Innovation: Integration of Random Variation and Creative Synthesis

Abstract

Sarah Harvey has developed an important model called creative synthesis for the use of dialectical reasoning in creative endeavors. This model is put in direct opposition to the evolutionary model called random variation, which, according to Harvey, promotes incremental innovation, while creative synthesis promotes radical innovation. In emphasizing the affirmative stage of the dialectical process, creative synthesis offers a description of how groups can be consistently successful in creative endeavors through collective attention, enabling ideas, and building on similarities. We propose that creative synthesis is not a rival to but an extension of random variation and that the same dialectical reasoning used by Harvey allows us to integrate the two models into a more versatile hybrid: evolutionary synthesis. We contend that the hybrid model better reflects the complexity of reality and avoids the problem of routinization. It appears that innovation is all about Darwin and Marx.