What do creativity managers do? Replace the word management with the word optimisation. That's what creativity managers do: they optimise the quality of the idea pool (creativity) and the implementation process (innovation). There are many methods of optimisation and the creativity leader must be aware of all of them, in other words, he or she must synthesise them for optimal effect. Areas [within creativity] that need managing include motivation, organisational culture, organisational structure, incremental versus radical effects and processes, knowledge mix, group structures, goals, process and valuation. Areas [within innovation] that need managing include idea selection, development / prototyping and the art of commercialisation. It is worth noting that 4000 good ideas result in 4 development programs, which in turn results in 1 winner. The industrialisation of Creativity and Innovation There is an argument that creativity managers attempt to industrialise creativity. The implication is that we attempt to reduce it to a formula, mass produce it, turn it into a process, try and design a universal formula, apply Taylorism and Fordism to it and that all this detracts from its true essence. The above perspective is incorrect and implies that creativity should somehow be left untouched. There are shades of analysis paralysis in the argument. There are also implications that the approach is "old." As people who produce a lot of creative output ourselves, we state that the aim is to make creativity tangible, measurable and useable in order to optimise the quality of the idea pool [creativity] and the implementation process [innovation]. We follow this approach because we know that this increases our success rate. In addition, the framework we have developed allows us to apply creativity and innovation universally; it allows us to play with, expand, develop and apply many of the important concepts. Learn more Download the MBA research, learn about this topic at http://www.creativity-management.com/ You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site. Kal Bishop, MBA ********************************** You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made, the author's name is retained and the link to our site URL remains active. |
