Managing Creativity Deconstructed and Explained

Forward

I recently gave a presentation at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design on a topic entitled "Is creativity management an oxymoron?"

The essential confusion to people resistant to the idea of "creativity management" was the word "management." Replace it with the word "optimization" and the resistance disappears; all we're really trying to do is optimize the quality of the idea pool and optimize the implementation process.

Then you can suggest that most people already implicitly accept the idea of creativity management: if you ask them to solve a problem or engage in a particular endeavour, one of the things they're likely to do is herd people into a room with a flip chart and conduct some sort of brainstorming session and implicit in that action is the acceptance that certain methods, processes and procedures enhance creative output.

Ironically, it is in the business world that this topic has been most elaborately studied and applied – because businesses constantly have to create and sell new products and maintain competitive advantage in innumerable ways.

Speaking and consulting

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Powerpoint Presentation - Creativity and Innovation DIY Audit - Good Idea Generator software

Creative Writing and Storytelling with the Hero's Journey

Summary

A 116 page, 20,000 word Master of Business Administration (MBA) dissertation (136 pages including appendices) that proposes a framework for managing creativity and innovation through active research of 22% of the largest advertising agencies in London and critical evaluation of more than 120 sources of literature (including Harvard Business Review articles and Harvard Essentials).

Creativity and Innovation are often taught using airy-fairy , intangible, ungrounded, unscientific, non-useable, undefined, mysterious terminology and theories. To get a handle on it you need to talk in real, tangible, useable, measurable concepts.

Topics covered include:

Definitions

How do we best define creativity and innovation? One method is to think of creativity as problem identification and idea generation and innovation as idea selection, development and commercialisation. Thus there at least six competencies involved, including one holistic.

Measurement

How do we measure creativity so as to make it tangible and benchmarkable? One way is to measure the number of ideas produced, the diversity of those ideas, the novelty of those ideas and the frequency of their production.

Organisational Structure

Which organisational structures promote creativity and innovation and what specific characteristics make them more effective? There are many reasons why an organisation has a particular structure and it is often not feasible to change it dramatically, so what is best practice in that, very common, situation? Elements such as direct links to decision makers and fast feedback chains can be implemented whether the structure is flat or hierarchical, for example.

Managing Creative Types

Is there a creative type? Whilst some theorists argue that creative people have traits such as a tolerance for ambiguity and intolerance for comformity, these traits do not cross situations and are not stable. Further, motivation is more important. All human beings can move into a creative state when managed effectively.

Motivation

Motivation is arguably more important than nature and nurture or traits. Someone with natural ability or placed in the right environment may not take advantage of it unless motivated. There is intrinsic motivation, synergistic and non-synergistic extrinsic motivation. There are many elements including material reward, progress to the ideal self, self-determination, self-evaluation, feedback, enjoyment, competency expansion, recognition and feasibility.

Organisational Culture

How can blocks be overcome? We can all be more creative, so what is stopping us? There are many blocks such as evaluation apprehension (in its many forms) and the lack of adequate finance and resources. Separating creative from critical thinking, incremental productivity, tools that draw out tacit knowledge and using frameworks to trigger flow are some of the effective unblocking techniques. Effective properties of an organisational culture include psychological safety and freedom and a tolerance of failure.

Team Structures

What is the most effective team structure? Many people who are acknowledged to have made great contributions to society have worked alone, but it is hard to separate an idea from its influences and individuals are prone to path dependency and reduced frame breaking. Further, feedback is almost always a necessity. Many effective teams work in pairs - there is reduced path dependency and increased frame breaking but is this more dramatic with larger groups? Small groups are prone to core and peripheral members and information channels, thus restricting idea elicitation. Large groups are prone to politics, status differentials, group think, social loafing, dilution of ideas and conformity.

Specialisation versus Generalisation

Can someone with limited knowledge of a field make a significant contribution to it? Does excess knowledge cause blinkered vision?

Networks

How do we maximise intellectual cross-pollination? Networks and collaboration help overcome competency traps, parochialism, path dependency and allow frame-breaking. The group is more powerful than the individual. By harnessing the intellectual power of many, we can achieve much richer solutions. We can apply the brain power and experience of many to industry wide problems.

