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Report 103
Your newsletter on applied creativity, imagination, ideas and innovation in
business – delivered to your e-mail box on the first and third Tuesday
of every month.
Tuesday, 4 September 2007
Issue 112
Hello and welcome to another issue of Report 103, your fortnightly newsletter
on creativity, imagination, ideas and innovation in business.
As always, if you have news about creativity, imagination, ideas, or innovation
please feel free to forward it to me for potential inclusion in Report103. Your
comments and feedback are also always welcome.
Information on unsubscribing, archives, reprinting articles, etc can be found
at the end of this newsletter.
ACTIVE VERSUS PASSIVE CREATIVITY
You have probably heard many a story of a scientist suddenly being inspired
– very possibly as the result of an accident – with a brilliant
idea that results in fame and fortune. The classic tale is of Charles Goodyear
who, it is said, accidentally spilled a mixture of natural rubber and sulphur
on the top of his cooker. The mixture was charred at the edges, but hard and
not sticky in the centre. This led to the invention of vulcanised rubber which
became the standard for car tyres and numerous other products. Until then, tyres
had a tendency to get sticky and fall apart after only a little use.
Passive Creativity
As a person more knowledgeable than most about innovation, you probably also
know that such accidental inventions or sudden inspirations are not nearly so
accidental or sudden as they are made out to be. But we will get to that in
a moment. Nevertheless, we will call such creativity which seems to come from
nowhere as “passive creativity”.
You have probably had experiences of passive creativity yourself. Perhaps while
talking to a friend, going for a walk or reading a magazine article, you find
yourself suddenly inspired with an idea that solves a problem totally unrelated
to the conversation, scenery or article. This often happens to me when I am
walking or gently cycling along the country lanes nearby my village. Indeed,
the theme of this article came to me while walking along a wooded lane the day
before I wrote this article.
Active Creativity
The opposite of passive creativity is active creativity. This is when we generate
creative ideas as potential solutions to a problem in an active way. Active
creativity occurs in brainstorming sessions where we are actively generating
ideas; while mind mapping; when we are sitting at our desks trying to figure
out how to make a business presentation more compelling to a client; and in
any other situation where we are actively trying to solve a problem.
Again, as an innovation person, you probably have more experience than most
with active creativity.
The Connection Between Active and Passive Creativity
The thing is, active creativity and passive creativity are closely related.
You cannot have passive creativity without some element of active creativity.
Let's return to Mr. Goodyear. Whether the his discovery of vulcanised rubber
was the result of the accident described in the story or not, the truth of the
matter is, he had been looking for a method of creating hard rubber, suitable
for car tyres, for many years. Thus, although his discovery may have been an
accident of sorts, that accident came about as a result of his active creativity
in the past.
Likewise, although my idea for this story came to me, seemingly out of the
blue, during a walk, I was aware that I needed one more article to fill out
this issue of Report 103. Thus, although I was not actively thinking about what
to write for this week's edition, the need to solve the problem sat passively
in my mind as a result of previous active creativity.
In fact, one could argue that all passive creativity is the result of previous
efforts at active creativity. The author who dreams up an idea for a novel may
not have actively been looking for a new novel idea. But, since her profession
is writing, you can be sure she frequently does actively seek new ideas.
Likewise, the scientist who, through sudden inspiration, invents a new chemical
or technology or theory, will almost certainly have been actively looking for
such solutions in the past. Indeed, passive creativity seems to be one approach
our mind takes towards solving problems.
Research carried out by the University of Luebeck in Germany found that
sleep seems to be an essential ingredient for passive creativity (although they
didn't call it 'passive' creativity in the experiments – just creativity),
which confirmed what many people have long suspected: sleeping on a problem
can help you solve it more creatively.
Although the exact process is not clear, it seems that the biochemical process
of the brain restructures memories before storing them during the night. This
restructuring most likely allows our minds to see problems in new ways and so
bring new solutions to them. (Ref: http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/01/21/sleep.creativity.ap/index.html)
Likewise, walking, talking, reading and otherwise absorbing new input gives
our minds new material which may be applied to existing problems for which are
seeking solutions.
