Spark, don’t burn!

Growing up in Lagos, I remember seeing huge government-built incinerators along the Mile 2–Orile axis, not far from Festac Town. Similar facilities appeared in various parts of Lagos and across the country. They were intended to solve a pressing refuse disposal problem and were promoted as evidence of modernisation and progress. Yet within a few years many had become dilapidated. Some were abandoned, others dismantled, and a number ironically ended up being burnt themselves.

As a young observer, I found this puzzling. How could a solution designed to solve a problem become part of the problem? Much later, I came to appreciate what may have happened. The issue was not necessarily a lack of creativity. It was a failure of contextual adaptation. A solution that may have worked elsewhere was copied into a different environment without sufficient consideration of local realities, weather conditions, waste composition, maintenance capabilities, operating costs, and user behaviour.

The lesson has stayed with me ever since. Creativity and innovation can create a spark that leads to progress, or they can create a spark that leads to waste, disappointment, and failure. This challenge remains prevalent in Nigeria today. Organisations copy structures, policies, technologies, management practices, and even national development models from other countries without fully understanding the conditions that made those solutions successful in the first place. The result is often activity without impact and investment without value.

At the heart of this problem are two common misconceptions about creativity and innovation. The first is the belief that creativity and innovation are the exclusive preserve of inventors, musicians, artists, software developers, and other visibly “creative” professionals. Whenever we discuss creativity in our life skills programmes for children and young people, many parents immediately think of painting, beading, music, robotics, or computer programming. While these activities are examples of creative enterprise, they represent only a small part of the picture.

Creativity is far more pervasive. Every day, people encounter problems, constraints, opportunities, and unmet needs. A teacher finding a better way to engage students, a nurse redesigning a patient process, a customer service officer resolving a recurring complaint, or a manager improving team productivity are all engaging in acts of creativity. Creativity is not confined to artistic or technological talent. It is fundamentally about solving problems and creating value.

The second misconception is that creativity is primarily about generating ideas. Ideas are important, but they are also abundant. Simply saying, “I think we should do things differently,” does not necessarily make someone creative. It may simply mean they are dissatisfied. Nigerians, perhaps more than most people, are exceptionally good at identifying problems. We complain about government, power supply, bad driving, corruption, poor customer service, and underperforming employees. Yet identifying a problem is not the same as solving it.

For me, creativity and innovation can be defined simply as people working together to take ownership of their challenges, generate multiple ideas for addressing them, develop those ideas into workable solutions, and implement those solutions to create value for themselves and society.

Research supports this broader view. Teresa Amabile’s Componential Theory of Creativity argues that creativity emerges from the interaction of three elements: domain expertise, creative-thinking skills, and motivation (you must love the challenge you are trying to overcome, not just aim to tick boxes). Interestingly, domain expertise is often misunderstood. It is not simply about accumulating degrees, certificates, and qualifications. It is about possessing practical, applicable capability. It is what we refer to as a “SABIficate” – demonstrable skill and competence that allow individuals to engage meaningfully with real-world problems.

However, creativity requires more than these three things. It also requires a process. One of the most practical frameworks comes from the design-thinking work popularised by IDEO. While there are many variations, the process can be simplified into four stages: Clarify, Ideate, Develop, and Implement.

The Clarify stage focuses on understanding the problem properly. Many organisations rush into solutions before fully understanding the challenge they are trying to solve. The ‘Ideate’ stage encourages the generation of multiple possibilities without prematurely judging them. The ‘develop’ stage involves refining ideas, testing assumptions, and transforming concepts into practical solutions. Finally, the Implement stage turns ideas into action and measurable results. Innovation without implementation is little more than entertainment.

The broader lesson extends beyond organisations. Nigeria’s future will not be transformed merely by discovering more problems. We have already identified most of them. Our renaissance will come when more individuals, communities, institutions, and organisations take ownership of those problems and work together to solve them creatively. In many ways, creativity is the antidote to the helplessness, dependency, and even corruption that often hold societies back.

The incinerators of my childhood remind us that innovation is not simply about importing ideas or copying what worked elsewhere. True innovation requires understanding context, adapting intelligently, and implementing effectively. The goal is not merely to spark activity. It is to spark results. Because when people work together, take ownership of their challenges, and transform ideas into value, creativity becomes more than a skill. It becomes a force for national transformation.

Omagbitse Barrow is the chief executive of Efiko Management Consulting, and he supports organisations and leaders to translate their strategy to results.