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.
Definitions, Terms, Frames of Reference
It may not sound like defining creativity and innovation will set the world on fire, but establishing terminology and frames of reference helps set the context and build a solid foundation from which we can have an intelligent conversation about this topic.
Creativity and Innovation are very often confused. For example, one popular author recently defined innovation as any idea that generates wealth. That's lazy thinking.
A good definition of creativity is that it is problem identification and idea generation whereas innovation is idea selection, development and commercialisation.
Within idea generation, a further definition is valuable: the number of ideas produced, the novelty of the ideas produced, the diversity of ideas produced and the frequency of their production.
Other definitions are also worthy of discussion. For example, creativity is often defined as "something original." However, this is misleading as it implies a break with the past, with history and the timeline.
There are many more definitions that need to be explained and have implications, such as recombination, moving from an original state to a goal state etc.
The definitions themselves give us ideas as to how to manage creativity. For example, if we are looking for a diverse range of ideas, then it follows that the groups that generate those ideas should also consist of a diverse range of participants.
Learn more…
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Kal Bishop, MBA
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