Managing Creativity MBA dissertation

***

TIP OF THE DAY: MASKS AND TRANCE

One useful import from the field of Improvisation is the concept of Masks and Trance to get people thinking in different directions.

Mask studies show that peoples character changes according to the perceived character of the mask they are wearing. Virtual masks (pretending) encourage people to think in radically alternate directions:

a) Businessmen scored low in creativity until they were asked to pretend to be happy go lucky hippies, when their creativity ratings skyrocketed.

b) People are more likely to express inappropriate ideas, as they believe they have less value.

c) People are more likely to express inappropriate ideas, as they are able to give the impression that it is not really what they would say.

d) People are able to quickly switch between personalities by putting on different masks – and instantly change their approach.

***

If you haven't already done so, you can purchase the complete product package (DIY Audit, Business Creativity and Innovation Software, Powerpoint Presentation and more) right now by clicking on any Paypal link at http://www.managing-creativity.com. What's with all the waiting!

Best,

http://www.managing-creativity.com

_________

Managing Creativity MBA dissertation

***

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.

***

If you haven't already done so, you can purchase the complete product package (DIY Audit, Business Creativity and Innovation Software, Powerpoint Presentation and more) right now by clicking on any Paypal link at http://www.managing-creativity.com. What's with all the waiting!

Best,

http://www.managing-creativity.com

_________

Managing Creativity MBA dissertation

***

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.

***

If you haven't already done so, you can purchase the complete product package (DIY Audit, Business Creativity and Innovation Software, Powerpoint Presentation and more) right now by clicking on any Paypal link at http://www.managing-creativity.com. What's with all the waiting!

Best,

http://www.managing-creativity.com

_________

Managing Creativity MBA dissertation

***

TIP OF THE DAY: INCUBATION AND INSIGHT

What is incubation? What is insight?

Why do people think they have generated an idea "out of the blue" when they come up with something whilst sitting under an apple tree [engaged in unrelated activity]?

a) Ideas do not occur out of the blue. The mind works on various problems at various cognitive levels (subconscious). If and when solutions become apparant and move to the conscious mind, that is the moment of insight. If Newton did think of gravity while sitting under an apple tree, it is because his mind was engaged with the topic of planetary motion and the memes of his times.

b) The process of allowing the mind to work on various problems (at various cognitive levels) is called incubation. Allowing incubation to take place results in richer solutions than if time pressure were used to elicit responses. But time pressure also has benefits – it increases output thus leading to higher probabilities of quality ideas emerging.

***

If you haven't already done so, you can purchase the complete product package (DIY Audit, Business Creativity and Innovation Software, Powerpoint Presentation and more) right now by clicking on any Paypal link at http://www.managing-creativity.com. What's with all the waiting!

Best,

http://www.managing-creativity.com

_________

Managing Creativity MBA dissertation

***

TIP OF THE DAY: THE CREATIVE STATE

Often the creative state is described in almost "spiritual" terms. However, these analyses are misleading and do not help to make creativity tangible, measurable and useable.

The creative state is the result of a combination of factors:

a) The creative state is actually a problem solving state. It is identifying a problem and solving it. It is moving from an original state to a goal state.

b) The creative state is actually an idea generating state. This state is a creative thinking state as opposed to a critical thinking state. Ideas are expressed without evaluation. The number, diversity, novelty and frequency benchmarks are all maximized.

c) The creative state is actually an unblocked state. Most blocks are the result of some sort of evaluation apprehension – when these have been removed, the "feeling" of flow becomes more apparent.

d) Anyone can move from an original to a goal state at any time [ref a) above]. In the Journey of Psychology, businessmen rated low in creativity began to score high when asked to pretend they were happy-go-lucky hippies.

***

If you haven't already done so, you can purchase the complete product package (DIY Audit, Business Creativity and Innovation Software, Powerpoint Presentation and more) right now by clicking on any Paypal link at http://www.managing-creativity.com. What's with all the waiting!

Best,

http://www.managing-creativity.com

_________

Managing Creativity MBA dissertation

***

TIP OF THE DAY: FORCED INNOVATION

Whilst there is a lot of lip service given to innovation, the reality is that it often results from competitors making significant gains – competitors who themselves have had to be innovative to challenge existing market leaders. Good examples include:

a) New Coke, forced into action when it lost market share to Pepsi

b) IBM forced to change as a result of Microsoft.

