Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Improving Workplace
Effectiveness Through
Creativity & Innovation
Module 1
What is Creativity?
It is a mental ability that we all possess
Bringing into existence an idea that is new to
you
It is the result of using imagination rather
than routine skills
A drive to see things other than the way they
seem square ex(glass helaf empty half
full..ex )
Organizational creativity is the creation of
valuable ideas related to procedures,
processes, products & services
What is Creativity?
Producing new ideas
Putting existing ideas together in
different combinations
Modifying current
improved ones
practices
for
Types / Forms of
Broad Types
Artistic creativity
Inventive creativity
Problem-solving creativity
Broad Types
Idea-Generating creativity
Problems-Solving creativity
Core Forms
Creation
Synthesis
Modification
1. Creation
Making something
NOVEL
NEW
or
Involves
individuals
own
thought process not borrowed
or copied.
2. Synthesis
1. Relating / combining previously unrelated
phenomena
2. New understanding by spotting,
identifying, explaining previously unknown
relations
3. Focused thinking
4. Flash of Illumination
3. Modification
1. The act of altering something that
already exists
2. Significant, continuous improvements
in
existing
products,
processes,
situations
3. Important to see cumulative impact of
unnoticeable incremental steps
FOR
CRITERION
William J. Atliers
Bisociative
Adhesive
Brush
Chipboard
windsurf
Adhesive
Tape
Clothes
Brush
Glue
Wood
Shavings
Surfboard
Sailing
Dinghy
1. Preparation
2. Incubation
3. Illumination
4. Verification
Established
creatives
Occasional creatives
Aspiring creatives
Latent creatives
Creativity Myths
1. It comes from the creative types
2. Time pressure fuels it
3. Learning vs. talent
4. Money is a creativity motivator
5. Fear forces breakthroughs
6. Competition beats collaboration
7. A streamlined organization is a
creative organization
Creativity Myths
8. Creativity comes from the rebels
9. Art / Artists & creativity
10.Release
11.Intuition
12.Scatter-gun success
13.Big jump & small jump
14.Intelligence & creativity paradigm
Innovation
Innovation AS A MISSON
Innovation
The enterprise that does not innovate inevitably ages and
declines.And in a period of rapid change such as the
present, an entrepreneurial period, the decline will be
fast.
Peter Ducker
CONVERSATION
IDEA GENERATION
IN HOUSE
CROSS
PO-
External
Selectio
n
DIFFUSION
Developm
ent
Spread
LLINATION
Creation
Within a unit
Collaboration
across units
Collaborat
ion
with
parties
outside
the firm
Screenin
g
and
initial
funding
Movement
from idea to
first result
Disseminati
on
across
the
organization
KEY
QUESTIONS
Do people in
our
unit
create good
ideas
on
their own?
Do we create
good
ideas
by
working
across
the
company?
Do
we
source
enough
good
ideas
from
outside
the firm?
Are
we
good at
screenin
g
and
funding
new
ideas?
Are we good
at
turning
ideas
into
viable
products,
businesses,
and
best
practices?
Are we good
at diffusing
developed
ideas across
the
company?
KEY
PERFORMAN
CE
INDICATORS
Number
of
high-quality
ideas
generated
within a unit.
Number
of
high-quality
ideas
generated
across units
Number
of
highquality
ideas
generated
form
outside
the firm.
Percenta
ge of all
ideas
generate
d
that
end up
being
selected
and
funded
Percentage
of
funded
ideas
that
lead
to
revenues,
number of
months to
first sale.
Percentage
of
penetration
in
desired
markets,
channels,
customer
groups;
number of
months to
full
Strategy Lessons
Not every innovation idea has to be a blockbuster.
Sufficient numbers of small or innovation can lead to big
profits.
Dont just on new product development: Transformative
ideas can come from any function for instance,
marketing, Production, finance, or distribution.
Successful innovators use an innovators pyramid, with
Several big bets at the top that get most of the investment;
A portfolio of promising midrange ideas in test stage; and
a Broad base of early stage ideas or increment can flow
up or down the pyramid.
Process Lessons
Tight controls strangle innovation. The
planning, budgeting, and reviews applied to
existing businesses will squeeze the life out of
an innovation effort.
Companies should expect deviations from
plan: If employees are rewarded simply for
doing what they committed to do, rather than
acting as circumstances would suggest, Their
employers will stifle and drive out innovation.
