creativity + innovation 1.4

Creativity + Innovation 1.4Kevin Popović, B.A., M.S.

© Kevin Popović, SDSU Creativity + Innovation

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Session 1.4

• Welcome• Roll, Admin• Game• Quiz• Chapter


• Quiz• Reading• Guest Speaker

Creative Remote Association Problems


Playing with C.R.A.P.

Chapter 3 of Creativity, Inc.© Kevin Popović, SDSU Creativity + Innovation

Quiz: Breaking and MakingConnections For Enterprise

Chapter 3 of Creativity, Inc.© Kevin Popović, SDSU Creativity + Innovation

Breaking and MakingConnections For Enterprise

Dynamics of Creativity

• The Dynamics of creativity apply to all companies as well as individuals.

• The company is a metaphor for a person: variables of complexity, scale, environment.

• In a company, motivation, curiosity and evaluation are nurtured greatly by the corporate (global) climate.


Dynamics of Creativity

• Breaking and making connections = the pivotal dynamic of the creative process.

• Create new ways to look at old things.• Differentiate from the competition

(standards and norms).• Example: Steelcase• What did they see?


Steelcase Products

• Design: Wheels on everything, change is inevitable

• Connections: Furniture must configure around people in motion

• Anatomy: The body changes through the day over time

• Ergonomics: Chairs maintain back support no matter how you site in them


Steelcase Thinking

• Pathways was a different way to look at an office space.

• New thinking on old problem.• Chasing a new concept of the workspace

began with the leaders – why?• What room did they reference in new think

– and why?


Steelcase Thinking

• Employees and clients had to be taught new ways of thinking of furniture and space as critical design elements

• Theories of learning-through-application to address education through transition process


Steelcase Thinking

• Brought groups of different people together for creative connection making around the evolving business model.

• Created environment for “displayed thinking”, new work spaces, which institutionalized the new approach


Steelcase Reflections

• When a familiar map breaks down, or when a map is discarded, there’s a terrific uncertainty as old connections cease and new ones form.

• The more a company is dependent on an old map the more disturbing a new connection can be.


Steelcase Reflections

• The success comes in encouraging (positive) conflict and risk taking, in promoting diversity, organizing groups of intrinsic motivation and encouraging the flow of information.


Encouraging Conflict

• Conflict between different ideas and points of view can be instrumental in breaking down established connections and generating new material for new solutions.

• Conflict can raise levels of fear, lower motivation, shut down connection making, distort evaluation and damage client.



• Everyone must believe that the intent is to create a better idea – together.



• Get past win-or-lose approach.• “I like my idea, yours is wrong, I need to

defend my idea and my approach.”• “If I am discounted as a person I will get

revenge, somehow, some time.”


Encouraging Risk-Taking

• Companies that encourage risk-taking increase the likelihood of breaking and making connections.

• The short-term risk in challenging assumptions and breaking connections reduces the longer-term risk of relying on outdated assumptions.



• Challenging sacred assumptions takes the blinders off the view of the world as you know it.

• If assumptions are flawed, employees can solve the problems.



• Any action holds the risk of uncertain results.

• A plan is not a guarantee of results.• Individual tolerances for risk-taking vary.



• Pressure of time and risk of wasting it triggers anxiety, drives managers to shut down early to avoid failure.

• Companies in favor of fast decisions and safe answers rarely make new connections.


Promoting Diversity

• Diversity brings a breadth of perspective• Helps identify and criticize age-old

assumptions• Helps recognize new possibility• Synectics = bringing together of diverse

elements


Promoting Diversity

• Selecting for Diversity in Groups• Purposefully constructed• Range of richness that enhance ideas• Web Dev = Creative, Technology and

Strategy• Scales: Issues, Projects, Teams, Company,

Organizations


Fostering Diverse Intelligence

• To foster diversity a company must have diversity in employees and types of thinking

• Many companies lack this diversity – why?• On Education: “You don’t have to be

smart, you have to know how to break the rules.”


Diversity at the Leadership Level

• Without diversity with thinking and perspectives in it’s leaders…

• a company is less likely to identify creative employees…

• and quite likely to lack the range of vision to make the best use of the creativity its able to stimulate.


Organize for Intrinsic Motivation

• Groups, like individuals, perform more creatively when intrinsically motivated.

• Share a story where you were part of a group that was intrinsically motivated.



• Coalitions• When people voluntarily organize

themselves to solve a problem or new idea.

• Each member brings their unique energy, enthusiasm, creativity to task.

• Lacks authority or resources.



• Coalitions usually outweigh drawbacks• Relationships and structures shift flexibly

with circumstances• Allows members to contribute freely

wherever talents and interests are strongest

• Self-determining intrinsic motivation



• Teams• Companies form teams to tackle problems

or search opportunities• Resources assigned, reporting

established, team members chosen for their strengths and availability.

• Each has a role



• Teams are formalized relationships• Formality can hamper flexibility, creativity• Poor fits in style, talent levels, perception

may inhibit productivity• May join to avoid conflict, never produce• Sometimes hard to correct


Info Flows That Support Creativity

• Conflict, risk taking diversity and organizing for intrinsic motivation all depend on the flow of information.

• Creatively health companies have a high volume of diverse information that flows throughout the organization.

• What type of info? Why is this unique?


Info Flows That Support Creativity

• Sharing info facilitates the collision of beliefs, presumptions, possibilities

• Sales v Marketing v Support, v C-Suite• These sorts of collisions can leading to

making and breaking connections• Note: It’s not about more info, its about

different info (new knowledge)


Don’t pull out on the big ideas.

The New Yorker


Quiz: The Eureka Hunt

The New Yorker


The Eureka Hunt

The Eureka Hunt

• Wag Dodge at Mann Gulch• There is something inherently mysterious

about moments of insight • Archimedes• Isaac Newton• You

© Kevin Popović, SDSU Entrepreneurship + Technology + Innovation

The Eureka Hunt

• Analysis vs. Inspiration• Analysis• Inspiration• C.R.A.P.• More Games

© Kevin Popović, SDSU Entrepreneurship + Technology + Innovation

The Eureka Hunt

• The insight process is a delicate balancing act• At first, the (left) brain allocates resources for

a single problem• Once the brain is focused, the cortex needs to

relax in order to seek out more remote associations in the right hemisphere, which will provide insight


The Eureka Hunt

• The relaxation phase is critical• Take a warm shower• Wake up early• The insight process is an act of cognitive

deliberation—the brain must be focused on the task at hand—transformed by accidental, serendipitous connections


Class Discussion, Share What Works


How Do You Find Ideas?

The Eureka Hunt

• Letting the mind wander• Unconscious work• Immerse yourself in the problem until you hit

an impasse• Find a way to distract yourself• The answer will arrive when you least expect• Feynman at Pacers


The Eureka Hunt

• You’ve got to know when to step back• Caffeine, Adderall, and Ritalin, oh my!• 20% of scientists and researchers regularly took

prescription drugs to “enhance concentration”• Makes insight less likely, sharpening the spotlight

of attention and discouraging mental rambles• Just relax


Assignment


• Read Chapter 4• Prepare for Quiz

Assignment


• Read “What’s Stifling the Creativity at Coolburst?”

• Prepare for Quiz

creativity + innovation 1.4

Leadership & Management