What this all means is that passive creativity cannot exist without active
creativity. Inspiration alone will not give you ideas. You need to break down
your problems into creative challenges and actively try to solve them. But,
if the solution does not come through the usual idea generation channels, one
of the best creativity tools you have available is to put the problem to the
side of your mind, so to speak, and give your mind a chance to add new input
and surprise you with passively creative ideas. A good night's sleep along the
way will only help.
GUEST WRITER
You may not immediately recognise the name of our guest writer this week, but
you almost certainly know his work: www.innovationtools.com.
Chuck Frey is the man behind the Innovation Tools web site, certainly the best
resource available for information and reviews on all kinds of innovation tools,
from mind mapping software to idea management software (you'll find his review
of Jenni idea management at http://www.innovationtools.com/Resources/ideamgmt-details.asp?a=203)
as well as numerous articles from many experts in the field – including
me!
The article below is an excerpt from Chuck's e-book “ Power Tips &
Strategies for Mind Mapping Software - Second Edition”. The article is
below. You'll find a link to the e-book at the end of the article. And if you
are planning to invest in idea management software, Chuck's e-book would be
a sound investment.
(Note: if you would like to contribute an article to Report 103, please e-mail
me at jeffreyb@jpb.com and tell me about your article idea)
MISTAKES TO AVOID WITH MIND MAPPING SOFTWARE
By Chuck Frey
Mind mapping software is a powerful tool for today's knowledge worker, a versatile
platform for business planning and development. Because of its inherent flexibility
- the way in which it "encapsulates" information and ideas so they
can be easily manipulated, annotated and rearranged - nothing can equal a well-crafted
visual map when it comes to communicating ideas and building consensus around
them.
But like most types of productivity software, mind mapping software is a double-edged
sword. It can just as easily be used to obscure ideas and confuse others. What's
worse, a poorly-designed visual map can take an otherwise open-minded, left-brained
person and completely turn them off to the idea of mind mapping.
To help ensure that your mind maps don't fall into this latter category, here
are ten mistakes you should avoid when using mind mapping software to produce
visual maps for your work:
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Don't include too much detail in your mind maps. It's too easy to create
topics with unnecessary amounts of detail, which tends to create visual
"clutter." It may also be confusing to others to whom you send
your maps.
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Don't be arbitrary in your use of color, shapes, line styles and other
visual elements of your maps. If used consistently and systematically, they
can help to convey additional meaning or context. But used arbitrarily,
they can cause confusion.
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Avoid using too much text in your topics. Use specific keywords to draw
your audience into the flow of your map. Keep your topic names short --
1 to 3 words at maximum. If you want to add more detail, use your program's
"notes" feature to store that information. This will keep it out
of sight, reducing visual clutter, while still keeping it just one mouse
click away.
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Don't ignore your program's icons or symbols. They can be used to help
visually classify your map's contents, and are extremely useful when you
want to filter the contents of a large map.
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Avoid over-use of visual mapping. Like anything, it's possible to take
your mind mapping software to its logical extreme, even using it to create
your shopping list.
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Don't create one huge map with everything in it, because it will quickly
become unmanageable. Instead, leverage your program's ability to create
sub-maps - multiple linked maps, each of which are easier to understand
and manipulate.
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Don't just create text-based mind maps. To get the biggest benefit out
of visual mapping, be sure to include images in your maps, which will help
them to appeal to both sides of your brain.
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Avoid “map shock.” An audience can be overwhelmed when viewing
a complex visual map, and can experience what one expert calls “map
shock.” Consider presenting information in both mapped and linear
formats to avoid overwhelming your audience. Ease them into the world of
visual, non-linear information – don’t drop them off the deep
end!
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Avoid the conventional wisdom that mapping is simply about inspiration
and creativity. It's actually about so much more. It's a powerful tool for
managing information overload, developing and implementing projects, making
better decisions and it has many other business benefits!
- Avoid reinventing the wheel. Look in books and online for best practices
and strategies.
Chuck Frey is the founder of InnovationTools (http://www.innovationtools.com)
and the author of the Mind Mapping Software Blog (http://mindmapping.typepad.com).
