeth believed in the cause and her treatment plan based on the truth that physical
therapy was curative, all supported by the good reason of healing victims of polio
(Franscisco, 2016).

In 1927 Elizabeth Kenny patented the 'Sylvia' ambulance stretcher designed to reduce shock
in the transport of injured patients 2. Her experience with real world situations fostering her
ability to renew what was previously used as per the status quo. This stretcher was adopted
throughout Townsville and across Australia. Elizabeth’s more physically innovative approach
shows her identification of the opportunity for her design to succeed as there was nothing like
it in the current market. She initially designed this stretcher as a solution to the disruption
caused to the patient during transit. In having the mindset to improve patient experience, she
identified the gap in the economy and subsequently through entrepreneurship, process, and
strategy, developed a more than adequate solution that was widely adopted.

SECTION 2: QUESTIONING AND DEEPER PROBING

Include: List of 5-6 Catalytic Questions + 300 words

3. Develop a list of catalytic questions based on your individual research.

1
https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/kenny-elizabeth-6934
2
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Elizabeth-Kenny#ref1111902

Elizabeth McGrory Faculty: Health, Nursing

14267710
81513: Assessment 1: Tutorial 2, Group 6

4. Develop a 300-word response to ONE of your group’s catalytic questions. Each

group member should respond to a unique question and draw on further research.

If conformity if fed through education,

is unconventional thinking ignorant?

Current education systems - be that foundational, secondary or tertiary study - are widely
known to eradicate individual thinking through the use of syllabuses to suppress individual
thought. Particularly in secondary and tertiary education, individuals are taught recall rather
than independent thought. Intellect and imagination go hand in hand, yet they are taught as
separate, disparate ideals that rarely coincide. Elizabeth Kenny was not offered a ‘substantial’
education, rather receiving a limited primary school education from various schools across
New South Wales and Queensland. Was her lack of traditional tutorage an enabling condition
for her innovative process - the fault we now see as the education system?

Society’s constraints of education limit and determine innovation and its inherent success.
Education streamlines students, ironing out any individuality. The school system has always
operated within specific parameters and has been charged with the task of promoting
conformity (Saldana, 2013). In teaching through ‘right’ and ‘wrong’, it becomes embedded
that there is always one solution. In regard to innovation, the sole purpose is to challenge
norms in order to initiate improvement, opposing what schools drill into their students from
day dot. With Justin Saldana defining the purpose of the school to give heterogeneous society
commonness (Saldana, 2013), the notion of banality being fostered through education is not
unforeseen.

Elizabeth’s idiosyncratic approach of thinking was fostered through her real-life experiences
in nursing and her fortitude in recognising pragmatic solutions to problems. In her
implementation of movement to the care plan of those suffering from polio, she was going
against the advice from well-trusted, well-educated individuals - people with authority and
significance. They would have seen her blatantly ignoring this well esteemed advice provided
for her by trusted individuals and seen her to be obtusely uninformed. Yet, her understanding
of situation allowed her to make an educated judgement of their care that improved their
circumstance. She was not blinded by what was taught in her textbook, nor by the deep-
seated duty to agree with those superior despite your belief. She was unconventional enough
to think ignorantly, establishing a new care plan that pioneered polio care across the world.
Guilford’s understanding of creativity is that ‘a creative act is an instance of learning’ (Fasco,
2001), so why does traditional education revoke this, limiting to theoretical knowledge.
Elizabeth embodied Guilford’s value of creativity despite her traditional education, proving
the ability for education to limit vicissitude.

