Resources/How to be More Creative & Manage Innovation
Creativity can be improved by remembering that the creative process has four main stages and each needs to be properly “worked”.
1) Preparation [information gathering, analysis and solution exploration].
2) Incubation [letting the mind work to continue the process].
3) Illumination [inspiration – which can come when the individual is not necessarily thinking about the problem but is in a relaxed frame of mind].
4) Verification [testing ideas, solutions, hunches, insights for applicability].
If ideas or solutions to problems are slow to come it sometimes can pay to leave matters alone for a while and reassess with:
- a new starting point;
- a different perspective;
- fresh motivation; and
- further consideration
Innovation
It is worth identifying some of the key players who, if they were all present within an organisation, would surely make it unbeatable:
Creative Thinker - Produces new and original ideas
Innovator - Brings new products/services to the market or changes existing ones
Inventor - Produces new and commercial ideas
Entrepreneur - Conceives or receives ideas and translates them into business reality to exploit a market opportunity
Champion - Determination and commitment to implement an idea
Sponsor - Backs an idea and helps remove obstacles
Successful businesses run on innovation and change. Effective innovation requires:
[1] A blend of new ideas
[2] The ability to get things done
[3] Sound commercial sense
[4] Customer focus
[5] A conducive organisational culture
Managers should be able to:
- Manage for creativity
- Provide an organisational environment in which innovation can thrive
- Use a variety of techniques to stimulate ideas for products/services/systems to generate ideas for bringing them to fruition
To manage innovation [and draw “greatness” out of people], it must be seen as a process with three phases:
[1] The generation of ideas [from individuals and teams]
[2] The harvesting of ideas [people evaluating ideas]
[3] The implementation of ideas [teams developing and introducing ideas to the final, customer-satisfied stage]
In innovation it must be remembered that creative thinking makes it possible and teamwork makes it happen.