April 21 • Cultural Insight

World Creativity and Innovation Day

The Necessity of Failure. This lesson explores why safe companies never innovate and why the most successful people in the world are usually the ones who have failed the most.

Speaking Discussion

Is creativity a muscle you can train, or a gift you are born with?
Should schools grade students on risk-Taking instead of accuracy?
Why is the first draft of any idea always terrible?
Does artificial intelligence kill human creativity by making everything average?
If you had $1 million to build something impossible, what would it be?

Activity 1: The Innovation Consultant

The Task: A company that makes umbrellas hasn't had a new idea in 50 years. They are dying. You have 3 minutes to re-invent the concept of rain protection. Think about sound, light, style, and gravity. Pitch your impossible umbrella.

Activity 2: Rapid Fire Debate

Justify in 30 seconds: 1. 'Comfort is the enemy of innovation.' 2. 'Most 'creative' people are just better at stealing other people's ideas.' 3. 'We should celebrate our failures more than our successes.'

Key Vocabulary

Innovation (N) The action or process of innovating; a new method, idea, product, etc.
Disruption (N) Disturbance or problems which interrupt an event, activity, or process; in business, an innovation that creates a new market.
Iteration (N) The repetition of a process or utterance.
Prototype (N) A first, typical or preliminary model of something.
Stagnation (N) The state of not flowing or moving; lack of activity, growth, or development.

Fluency Catalyst

Native Phrase: When discussing impact, use: "To think outside the box."

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