An irony is that once innovative companies become less so when they have found their Golden Fleece.

Finding a killer product forces a firm to concentrate on marketing and improving that product and results in a degree of parochialism and path dependency.

***

If you haven't already done so, you can purchase the complete product package (DIY Audit, Business Creativity and Innovation Software, Powerpoint Presentation and more) right now by clicking on any Paypal link at http://www.managing-creativity.com. What's with all the waiting!

Best,

http://www.managing-creativity.com

_________

Managing Creativity MBA dissertation

***

TIP OF THE DAY: SHORT TERM GOAL SETTING

The value of short-term goal setting on creative output should not be underestimated:

a) Short term goals break a task into smaller more manageable parts. What at first seems unfeasible becomes feasible when incremental goals are set. Feasibility is one of the requirements of motivation.

b) Short term goals produce far more output than a "do your best" approach. Write five pages a day and you have a screenplay in a month (first draft only). Do not implement that routing and it will remain unfinished under your bed until your kids grow up. Maybe they can take over the project.

c) Short term goals split the larger task into smaller sets of problems solving exercises. At each stage a problem is identified and the mind begins working on it, usually on various cognitive levels.

d) Awareness of the task is given priority in terms of mind space and actions.

e) Short term goals help build task experience. Task experience is required for making radical leaps or creative leaps.

***

If you haven't already done so, you can purchase the complete product package (DIY Audit, Business Creativity and Innovation Software, Powerpoint Presentation and more) right now by clicking on any Paypal link at http://www.managing-creativity.com. What's with all the waiting!

Best,

http://www.managing-creativity.com

_________

Managing Creativity MBA dissertation

***

TIP OF THE DAY: INCREMENTAL CHANGE LEADS TO RADICAL CHANGE

All too often the concept of innovation is intricately linked with radical change. In fact, the opposite is true:

a) Most successful innovations take advantage of existing technology, are moderately new to market (not radically new), support existing behaviours, support customer needs and save money.

b) Radical innovation is the result of compounded incremental change. An example of this is looking at an old photo – very minute changes make big differences over long periods. The Internet resulted from the connectivity of the PC, which developed out of the mainframe, which owes its existence to the solid state transistor, which evolved from the earliest cathode ray tubes and so forth.

***

If you haven't already done so, you can purchase the complete product package (DIY Audit, Business Creativity and Innovation Software, Powerpoint Presentation and more) right now by clicking on any Paypal link at http://www.managing-creativity.com. What's with all the waiting!

Best,

http://www.managing-creativity.com

_________

Managing Creativity MBA dissertation

***

TIP OF THE DAY: VALUATION ISSUES

One of the useful methods of valuing ideas is to analyse the practical impediments that may impede an ideas progress to commercial success.

One of the useful models is Utterback's (1994) S-curve, which describes how the performance and cost characteristics of a technology change with time and continued investments.

The performance of the established technology improves over time, at first rapidly, and then more slowly until maturity as years of improvement exhaust opportunities to better cost and performance (e.g. Windows in 2005, MS Office).

When the new technology first arrives (e.g. Linux, OpenOffice) it is crude compared to the existing, with many issues still unresolved. At this point it may be written off.

These problems are gradually resolved over time and ultimately the innovation is able to compete with the cost performance characteristics of other players. Then it is picked up by lead users who value it highly, and goes on to win market share through a variety of mechanisms.

By plotting an idea against the S-curve, it is possible to gauge how long before an idea is able to engage with rivals. Major barriers also include cultural and emotional objections. For example, condoms have a low take-up rate in Africa, despite the prevalence of Aids, because of cultural taboos.

***

If you haven't already done so, you can purchase the complete product package (DIY Audit, Business Creativity and Innovation Software, Powerpoint Presentation and more) right now by clicking on any Paypal link at http://www.managing-creativity.com. What's with all the waiting!

Best,

http://www.managing-creativity.com

_________

Managing Creativity MBA dissertation

***

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.

***

If you haven't already done so, you can purchase the complete product package (DIY Audit, Business Creativity and Innovation Software, Powerpoint Presentation and more) right now by clicking on any Paypal link at http://www.managing-creativity.com. What's with all the waiting!

