INSPIRING INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY: AN EXAMPLE OF EFFECTUATION IN THE ENTREPRENEURIAL CLASSROOM

21st century skills such as complex problem-solving, creative and innovative thinking, and teamwork and collaboration can be developed in the classroom via entrepreneurship education. However, entrepreneurship educators face a particular challenge--how to encourage students to use innovation and creativity to engage in ideation/opportunity identification/recognition and then find a way to bring these opportunities to market. One practical barrier that sometimes needs to be overcome is the belief on the part of many students that they are 'not creative '. Effectuation, or starting with what you've got and trying to create something new, being open to the surprises that emerge in the process of just doing something, is proposed as a useful pedagogical model. After an overview of key concepts, suggestions are given for how to design entrepreneurial exercises or activities, using an effectual approach, to unleash creativity by 'breaking the frame ', imposing constraints, offering rewards based on goals with clear and fair rules, and requiring students to work in teams. It is proposed that incorporating these suggestions might inspire students to apply these concepts, to identify opportunities and act entrepreneurially, everywhere, all the time.
INTRODUCTION In the 21st century, certain universal skills can lead to success. Most of these skills are not new: leadership experience, communication and problem solving skills, ability to work in [...]