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.
Then you can begin discussing how to improve the enormous amount of creative output people generate, from problem solving in everyday business life right up to the level or art.
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TIP OF THE DAY: INTELLECTUAL CROSS POLLINATION
Intellectual Cross Pollination is the raw material of the idea generation process. This statement alone implies that certain actions ought to be taken to enhance the quality and quantity of the idea pool, including:
a) The larger the number of people actively involved in the idea generation process, the better the quality of results (manipulating group structures further enhances results).
b) The larger the number of diverse and novel participants in the idea generating process, the richer the results.
c) Making use of networks and collaborating increases the tacit knowledge mix, thus overcoming path dependency, parochialism, competency traps and allowing frame breaking.
d) Allowing access to varied knowledge bases / information stores increases the intellectual base of the idea generating process.
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If you haven't already done so, you can buy the MBA Research Project on Managing Creativity and Innovation, DIY Audit, Good Idea Generator software and the 50 slide Powerpoint Presentation from http://www.managing-creativity.com
Best
http://www.managing-creativity.com
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