Best,

http://www.managing-creativity.com

_________

Managing Creativity MBA dissertation

***

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 purchase the complete product package (DIY Audit, Business Creativity and Innovation Software, Powerpoint Presentation and more) right now by clicking on any Paypal link at http://www.managing-creativity.com. What's with all the waiting!

Best,

http://www.managing-creativity.com

_________

Managing Creativity MBA dissertation

***

TIP OF THE DAY: ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

It can be concluded with great certainty that certain organizational cultures inhibit creativity and innovation whilst others foster it. Some organizations are just better at identifying problems, generating and selecting valuable ideas and developing and commercialising them - this is why those firms tend to maintain competitive advantage and remain leaders in their field.

Another way to look at the problem is in terms of blocks. Certain organizations create or enhance blocks that prevent their human capital from working to its potential. Some of the many blocks include:

a) Conformity and risk aversion

b) Culture dictating behaviour

c) A sense of inappropriate behaviour

d) Negatively assessing own ideas

e) Logical thinking, scientific, cause and event thinking

f) Rejection of ideas without adequate valuation processes

g) Competition inhibiting behaviour

h) Fear of being perceived as being unoriginal

i) Fear of being perceived as being unintelligent

j) Problems have an illusion of difficulty

k) Waiting for inspiration

l) Lack of resources

m) Lack of tangible progression of good ideas

n) Lack of focus or goal

Resolution techniques include:

a) Psychological safety (Vernon, 1980) – accepting the individual as unconditioned worth – recognising that the individual is capable of producing but that their value is not based on producing.

b) Psychological freedom (Vernon, 1980) – eliminating a climate in which external evaluation is absent; understanding empathetically – understanding the individual from their point of feeling and view.

***

If you haven't already done so, you can purchase the complete product package (DIY Audit, Business Creativity and Innovation Software, Powerpoint Presentation and more) right now by clicking on any Paypal link at http://www.managing-creativity.com. What's with all the waiting!

Best,

http://www.managing-creativity.com

Managing Creativity MBA dissertation

***

TIP OF THE DAY: MOTIVATION

Motivation in creativity and innovation is more important than personality traits. This is like possessing high intelligence – one must be motivated to improve and apply it.

Moreover, motivation and creative output are positively correlated. The more motivated an individual, the more likely he or she is to engage in the task at various cognitive levels until an outcome is achieved.

Motivation factors include:

a) The gap between the person's ideal and real self. If an individual perceives that he is not what he wishes to be, he is more likely to be motivated to engage in activities that bring him closer to his ideal self.

b) The perceived enjoyability of the task. Terms such as "fun," "amusing," "fascinating" and "inspiring" are common.

c) The degree of challenge. The more a task is perceived as challenging and competency expanding, the more the intrinsic motivation.

d) Feasibility. If a task is perceived to be unreachable, intrinsic motivation decreases.

e) Control of ones destiny. If an individual perceives that a task is not under his control, then intrinsic motivation decreases.

f) Recognition is noted by many to be a powerful driver of task engagement.

***

If you haven't already done so, you can purchase the complete product package (DIY Audit, Business Creativity and Innovation Software, Powerpoint Presentation and more) right now by clicking on any Paypal link at http://www.managing-creativity.com. What's with all the waiting!

Best,

http://www.managing-creativity.com

_________

Managing Creativity MBA dissertation

***

TIP OF THE DAY: BEWARE OF GROUP SIZE

When leaders, consultants and managers require ideas, they automatically tend to herd people into a room and conduct a (usually ineffective) brainstorming session. One reason for their ineffectiveness is a failure to consider the impact of group size.

There is a pervasive belief that creativity is enhanced in larger groups. However, significant data indicates that large groups are detrimental to creative output. Some of the arguments against large groups are:

a) The sum of ideas produced by individuals acting alone is greater than the sum of ideas produced by those same individuals when acting as a group.

b) Large groups dilute ideas.

c) Symptoms of group think increase as a group gets larger due to the illusion of invulnerability, unquestioned belief in the group's morality and rationalisation by collective justification of decisions.

d) As group size increases, the percentage of individual performance decreases. A single person is 95% engaged in a task, two people are each 90% engaged and the decline increases until it evens out at about 15 members to around 30%.

e) Groups of three to five elicit much more conformity than just one or two.

f) Large groups increase levels of evaluation apprehension and social loafing.

g) Large groups result in core and peripheral members, restricting information flow.

h) Conflict is inevitable as group size increases, causing sub-group formation and politicking.

i) Large groups create sub-groups with conflicting identitites and goals.

j) Large groups introduce time inefficiencies. 30 individuals can work on 30 problems and produce 150 ideas (30 x 5) in the same time that 1 group working on 1 problem produces 5 ideas (1 x 5).

