Are We Just Saying the Words?
It has become impossible to attend a seminar, workshop, or listen to a speaker leave the stage without hearing the words INNOVATION and CREATIVITY. This refrain is now constant, even within our highest institutions of learning.
This raises a crucial question: What do these terms truly mean? Is there a shared clarity on their definitions, or have they become hollow buzzwords, used simply to appear progressive? It’s easy to suspect they are merely indicative of a vague aspiration—a desired outcome whose processes and science have yet to be meaningfully defined.
A glance at the programmes offered in our educational institutions seems to confirm this suspicion. There appears to be a systemic lack of deliberate, integrated effort to actually teach the methodologies of creativity and to foster the challenging work of innovation. The curriculum often doesn’t match the rhetoric.
This disconnect has profound consequences. What does it mean for our national ambitions—for economic growth, technological sovereignty, and social progress—when the very concepts we claim are essential for their achievement are treated so superficially? If we fail to move beyond the buzzwords, we risk building our future on a foundation of wishful thinking rather than genuine capability.