Leaders, co ultants and managers must be competent in at least thirteen domai to even begin effectively managing creativity and i ovation. Part 2 of Managing Creativity and I ovation covers the last six of these domai .
h) Group Structure. There is much confusion as which group structure (or combination of structures) maximises creative output. Workshop leaders randomly seem to make people work alone, in pairs, or in small or large grou . Each combination has strong arguments for and agai t:
1) The individual working alone can be very creative; after all, many people who are acknowledged to have made great contributio to society have worked alone. 2) Pairs reduce the path dependency and enhance the intellectual cro -pollination that limits the individual. 3) Many succe ful enterprises grow rapidly in the early stages, when there are only a small team of people working together. 4) Large grou benefit from ma ive intellectual cro -pollination but introduce politicking, core and peripheral grou , a dilution of ideas and more negatives.
i) The degree of knowledge i ut has a significant effect on output. There are three types of knowledge i ut:
1)Tacit knowledge. That experience which results from a natural life-long interest and curiosity in many subjects and experiences. 2) Depth versus Breadth. Can someone with limited knowledge of a field make a significant contribution to it? Does exce knowledge cause blinkered vision? 3) Networks and Collaboration. Importing competencies from networks and collaboration overcomes path dependency and parochialism and allows greater frame breaking.
j) Radical versus Incremental productivity. Radical / tra formational / disruptive creativity is very much glamorised. But is this what is required most often? Is radical really radical or the result of incremental improvement? How is radical defined? If we want a radical idea as o osed to an incremental change, what are the implicatio ? Incremental and radical creativity require vastly different structures, proce es, skills and resources.
k) Structure and goals. Many creative people object to structure and goals - they argue they interfere with thought proce es and originality; there is a very fine line between structure and conformity. But structure and goals help set the boundaries of a problem and produce more output that when an individual is simply allowed to "do their best." How many people have a half finished novel or scree lay in their office?
l) Proce . It seems somehow incongruous that creativity can be a proce . Ask many practitioners what proce they engage in and they may well deny there is one. But if you examine the activities of many creative people, common patter of behaviour emerge. This common proce makes i ight / eureka / the aha! experience more likely. The proce includes identifying and inte ely investigating the problem, forcing production of ideas using creative versus critical thinking and other technique seeking stimuli and allowing the unco cious mind to take over by engaging in rest and unrelated activities.
m) Valuation. How do we value an idea, so as to decide how to invest resources? Even a painter who creates for pure pleasure has to decide which one of his ideas is best; there is always a value system and (some argue) always some sort of promotional i tinct. There are decisio as to whether you are looking for a lied creativity and who the co umer i how do they benefit? There is no sure fire way to evaluate perfectly because there is no sure fire route to commercial succe . But we can benchmark agai t those types of ideas that have succeeded in the past; firms must make a decision as to their strategic, competence and technical fit; there are compariso agai t rivals and practical impediment how do we make the go or kill decision and what are the trade-offs?
Kal Bishop is a management co ultant based in London, UK. He has co ulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Tra ort for London. He has led improv worksho , exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of scree lays. He is a pa ionate traveller. Kal regularly conducts creativity and i ovation worksho and presentatio in London and can be reached via kalB@managing-creativity.com.
http://www.managing-creativity.com
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