***

If you haven't already done so, you can purchase the complete product package (DIY Audit, Business Creativity and Innovation Software, Powerpoint Presentation and more) right now by clicking on any Paypal link at http://www.managing-creativity.com. What's with all the waiting!

Best,

http://www.managing-creativity.com

_________

Managing Creativity MBA dissertation

***

TIP OF THE DAY: CREATIVE VERSUS CRITICAL THINKING

The process of creative thinking is often, mistakenly, intertwined with critical thinking. There is a tendency to write and edit simultaneously, couple hypothesis generation and evaluation, combine problem identification with solution.

To increase effectiveness, one should first apply creative thought, which is meant to be daring, uninhibited, free-spirited, imaginative, unpredictable, and revolutionary. The trick is to ignore content and maximise the size and richness of the idea pool.

Second, critical thinking is exercised to achieve applied creativity. This is reductive, logical, focused, conservative, practical and feasible. During this stage, the idea pool is reduced to achievable, appropriate ideas.

Now onto the Idea Pool itself:

Maximising the size and richness of the idea pool is a conscious process that has a lot in common with a) lateral thinking and b) the elicitation of tacit knowledge. It is the pre-critical thinking phase and some elements include:

a) Coming up with ideas for the sake of generating ideas.

b) Using a variety of stimuli and frameworks to open up as many pathways as possible.

c) Not having a conscious direction.

d) Not stopping when a goal seems fulfilled.

e) Consciously stimulating change in direction.

In short, the key principle is to produce first and scrutinize second – writing and rewriting are two separate processes. This applies across the board, from business problem solving to arts such as screenwriting. The more people try to understand meaning, the less they produce.

***

If you haven't already done so, you can purchase the complete product package (DIY Audit, Business Creativity and Innovation Software, Powerpoint Presentation and more) right now by clicking on any Paypal link at http://www.managing-creativity.com. What's with all the waiting!

Best,

http://www.managing-creativity.com

_________

Managing Creativity MBA dissertation

***

TIP OF THE DAY: THE VALUE OF PROLIFIC PRODUCTIVITY

When asked his secret to success, the author Graham Green said that it was down to his always writing 500 words a day. There are real reasons why this philosophy rings true:

a) The single best creative product tends to appear at that point in the career when the creator is being most prolific – quality of output is closely related to quantity.

b) In the early stages, relative lack of experience, knowledge and refined methodology limits performance to sub-optimal levels. With time these factors improve and productivity increases exponentially. The experience curve implies that creativity should get easier and faster the more it is engaged in.

c) The major part of learning takes place subliminally and unconsciously. When we are strongly motivated by an endeavour, we will become good at it by working on it at various cognitive levels.

d) Many skilled actions are initially learnt with much conscious effort then, with practice, they come easily and smoothly (subliminal perception and learning). After complete automisation, paying complete attention can actually be detrimental.

e) Incremental targets produce more output than a "do your best" approach. If a leader asks participants 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.

***

If you haven't already done so, you can purchase the complete product package (DIY Audit, Business Creativity and Innovation Software, Powerpoint Presentation and more) right now by clicking on any Paypal link at http://www.managing-creativity.com. What's with all the waiting!

Best,

http://www.managing-creativity.com

_________

Managing Creativity MBA dissertation

***

TIP OF THE DAY: DEFINITIONS OF CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION

Creativity and Innovation are often used interchangeably, yet they are distinct and separate. This may sound obvious, but they are often confusingly and incorrectly used by even the most informed people.

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation. This means that creative managers must be competent in at least six areas (including one holistic).

Using the above allows for deeper insights, For example, ask 5 people what the problem is and you're likely to end up with 6 answers.

***

If you haven't already done so, you can purchase the complete product package (DIY Audit, Business Creativity and Innovation Software, Powerpoint Presentation and more) right now by clicking on any Paypal link at http://www.managing-creativity.com. What's with all the waiting!