Structure Lessons
While loosening formal control, companies should
tighten Interpersonal connections between innovation
efforts and the rest of the business.
Game changing innovations often cut across
established channels or combine element of existing
capacity in new ways.
If companies create two classes of corporate citizens
supplying the Innovation with more perks, privileges,
and prestige those in the existing business will make
every effort to crush the innovation.
Skills Lessons
Even the most technical of innovations requires
strong leaders with great Relationship And
communication skills.
Members of successful innovation teams stick
together through the development of An idea,
even if the companys approach to career timing
requires faster job rotation.
Because innovations need connectors people
who know how to find partners in the Mainstream
business or outside world they flourish in
cultures that encourage collaboration.
Just. Google it !
The brain is a
wonderful thing - it
switches on as soon as
you wake up in the
morning and doesnt
Irish Proverb
switch off again until
Hard drive
full!.
Hemisphere
Left
Hemisphere
Logic
Sequential
Right Hemisphere
Intuition
Non-Verbal
Visual
Verbal
Linear
Analytical
Rational
Explicit
Spatial
Creative
Holistic
Artistic
Humorous / Playful
Brain
Precise
Experiment
al
Safe
Keeping
Imaginatio
n
BRAIN
Most Uses
Disciplined
Logical
Chaos
Linear
Images
Words
Fantasy
Decisive
Approximatel
y
Order
Right Answer
Conservative
Dreaming
Development
Creativity
Dialogue
Reinforcemen
Day
Dreams
Takes
Chances
Perception
Melon
Cover
Re-Arrange
Sample
Idea1.
2.
QuickTime and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
3.
4.
ThirdStep
CombinetheideasontheverticalsideofthegridWiththe
ideasonthehorizontalsideonebyoneandwritethemintothe
separateboxeswherethetwoideasmeet..6ideascan
Thenproduce36ideas,12canproduce24,100 10,000
FourthStep
Readovertheideasyouhaveproducedandselectthebest
ToworkontoturnthemintoHOTSOLUTIONStouse.
Ideas
1.2.3.4.5.
5.
Idea
2
Idea
4
Vertical2=makethechairoutofwood
Horizontal4=makethecolorchangeable
Ideasmightbe.cover,removablefilmorskin
DivergentThinkingTool
November20,2005
PreparedbyRobertAlanBlack,Ph.D.,CSP
Patterning
The Mind is a self-organizing
system
Perception
Perception
Perception
Perception
Perception
Lack of choice
Fine choice
Continuity
Ouch
Logical
LT chooses
CT uses information to
set off new ideas
CT
welcomes
intrusions
chance
CT explores all,
the least likely
CT open-ended
even
LT concentrates on what
is relevant
LT moves in the most
likely directions
LT closed procedure
Creativity
Both
logical
&
creative thinking are
important in their
own unique way
Keeping your mind
open in the face of
uncertainty is the
single most Powerful
secret to unleashing
your
creative
potential
- Michael
Gelb
Blocks to Creativity
1. Negative attitude
2.Fear of failure
3. Lack of motivation
4. Excessive stress
5. Under-rating own capacity
6. Having overblown notion of
creativity
7. Fear of nonconformity / rules
8. Making assumptions
9. Over-reliance on logic
Creativity quotes
If at first, the idea is not absurd, there is no hope for it."
Albert Einstein
Problem:
An umbrella manufacturer has an unsold
stock of 500,000 old-fashioned, black
umbrellas in the warehouse. How to
liberate the warehouse space while
minimizing costs?
Ideas:
Give out free in rainy town center
Publicity carriers for firm
Use up side down as irrigation devices
Sell 2+ a carrier as carry kit to third world
Make a giant sculpture of an umbrella as publicity
Burn down warehouse and collect insurance
BEST IDEAS:
Umbrella Problem
Problem 1:
You run a picture framing business and
want to develop new product and service
variations
Morphological Box
FRAME
GLASS
PICTURES
Customers
own
DELIVERY
Plastic
Clear
Customer
collect
Wood
Non-reflective Chosen
range
Metal
Soft-focus
finish
Sample
photograph
Gift delivery
glass
No glass
Expensive
paintings
Post/courier
from Deliver
customer
to
PROBLEM 2
If you are to revamp paint then how would you
proceed
Morphological Box
Type
Application
Container
Shape
Container
Non-Drip
Brush
Cylindrical
Plastic
Powder
Sponge
Square
Wood
Jelly
Roller
Tubular
Metal
Mind-Mapping
Space Travel
Communication
Scientific
Knowledge
Launching
Spinoffs
Astronauts
Ground
Staff
Rockets
Understanding
Equipment
Training
Space
Travel
Alternative Use
Cost?
