Itha specialises in innovation, creativity, futures thinking and people and leadership development. With more than 20 years experience in the corporate world, she understands business well. Her journey in the innovation and creativity world started in 2001 when SBSA created the Innovation and Foresight Unit. She was also the Chief Innovation Officer at Absa for 2 years. Both these were invaluable experiences and many lessons were learnt.

Itha is a certified De Bono trainer (Six Hats and Lateral Thinking), a certified Lego Serious Play facilitator and a certified HBDI practitioner.

"I live and breath creativity every day - challenging my own ingrained habits of thinking and problem solving.  Being creative can become a new habit with enough practice"

Some comments and thoughts on innovation and creativity

Innovation should be seen as a lifelong journey. There are two critical components in this journey:

1. People 
2. Focus

Without people any innovation initiative will fail, as it is only people who have the capability to come up with new ideas. The secret is to teach people to think creatively in a systematic and focused way, using and applying thinking tools and frameworks.
Focus is critical – without focus, no-one knows where new ideas are needed. Clearly defined focus areas tied with the organisations strategy will enable faster implementation and ROI.
Design plays an important role:

• The innovation program must be designed to fit your organisation's specific innovation goals and context.
• The organisation needs to redesign itself to allow innovation and creativity to flourish.
• The outcome of creative thinking must be designed in such a way that the new products and services add maximum value to the potential users.

You have to look for opportunities for innovation in a systematic and focused manner. If you don’t do this, you will end up with small incremental ideas only.
 

Creativity is usually an individual process whereas innovation is most often a team effort

Innovation and creativity related certifications:

• Lego Serious Play™ certied facilitator (int.)
• HBDI™ certied trainer (int.)
• Six Thinking Hats® (int.)
• Lateral Thinking™ certied trainer (int.)
• Participlan certied facilitator (local)

Other:

• Founder and chairperson of South African Futures Society
• SA 2010: Guest Speaker on Kyknet with JP Landman
• Contributor: Future Takes, International futures magazine
• Contributor: The Innovator magazine
• Sol Plaatjie Academy: facilitator and participant
• Key note speaker & founding member of SA Innovation Summit
• Competes in ultra distance IronMan events