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: Collaboration NOT Competition
Whilst competition is a driver of idea generation, collaboration is more productive for a number of reasons, including:
a) Collaboration enhances intellectual cross-pollination whilst competition restricts it.
b) Collaboration does not cause people to shut down as much as competition.
c) Competition increases evaluation apprehension.
c) Collaboration is more inducive to a culture of psychological safety and freedom, which encourages people to express their cognitive activity.
But for maximum output, a synthesis of collaboration and competition is most effective.
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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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