This top 10 list was excerpted from his new e-book, Power Tips & Strategies
for Mind Mapping Software - Second Edition. For more information about this
comprehensive resource guide, please visit http://www.mindmap-ebook.com/v2/
BOOK REVIEW: GETTING TO INNOVATION
Before diving into this book review, it is essential that I provide a sort
of disclaimer. Arthur B. VanGundy (or “Andy” as he is called by
everyone who knows him) is a giant in the field of business creativity and innovation.
He's been teaching, lecturing, consulting and writing books on the subject since
I was in school. He is also someone I consider a friend. We've corresponded
on the subject of creativity and innovation as well as other topics such as
in-laws and wine over the past couple of years and almost – but didn't
quite actually meet up in person in Paris a couple of months ago. And it is
hard to write an unbiased review of a friend's book. Moreover, I have been cited
on several occasions in the book – as have many other experts in innovation.
That only makes it harder to be unbiased. Lastly, an essay that became the basis
of this book was first published in short in Report 103 and a full version was
published in the jpb.com creativity library, where it is still available (http://www.jpb.com/creative/
for the library and http://www.jpb.com/creative/VanGundyFrameInnov.pdf
– for the 500K pdf file of Andy's complete essay).
So, it's hard not to be biased – particularly as GETTING TO INNOVATION
is such a good book; one I would highly recommend to any manager who is responsible
for innovation planning in her organisation. Getting to Innovation provides
managers with an easy to follow, yet detailed step by step explanation on how
to get started with the innovation process.
Part I, which comprises about half of the book, focuses on what is often called
the fuzzy front end of innovation. Andy uses the term “framing innovation
challenges” which is less jargon-like. And framing innovation challenges
well is critically important for any innovation initiative.
To explain: a lot of people believe that innovation is about generating great
ideas and then implementing them. Indeed, I've just read an article by a so-called
innovation expert in a top name Management Consultancy claim just that!
However, as the article above points out, all creativity is the result of active
creativity and active creativity requires concrete problems or challenges for
which ideas are generated.
As an example of an innovation challenge, consider a company whose main product
is losing market share to the competition. In order to solve this problem, they
might frame the challenge, “How might we improve our product?” or,
“How might we more effectively market our product to our target group?”.
This challenge serves as the starting point for generating ideas.
Sadly, many people pay scant attention to framing good challenges in order
to start generating ideas as quickly as possible. This is what Andy calls “horse
before the cart innovation” which can still result in brilliant ideas.
However, those ideas are unlikely to actually meet your needs. So they are not
actually very good ideas!
Thus, it is critical that managers responsible for innovation start spending
more time on framing challenges before they move on to idea generation. The
result will be better ideas that better meet your needs.
Getting to Innovation provides advice and tips on how to frame innovation challenges
along with numerous examples from Andy's own experience and elsewhere. Framing,
incidentally, refers to the cognitive boundaries implicit in any statement (such
as this sentence). An innovation challenge creates cognitive boundaries in peoples'
minds and the resulting ideas will normally fit within – or close to –
those boundaries.
Of course not all innovation is in response to an obvious, specific need or
problem. Innovation challenges can be developed as the result of structured
strategic questioning to determine a firms' weaknesses and areas for strategic
improvement. Getting to Innovation provides an explanation of strategic questioning
and recommends firms build banks of such questions, Q-banks, and then poses
those questions to stakeholders. Such an exercise pinpoints weaknesses and areas
where improvement is needed – and said improvement can often be made via
innovation.
For instance, two questions from the Q-bank might include: “How are we
positioned in the minds of our customers?” and “How would we like
to be positioned?” An organisation might find that the answer to the first
question is “An old-fashioned firm selling decent, if unspectacular products”
and the answer to the second question is “a highly innovative firm selling
cutting edge new technology.” Clearly, in this case there is substantial
room for improvement and this would suggest framing innovation challenges such
as “How might we better demonstrate the new technology in our products?”
and “How might we position ourselves as being an innovative company?”
Getting to Innovation provides a sample Q-bank with a many generic questions
organised by category.
As you process the answers to your Q-bank questions, you will find that you
are able to devise numerous innovation challenges. Andy recommends compiling
these into Challenge Banks – or C-banks – and establishing a process
that involves stakeholder review and revision to hone the challenges into relevant
innovation challenges.