Best,

http://www.managing-creativity.com

_________

Managing Creativity MBA dissertation

***

TIP OF THE DAY: CREATIVITY, INNOVATION AND HIERARCHIES

Convention has it that hierarchies hinder creativity and innovation. But why?

Also, organizational structure is resultant of many factors (logistics, history etc...) and not easy to change, so what do we do if we have a hierarchical organizational structure and want to increase creative output?

Well, hierarchies tend not to foster creativity because of factors such as multiple layers to decision makers, slow feedback systems and decision makers' lack of intimacy with local problems due to distortion of filtered information.

So one way to counter the above is to enable teams with direct links to decision makers. This simple step speeds up decision making, improves feedback systems and decision makers' familiarity with local issues.

***

If you haven't already done so, you can purchase the complete product package (DIY Audit, Business Creativity and Innovation Software, Powerpoint Presentation and more) right now by clicking on any Paypal link at http://www.managing-creativity.com. What's with all the waiting!

Best,

http://www.managing-creativity.com

_________

Managing Creativity MBA dissertation

***

TIP OF THE DAY: MEASURING CREATIVITY

Creativity if often perceived to be intangible, non-measurable and non-usable.

This is incorrect.

Creativity can be easily measured at any one point in time.

By measuring the number of ideas produced, the novelty of those ideas, the diversity of those ideas and the frequency of their production, we can benchmark creative output at any point in time.

But remember, these results are not stable (individuals may perform today but not tomorrow) and they are not transferable (individuals may perform in one domain but not another).

***

If you haven't already done so, you can purchase the complete product package (DIY Audit, Business Creativity and Innovation Software, Powerpoint Presentation and more) right now by clicking on any Paypal link at http://www.managing-creativity.com. What's with all the waiting!

Best,

http://www.managing-creativity.com

_________

Managing Creativity MBA dissertation

***

TIP OF THE DAY: THE VALUE OF DIVERSITY

When you bring together a team that represents different perspectives and different experiences, the outcome is richer than if you had a group of people with the same background. Diversity and intellectual cross-pollination produce better results:

a) Creativity can be defined as the production of a number of ideas, the production of a number of diverse ideas and the production of a number of novel ideas. Increasing the number, diversity and novelty of participants increases all three (further, manipulating group structures maximises output).

b) Similar individuals have a greater tendency for groupthink, path dependency and parochialism.

c) Diverse and novel participants increase frame breaking.

d) Radical change requires the introduction of new knowledge – less likely without sets of divergent individuals.

e) Radical shifts are more often the result of cumulative incremental changes; degrees of incremental change increase with diversity.

f) Good ideas result from increased tacit knowledge. A diverse group increases the tacit knowledge pool.

g) Good ideas benefit from collaboration – the introduction of a wide knowledge base into the equation.

h) Good ideas benefit from the utilisation of networks – the introduction of a wide knowledge base into the equation.

***

If you haven't already done so, you can purchase the complete product package (DIY Audit, Business Creativity and Innovation Software, Powerpoint Presentation and more) right now by clicking on any Paypal link at http://www.managing-creativity.com. What's with all the waiting!

Best,

http://www.managing-creativity.com

_________

Managing Creativity MBA dissertation

***

TIP OF THE DAY: THE VALUE OF FAILURE

Failure is one of the hardest pills to swallow. Commercial failure is obviously not good: a continuous negative cash flow is bad news for all stakeholders. But there are degrees of failure and it can be measured:

a) Failure can lead to success. Ridley Scott scored a commercial failure with Blade Runner but went onto make some of the most commercially successful movies of all time.

b) How close was the endeavour to the strategic fit with the firm? Did the development and commercialisation cause long term problems?

c) Did the firm pick up any technical expertise that can be applied to other ventures?

d) Did the organisation pick up any business competencies along the way?

e) As a strategic option, was this the right thing to do? Knowing the wrong direction helps focus activity towards the right path.

f) What did we learn about our customers? Coke learned a lot about their customers when it brought out New Coke.

A good analysis can yield positive outcomes and convince shareholders to embark on similar projects in the future.

***

If you haven't already done so, you can purchase the complete product package (DIY Audit, Business Creativity and Innovation Software, Powerpoint Presentation and more) right now by clicking on any Paypal link at http://www.managing-creativity.com. What's with all the waiting!

Best,

http://www.managing-creativity.com