Go Deeper with Certificate Programs
Unlocking Creativity is part of a certificate program:
What You'll Get
Introduction
Watch a sneak peek
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Unlocking Creativity—Sneak peek of the class
3 Video Lessons
- Creativity Now—The heart of innovation
- Creative Confidence—Unlocking your full potential
- Meet the Cast—Why creativity matters
Lesson 1: Learn from Failure
2 Video Lessons
- From Fear to Courage—Daring to learn from mistakes
- Instructor Perspectives—The fear of failure
1 Assignment
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Warm-up: Failing fingers
4 Activities
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The Really Bad Ideas Brainstorm: Good ideas are great, but bad ones can be just as good. Those impossible, terrible, groan-worthy ideas open up the imagination and help us get in touch with creativity.
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Get Out of Fail Free Card: What would you try if you knew you wouldn't get in trouble for failing? Encouragement and permission go a long way toward inspiring us to pursue what's creative and bold. That's why you're going to design your very own Get Out of Fail Free Card.
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Under the Rug: Thinking of our failures often makes us cringe, but spending some time working through them can make us feel way better about them in the long run. It's hard, though, to revisit embarrassing, disappointing moments. Under the Rug is a quick exercise to help us own our failures—and learn from them.
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The Failure Museum: It's easy to feel like you're the only one who has ever messed up. But as we know, that's simply not true. The Failure Museum is a great way to make the point that everyone messes up, and that it's OK. Really.
Lesson 2: Find Inspiration
2 Video Lessons
- Finding Inspiration—Paving new pathways
- Instructor Perspectives—The lack of inspiration
1 Assignment
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Warm-up: Musical musings
4 Activities
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What More Can We Find: Learn how the technique of Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) can help us stretch our thinking, look differently at the world, and validate our observations with evidence.
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Pain Challenge: Really understanding the experience of others is a powerful way to break down existing assumptions and tune in to their needs. That's the role empathy plays in design and creative problem solving.
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Step Outside Your Context: One of the best ways to get inspired and solve a problem creatively is to look at something really different—something you might never expect to be helpful or relevant to the task at hand.
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Inspiration Walks: The world is rich with inspiration, but too often we walk right by it. This exercise is an invitation to tune in, get curious, and look more closely at the world around you.
Lesson 3: Get Unstuck
2 Video Lessons
- Getting Unstuck—Don’t get ready, get started
- Instructor Perspectives—Stuck in in-action
1 Assignment
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Warm-up: Cap-tain Crumple
3 Activities
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Hunch Hour: This exercise will help crack open "the way we've always done things around here" to come up with something creative, powerful, and new.
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Spaghetti Challenge: This activity is classic introduction to prototyping and getting your hands dirty. Because making is often more fun than thinking. And it builds your creative confidence.
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Wacky Ways to Fill a Stadium: This activity will help you to invite conversation around wacky, early concepts that might inspire more viable solutions.
Meet Your Instructor
Suzanne Gibbs Howard
IDEO U Founder & Former Partner, IDEO
Suzanne founded IDEO U and has led work in organizational design, corporate innovation, and design for education. At IDEO, she pioneered many of the techniques now at the forefront of design and user experience research. Suzanne has a bachelor’s degree in Archaeology and African Studies from Northwestern University and a master’s degree in Anthropology from the University of Chicago.
Suzanne Gibbs Howard
IDEO U Founder & Former Partner, IDEO
Suzanne is an entrepreneur, design strategist, and expert in digital learning whose work focuses on transforming individuals and organizations. As a partner at IDEO, Suzanne founded and served as Dean of IDEO U. Prior to IDEO U, she was the Managing Director of IDEO’s Systems and Organizational Change Studio. She also grew IDEO’s Design Research and Strategy capabilities globally. Suzanne pioneered many of the techniques now at the forefront of how business understands human needs.
Suzanne started her career as a cultural anthropologist working across tech startups in Silicon Valley. Her passion is to catalyze bold change by unlocking others through education, empathy and insight. She teaches in the Aspen Institute's Business and Society Program and serves on the board of Education Design Lab. Masterful at advising and coaching leaders while they are navigating change, her work has been published in Inc Magazine, Fast Company, Quartz at Work, and Rotman Magazine. Suzanne has innovated across public, private and social sectors with clients including The Gates Foundation, Ford, Proctor & Gamble, York University, Apollo Group and Google. She has a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University, and an M.A. from the University of Chicago. Outside of work, Suzanne is a passionate traveler, educator, research geek, climber, sailor, and mom.
Deepen Your Learning
Downloadable Workbook
Hands-On Activities
Certificate of Completion
FAQs
We offer three types of courses: self-paced courses, cohort courses, and certificate programs. On-demand courses allow you to start, learn, and finish a course completely on your own schedule. Since courses are on-demand, there's no community experience of going through the material with other learners at the same time. There is no teaching team providing feedback on your submissions.
Cohort courses run on a set calendar with fixed start and end dates. You will be learning alongside other learners, but still have the flexibility to work at a pace that fits your own schedule—there aren't mandatory live components. In cohort courses, you'll have access to a teaching team who will answer your questions and give feedback on your assignments throughout the course. Self-paced courses allow you to start, learn, and finish a course completely on your own schedule. Since courses are on-demand, there's no community experience of going through the material with other learners. In on-demand courses, there is no teaching team providing feedback on your submissions.
Upon completing a course, the certificate and digital badge for the course will automatically become available to you on your profile page within 24 hours. There, you can view your certificate, download it, and access your Credly badge. We've partnered with Credly, a leading digital credentialing platform, to provide learners with a digital badge that they can share on social media, email signatures, or add to their LinkedIn profiles or resumes.
IDEO U courses are not currently eligible for university credit.
You'll need a stable internet connection and a device (computer, tablet, or phone) with a modern web browser such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Edge. Some course activities may work better on a computer than a mobile device. You'll also need to be able to view videos, which requires a browser that supports HTML5 video.
Once you enroll in a course, you can access it by logging into your IDEO U account at ideou.com and clicking on your profile icon in the upper right corner. Then click on "My Courses" to see all of your enrolled courses. Click on the course you want to access to go to the course page. Your courses are always available in your account, even after the course end date.
We offer refunds for on-demand courses if you haven't accessed the course content yet. If you've accessed the course content, we are unable to provide a refund. To process a refund, contact us.
Yes, we do! We offer group pricing when you purchase 5 or more seats for the same course. Contact us at learner-success@ideou.com to get a quote.
Loved by Learners Across the Globe
Unlocking Creativity
“This class is especially great to do at your own pace. I desperately needed the creative pick-me-up and my own bit of fun and inspiration and 'kick in the pants.' The energy and thoughtfulness brought by the instructors was just what the Creativity Doctor ordered. Their brightness, openness, and joyful spirit (coupled with the super detailed and awesome activities workbook) will be incredibly inspirational in helping get my team back on track!”
Unlocking Creativity
“IDEO's way of presenting new approaches to creativity is mind blowing and far away from traditional teaching methods.”
Unlocking Creativity
“I discovered and learned new things. I found ways to extend and combine what I had been practising so far with new learning from this class to deepen my creative confidence.”
Unlocking Creativity
“Courses are engaging and flexible and I love that I can begin practicing what I learn right away.”
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Enroll As a Team
The practice and application of design thinking, innovation, and creativity is highly collaborative and team based—which is why we believe that learning is better together. Take a course as a team and develop new skills and mindsets, have deeper discussion during course kickoff and debrief sessions, and build a shared understanding.