The final chapters of part I of the book go into detail about how to frame
innovation challenges, tapping not only into Andy's experience, but also the
experience of a handful of consultants. This will provide reader with the know
how to construct innovation challenges that are relevant to actual needs. The
next step, of course, is generating ideas.
Part II of Getting to Innovation is entitled “After the Game” and
focuses on the application of innovation challenges. Here the book largely reviews
creative problem solving methodology and readers of Andy's previous books might
recognise some of the material. However, if you are new to Innovation and the
creative problem solving (CPS) approach to innovation (arguably the most proven
approach to creativity and innovation), you will find this part of the book
extremely useful.
Part II of Getting to Innovation first looks at idea management tools, their
features and the processes behind them. (Jenni idea management – my company's
product – is among the tools reviewed).
This is followed by a crash course in generating ideas at the individual level
and the group level – an important distinction that is often forgotten
by people writing on creativity and innovation. These chapters include brainstorming
advice together with a number of approaches which can further boost creative
thinking.
Finally, Getting to Innovation provides information on a number of evaluation
techniques, such as idea voting, evaluation matrices and other approaches. One,
“idea advocates” was new to me and is an approach I am looking forward
to trying out in the future.
What is lacking from Getting to Innovation is a conclusion that wraps up all
the information in the book in an overall picture – with the result that
Getting to Innovation ends with rather a jolt. This leaves part II of the book
seeming somewhat unfocused – particularly compared to the first part.
And that, if anything, is the book's greatest weakness.
I also prefer to start innovation challenges with “In what ways might
we..?” as compared to Andy's preference for “How might we..?”
My reasoning is that “In what ways might we” suggest there are numerous
solutions whereas “How might we” implies a single answers –
at least to my overly semantic approach to English! But that is a trivial detail
of personal preference and not a critique. That said, it would be interesting
to experiment with the two formats and see if there is any difference in results.
Well read innovation experts may find that there is not a lot new in Getting
to Innovation – although they will invariably pick up a number of useful
tips by reading the book. But Getting to Innovation is really written for the
manager who needs a comprehensive step by step guide for setting up an innovation
initiative in her firm. The book is rich in information, includes numerous examples
from the corporate world and avoids confusing jargon. So if you or a colleague
is responsible for innovation in your organisation, I highly recommend Getting
to Innovation. It is out now.
BREAKFAST WITH JENNI IN MELBOURNE
Dynamic Horizons is not only one of Australia's top innovation consultancies,
but they are also the official reseller and service provider of Jenni idea management
software service for their country. Next Wednesday, 12 September, the Dynamic
Horizon's team is hosting a complimentary “Breakfast with Jenni”
from 7.30 to 9.00 in the morning at the RACV Club, Level 2, 501 Bourke Street
Melbourne. There, you will see a demonstration of Jenni, learn how organisations
are using Jenni to deliver success through innovation and have the opportunity
to get your questions answered.
For more information, go to http://www.jpb.com/jenni/breakfast_melbourne.php.
For more information about Dynamic Horizons, visit their web site at http://www.dynamichorizons.com.
* But act quickly. You should book your place at the breakfast by Wednesday,
6 September!
Of course if you cannot make the breakfast, but you are in Australia and want
to learn more about Jenni, feel free to contact Jason or Tim. And tell them
Jeffrey sent you!
For more information about Jenni idea management software service and its highly
effective ideas campaign approach to sustainable innovation, visit http://www.jpb.com/jenni/.
LATEST IN BUSINESS INNOVATION
If you want to keep up with the latest news in business innovation, I recommend
Chuck Frey's INNOVATIONweek
(http://www.innovationtools.com/News/subscribe.asp). It's the only e-newsletter
that keeps you up-to-date on all of the latest innovation news, research, trends,
case histories of leading companies and more. And it's the perfect complement
to Report 103!
Happy thinking!
Jeffrey Baumgartner
---------------------------------------------------
Report 103 is a complimentary weekly electronic newsletter from Bwiti bvba
of Belgium (a jpb.com company: http://www.jpb.com).
Archives and subscription information can be found at http://www.jpb.com/report103/
Report 103 is edited by Jeffrey Baumgartner and is published on the first and
third Tuesday of every month.
You may forward this copy of Report 103 to anyone, provided you forward it
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