Radical and Incremental Production

Radical or transformational or disruptive creativity and innovation are very much glamorised. But is this what happens most often? Is it wiser to target radical or incremental ideas? While it is true that some significant leaps are unexpected, most result from sustained incremental improvement. Incremental and radical creativity require vastly different structures, processes, skills and resources.

Structure, Work processes, Goals and Frameworks

Many creative people object to structure and goals - they argue they interfere with thought processes and "originality" and it is true that there is a very fine line between structure and conformity. But there is an opposing and compelling argument that, in fact, structure helps to trigger a flow of good ideas, sets the mind working at various cognitive levels and triggers the incubation process; originality emerges from structure; 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?" What's the answer?

Idea Valuation

How do we effectively value an idea, so as to decide how to invest resources? Even a painter who creates for pure pleasure has to decide which idea justifies the time and expense and will bring most pleasure - there is always a value system. Without unlimited resources, allowing one idea to flourish means that other equally good ideas are given reduced opportunity to bloom. Though there is no sure fire route to commercial success, benchmarking against those types of ideas that have succeeded in the past, benchmarking for strategic, competence and technical fit, practical impediments and other methods allows the go or kill decision to be made.

Process

Is creativity a process? Ask many practitioners what process they engage in and they may well deny there is one. However, if you examine the activities of many creative people, common patterns of behaviour emerge - a pattern that makes insight (aha! eureka!) more likely. The process includes identifying and intensely investigating the problem, forcing production of ideas using creative versus critical thinking and other techniques; seeking stimuli and allowing the unconscious mind to take over by engaging in rest and unrelated activities.

Frequently Asked Questions

Managing Creativity and Innovation is an oxymoron.
When ideas are required, leaders tend to herd people into a room with a flip chart and conduct (usually an ineffective) brainstorming session. Implicit in this action is an acceptance that certain techniques and processes can increase problem identification, idea generation and the elicitation of tacit knowledge.

Structures such as the Hero's Journey are accepted as increasing creative output when idea streams (such as in screenwriting) are needed.

Product development theory has proven innovation strategies that allow better idea selection, development and commercialisation. Frameworks such as the S-curve and idea funnels allow the efficient monitoring of ideas through a pipeline and effective go or kill decision making.

Creativity cannot be managed because ideas occur out of the blue.
Ideas are the result of the mind working on particular problems at various cognitive levels. Though you cannot predict what an idea will be, where it will occur and what form it will take you can increase the likelihood of ideas occurring. Further, you can increase the number of ideas produced, the rarity of those ideas, the diversity of those ideas and the frequency of their production.

Creativity is not a process.
If you analyse the behaviour of people who are used to generating many ideas regularly, you will find that common patterns emerge. There is a definite process that triggers creative activity on multiple cognitive levels, resulting in the required insight.

Creativity is not tangible; creativity cannot be measured.
Analysts can measure (and therefore make tangible) creativity by benchmarking a wide number of criteria. For instance, idea generation can be measured according to the number of ideas produced, their novelty, their variety and the frequency of their production.

Creative people will be creative whether they are "coached" or not.
Consider the infinite number of people who have been working on half finished manuscripts for months and often years. Management techniques increase creative output enabling completion in much shorter periods. Further, management techniques encourage targeted prolific activity, thus allowing the building of competencies and improvement.

Inspiration occurs out of the blue.
Inspiration results from the mind working at problems on various cognitive levels. Insight is the moment when solutions to problems become conscious. This is why inspiration most often occurs when people are actively engaged in unrelated tasks and activities. Screenwriters, for example, find that good ideas for screenplays occur while they are writing one. It is possible to increase the frequency and likelihood of inspiration occurring.

Managing Creativity is not a useful activity unless it results in economic gain.
Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation. Innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation. First use creativity to generate an idea pool and then use innovation to select feasible ideas which can be developed and commercialised.

Does the MBA dissertation contain practical management tools?
The creativity and innovation DIY audit is an effective tool. Further, the conclusion contains other tools, recommendations and implications. And importantly, the knowledge allows you to develop your own.

Can we codify creativity?
By applying the processes, structures, benchmarks, models and techniques in this MBA dissertation, you can create tangible before and after measurements.

The concepts of creativity and training seem incompatible.
This fallacy results from the many enduring myths about creativity and innovation such as a) creativity is the domain of creative types, b) creativity cannot be learned, c) creativity is intangible, d) creativity cannot be defined or measured etc. Simply reading this MBA dissertation will dispel these myths.