SECTION 3: DISTILLING & MODELING CREATIVE INTELLIGENCE &

INNOVATION
Include: One model + 500 word reflection

Elizabeth McGrory Faculty: Health, Nursing

14267710
81513: Assessment 1: Tutorial 2, Group 6

5. Distill and visualise a model of creative intelligence and innovation based on your
collective research.

Elizabeth McGrory Faculty: Health, Nursing

14267710
81513: Assessment 1: Tutorial 2, Group 6

6. Write a 500-word individual reflection on your team’s model.

A clear element of creative intelligence and innovation that was parallel to all our groups’
changemaker’s, was the impact of catalytic events, hence our allocated of it as the trigger on
the gun. All it takes is one moment in the changemaker’s life – be that positive or negative,
big or small – and we see innovative outcomes across the board. On a gun, the trigger is
small, but sensitive. All it takes is a light touch and the effects are devastating. Likewise,
innovation (while previous thought) doesn’t have to be a massive ‘ah-hah’ moment.
Innovation comes in all shapes and forms (Keely, Pikkel, Quinn & Walters, 2013), and
cannot be defined through set parameters. Often, criticism goes hand in hand with a catalytic
event – sometimes one being the spark which ignites the other. Upon receiving criticism,
innovation can be taken two ways – the first being failure, with the criticism being
overwhelming, the second is success. In our model, the bullets are undetermined and not
noted on. Is the bullet the idea? The innovation? On a gun, the hammer is the part of the
trigger that releases the bullet when the right amount of pressure is applied. Conversely,
innovation thrives with a proportionate balance of criticism. Moreso, our model’s use of
pragmatic and analytic visualisation through the gun diagram uses irony as it breaks down
and defines creative intelligence and innovation is a completely subjective matter. Yet
through this visualisation, the audience sees no room for individualisation or alteration – a
fundamental attribute of creative intelligence (West & Altink, 1996).

Greg Satell juxtaposes himself in his journal “The 4 types of Innovation and the problems
they solve”. The obscurity that is innovation is limitless and is purposefully so. In his
discussion of ‘Open Innovation3’, he notes that one person cannot be innovative alone. To be
truly innovative, one must seek influence beyond their own scope, through the influence of
others. The gun depicted in our team’s model is not innovative alone. Yes, it provides the
means for innovation, but if placed on a table and left there, the gun is simply that – a gun. It
will not shoot; it will not cause destruction; it will simply sit idle. Innovation too will sit idle
until enacted upon.

Considering this, it is evident there is no set way to innovate as yes, it is subjective, relying
on the influence of whoever is holding the gun. Satell begins to define 4 types of innovation,
informing the reader of the need to “start treating innovation like other business disciplines
— as a set of tools that are designed to accomplish specific objectives.” I do agree that having
a roadmap to innovation will promote more effective idea generation, just as the gun depicts
the attributes aiding innovative process, but individuals need to recognise the trap that is
relying on these roadmaps in the hope of gaining creative intelligence in an innovation
setting. With the cycle of innovation being infinite, it is important to not become complacent
to the pull that is innovation, rather continue to question and develop solutions.

3
https://hbr.org/2017/06/the-4-types-of-innovation-and-the-problems-they-solve

Elizabeth McGrory Faculty: Health, Nursing

14267710
81513: Assessment 1: Tutorial 2, Group 6

SECTION 4: REFERENCES
Include: list all your references (at least 5)

Fasko, D. (2001). Education and Creativity. Creativity Research Journal, 13(3-4), 317-327.
https://doi.org/10.1207/S15326934CRJ1334_09

Franscisco, C. (2016). Differences Between Belief and Knowledge. Difference Between

Similar Terms and Objects. http://www.differencebetween.net/language/words-
language/differences-between-belief-and-knowledge/

Na, J., Choi, Y., and Harrison, D. (2017). The design innovation spectrum: An overview of
design influences on innovation for manufacturing companies. International Journal
of Design, 11(2), 13 - 24.
http://www.ijdesign.org/index.php/IJDesign/article/view/2637/776

Ross, P. (1983). Kenny, Elizabeth (1880-1952). Australian Dictionary of Biography, 9(1).

https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/kenny-elizabeth-6934

Saldana, J. (2013). Power and Conformity in Today’s Schools. International Journal of

Humanities and Social Science, 3(1), 228-232.
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?
doi=10.1.1.1084.209&rep=rep1&type=pdf

West, M., & Altink, W. (1996). Innovation at work: Individual, group, organizational, and
socio-historical perspectives. European Journal of Work and Organizational
Psychology, 5(1), 3-11, DOI: 10.1080/13594329608414834

Vaughn, L. (2021). Living Philosophy: A Historical Introduction to Philosophical Ideas.

Oxford University Press, 5(3).
https://global.oup.com/us/companion.websites/9780190628703/sr/ch4/summary/
#:~:text=There%20are%20three%20necessary%20and,be%20justified%20in
%20believing%20it.

Elizabeth McGrory Faculty: Health, Nursing

14267710