Wednesday, 11 March 2009

Managing Creativity MBA dissertation

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:

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TIP OF THE DAY: SOME IDEAS ARE BETTER THAN OTHERS

One of the useful methods of valuing ideas is to compare the type of idea with those types of ideas that have previously been most successful.

Franklin (2003) notes that some kinds of ideas are more successful than others. He notes six types:

a) Need spotting – involves actively finding an answer to a problem.

b) Solution spotting – involves finding a problem for a solution.

c) Market Research – ideas generated as a result of market research.

d) Random event – moments of serendipity when people stumble across answers they weren't looking for.

e) Mental invention – pure random ideas with no previous knowledge of how they may be implemented.

f) Trend following.

Of these, the random event was the most successful (92.9%) with least failures (7.1%). However, this type of idea requires previous knowledge or experience on some level – for example, an individual who has worked in an environment previously may utilise that tacit knowledge to solve a problem that becomes evident later.

Very close to the above is solution spotting with an 87.5% success and a 12.5% failure rate. Again, this idea type requires previous knowledge: the innovator consciously seeks a problem to apply that knowledge to.

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If you haven't already done so, you can buy the Managing Creativity and Innovation Fundamental Core Concepts, Powerpoint Presentation, DIY Audit, Stage Gate Software, Good Idea Generator Software from http://www.managing-creativity.com

Best

http://www.managing-creativity.com

_________

Managing Creativity MBA dissertation

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:

***

TIP OF THE DAY: TIME PRESSURE

There is a pervasive belief that time pressure stimulates creativity. This is both true and false.

There are a number of forces at work:

a) Time pressure increases creative output. By forcing idea production, setting goals and incremental deadlines, a greater number of ideas are produced than if a "do your best" approach is taken. If a leader asks particpants in an idea generating session to address a problem and think of at least 5 ideas every half an hour, then 80 ideas are produced by one individual and 1600 are produced by 20 individuals at the end of an average working day. This level of output is conscious and would not be produced normally.

b) Time pressure encourages prolific production and therefore the probability of generating good ideas increases. It can be said with great confidence that quality of output is closely related to quantity. The best single creative product tends to appear at that point in the career when the creator is being most prolific.

c) Forcing output pushes individuals along the experience curve, refines their methodology, builds competencies and knowledge and improves performance. Screenwriters know that they are likely to produce more, better quality work faster if they set themselves a schedule of a certain number of pages per day.

d) Motivation is critical to creativity. If a person is intrinsically motivated, time pressure may be a synergistic extrinsic motivator. If the person is not intrinsically motivated then it may turn out to be a non-synergistic extrinsic motivator, which reduces the level of engagement in the endeavour.

e) Short term time pressure may be bad in that it does not allow the mind to engage in the endeavour at various cognitive levels. It does not allow rich ideas to formulate through the process of incubation. Intrinsically motivated individuals will benefit from short term time pressure and goals (sets cognitive forces in motion) and will generate richer ideas through incubation over the longer term.

***

If you haven't already done so, you can buy the Managing Creativity and Innovation Fundamental Core Concepts, Powerpoint Presentation, DIY Audit, Stage Gate Software, Good Idea Generator Software from http://www.managing-creativity.com

Best

http://www.managing-creativity.com

_________

Managing Creativity MBA dissertation

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:

***

TIP OF THE DAY: TIME PRESSURE

There is a pervasive belief that time pressure stimulates creativity. This is both true and false.

There are a number of forces at work:

a) Time pressure increases creative output. By forcing idea production, setting goals and incremental deadlines, a greater number of ideas are produced than if a "do your best" approach is taken. If a leader asks particpants in an idea generating session to address a problem and think of at least 5 ideas every half an hour, then 80 ideas are produced by one individual and 1600 are produced by 20 individuals at the end of an average working day. This level of output is conscious and would not be produced normally.

b) Time pressure encourages prolific production and therefore the probability of generating good ideas increases. It can be said with great confidence that quality of output is closely related to quantity. The best single creative product tends to appear at that point in the career when the creator is being most prolific.

c) Forcing output pushes individuals along the experience curve, refines their methodology, builds competencies and knowledge and improves performance. Screenwriters know that they are likely to produce more, better quality work faster if they set themselves a schedule of a certain number of pages per day.

d) Motivation is critical to creativity. If a person is intrinsically motivated, time pressure may be a synergistic extrinsic motivator. If the person is not intrinsically motivated then it may turn out to be a non-synergistic extrinsic motivator, which reduces the level of engagement in the endeavour.

e) Short term time pressure may be bad in that it does not allow the mind to engage in the endeavour at various cognitive levels. It does not allow rich ideas to formulate through the process of incubation. Intrinsically motivated individuals will benefit from short term time pressure and goals (sets cognitive forces in motion) and will generate richer ideas through incubation over the longer term.

***

If you haven't already done so, you can buy the Managing Creativity and Innovation Fundamental Core Concepts, Powerpoint Presentation, DIY Audit, Stage Gate Software, Good Idea Generator Software from http://www.managing-creativity.com

Best

http://www.managing-creativity.com

_________