Who
Does
It?
Actual
Flight
Prestige
Why?
Of
Resources
Money
Research
Development
Russia
Others
People
U.S.A
Metaphorical Thinking
(individual technique)
one
Most of it doesnt show
It floats & moves
Youll know it when you see it
Metaphorical Thinking
It has a commanding presence
It is 7/8th sub-merged and to
appreciate its magnitude, you
have to look below the surface
It sometimes melts away
It is difficult to find
It is slippery
EUREKA
To solve a problem in an imaginative way by making
forced associations with totally unrelated words/themes.
Eureka works best in a group problem- solving situation
Select a leader/scribe. Before describing the problem to
the group, choose 3 trigger cards
Draw a column for each on a flip-chart sheet. Show the
trigger cards to the group or photo-copy them and stick
one at the top of each column.
Ask the group members to call out (in turn) the first
word that comes to their minds when they think of the
item on the trigger card. Fill each column with these
associations.
Problem:
How to improve communication
between subsidiaries in a multinational company?
Eureka
Spider
Guitar
Elephant
Web
Music
Giant
Network
Tapes &
Records
Tusk
Flies
Fear
Creepy
Useful
Cannibal
Spain
Strings
Tuning
Creative
Disappearing
Species
Ivory
Memory
Africa
Ideas:
1. network+tuning+memory=introduce a computerized
and updated communications map to keep
subsidiaries in tune and improve corporate memory
2. Web+ tapes+ disappearing species= record and
introduce a regular information video to All
subsidiaries to avoid them feeling doomed to
extinction.
NAYAKA(DEFECT ANALYSIS)
MERLIN TECHNIQUE
To improve a product, service or situation by
subjecting it to a number of hypothetical changes in
terms of size, use, functioning, etc.
The Merlin technique can be used working alone or
with a group.
Using 2 flip-chart or A4 sheets label 4 columns
ENLARGE, REDUCE, ELIMINATE and REVERSE.
Brainstorm, for 10 minutes on each, (crazy) ways
to:
ENLARGE
the product, service or situation (i.e.
quadruple the price; instead of serving one market
segment we expand the service to the whole world
/galaxy/universe; what if the unsatisfactory situation
concerned every single customer? etc. etc.).
REDUCE everything about the product, service or
situation.
ELIMINATE the problem entirely. What would happen if
it didnt exist? How to replace it?
REVERSE the way in which the product, service or
situation functions (i.e. instead of us serving the
customer, what if the customer served us ?)
Reduce
Eliminate
Reverse
Comb for
lawns
Moustache
comb
Space comb
for satellite
debris
Finger combs
for wavy hair
Bicycle rack
Eyebrow
comb
CD rack
Dolls comb
Roofing
material
Pen comb
As fishing net
Folding comb
Fixed comb
on wall
WRONG RULES
To improve the effectiveness/quality or reduce the costs of an
operation by applying the wrong rules to the situation. This
technique can be used working alone or with a group.
Select one of the sets of rules overleaf (Or find another set)
which is closest to the operation whose effectiveness you
wish to improve. Use a flip-chart/note pad for ideas as they
come.
Go through each Golden Rule in turn and try, by all means
possible, to apply it to your problem. Encourage wild ideas. If
you cant seem to apply one of the Golden Rules, move onto
the next. The purpose of the exercise is not to force a mirror
of the rules but to surface creative ideas, however they come.
Review the list of ideas. Select those which are most feasible
and elaborate an action plan.
Wrong Rules
Rules for Flourishing Florists
Keep flowers
temperature
at
satisfactory
&
constant
WRONG RULES
EXAMPLE
Problem: How to be more effective as a secretary? Using the Rules
for Flourishing Florists as a trigger, set 6 improvement
objectives.
Examples of triggered suggestions for objectives:
1. Keep all flowers in water at all times.
Organize a regular Coffee meeting with my boss to discuss mutual
needs / problems etc.
2. Regularly cut the ends of the flowers stems.
Avoid piles of paperwork with a programme of regular filing.
well
in
theory,
but
in
my
Forces in Favour
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Module 3
has
lower
operating
to
customer