Report 103

Your newsletter on applied creativity, imagination, ideas and innovation in business.

Wednesday, 2 June 2010
Issue 167

Hello and welcome to another issue of Report 103, your monthly 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.

CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING (CPS) BASICS

By Jeffrey Baumgartner

Creative ideas do not suddenly appear in people's minds for no apparent reason. Rather, they are the result of trying to solve a specific problem or to achieve a particular goal. Albert Einstein's theories of relativity were not sudden inspirations. Rather they were the result of a huge amount of mental problem solving trying to close a discrepancy between the laws of physics and the laws of electromagnetism as they were understood at the time.

Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Edison and other creative geniuses have always worked in the same way. They do not wait for creative ideas to strike them. Rather they focus on trying to solve a clearly stated, at least in their minds, problem.

This approach has been formalised as Creative Problem Solving (CPS). CPS is a simple process that involves breaking down a problem to understand it, generating ideas to solve the problem and evaluating those ideas to find the most effective solutions. Highly creative people tend to follow this process in their heads, without thinking about it. Less naturally creative people simply have to learn to use this very simple process.

Although creative problem solving has been around as long as humans have been thinking creatively and solving problems, it was first formalised as a process by Alex Osborn, who invented traditional brainstorming, and Sidney Parnes. Their Creative Problem Solving Process (CPSP) has been taught at the International Center for Studies in Creativity at Buffalo College in Buffalo, New York since the 1950s.

However, there are numerous different approaches to CPS. Mine is more focused on innovation (that is the implementation of the most promising ideas). It involves seven straightforward steps.

CPS Steps

1. Clarify and identify the problem
2. Research the problem
3. Formulate creative challenges
4. Generate ideas
5. Combine and evaluate the ideas
6. Draw up an action plan
7. Do it! (ie. implement the ideas)

Let us look at each step more carefully.

1. Clarify and identify the problem

Arguably the single most important step of CPS is identifying your real problem or goal. This may seem easy, but very often, what we believe to be the problem is not the real problem or goal. For instance, you may feel you need a new job. However, if you break down your problem and analyse what you are really looking for, it may transpire that the actual issue is that your income does not cover your costs of living. In this case, the solution may be a new job, but it might also be to re-arrange your expenses or to seek a pay rise from your existing employer.

1.1 Five Whys

The best way to clarify the problem and understand the underlying issues is to ask yourself -- or better still, ask a friend or family member to ask you -- a series of questions about your problem in order to clarify the true issues behind the problem. The first question to ask is simply: "why is this a problem?" or "why do I wish to achieve this goal?". Once you have answered that, ask yourself "why else?" four more times.

For instance, you might feel you want to overcome your shyness. So, you ask yourself why and you answer: "because I am lonely". Then ask yourself "why else?" four times. You answer: "because I do not know many people in this new city where I live", "because I find it hard to meet people", "because I am doing many activities alone" and "because I would like to do activities with other people who share my interests". This last "why else" is clearly more of the issue than reducing shyness. Indeed, if you had focused your creative energy on solving your shyness issue, you would not have actually solved the real problem. On the other hand, if you focused your creative energy on finding people with whom to share activities, you would be happier without ever having to address the shyness issue.

1.2 And More Questions

In addition, you can further clarify your problem by asking questions like: "what do I really wish to accomplish?", "what is preventing me from solving this problem/achieving the goal?", "how do I envision myself in six months/one year/five years [choose most relevant time span] as a result of solving this problem?" and "are my friends dealing with similar problems? If so, how are they coping?"

By the time you have answered all these questions, you should have a very clear idea of what your problem or real goal is.

1.3 Criteria

The final step is to decide what criteria you will eventually use to evaluate or judge the ideas. Are there budget limitations, timeframe or other restrictions that will affect whether or not you can go ahead with an idea? What will you want to have accomplished with the ideas? What do you wish to avoid when you implement these ideas? Think about it and make a list of three to five evaluation criteria. Then put the list aside. You will not need it for a while.

2. Research the Problem

The next step in CPS is to research the problem in order to get a better understanding of it. Depending on the nature of the problem, you may need to do a great deal of research or very little. The best place to start these days is with your favourite search engine. But do not neglect good old fashioned sources of information and opinion. Libraries are fantastic for in-depth information that is easier to read than computer screens. Friends, colleagues and family can also provide thoughts on many issues. Fora on sites like LinkedIn and elsewhere are ideal for asking questions. There's nothing an expert enjoys more than imparting her knowledge. Take advantage of that. But always try to get feedback from several people to ensure you get rounded information.

3. Formulate One or More Creative Challenges

By now, you should be clear on the real issues behind your problems or goals. The next step is to turn these issues into creative challenges. A creative challenge is basically a simple question framed to encourage suggestions or ideas. In English, a challenge typically starts with "In what ways might I [or we]...?" or "How might I...?" or "How could I...?"

Creative challenges should be simple, concise and focus on a single issue. For example: "How might I improve my Chinese language skills and find a job in Shanghai?" is two completely separate challenges. Trying to generate ideas that solve both challenges will be difficult and, as a result, will stifle idea generation. So separate these into two challenges: "How might I improve my Chinese language skills" and "How might I find a job in Shanghai". Then attack each challenge individually. Once you have ideas for both, you may find a logical approach to solving both problems in a coordinated way. Or you might find that there is not co-ordinate way and each problem must be tackled separately.

Creative challenges should not include evaluation criteria. For example: "How might I find a more challenging job that is better paying and situated close to my home?" If you put criteria in the challenge, you will limit your creative thinking. So simply ask: "How might a I find a more challenging job?" and after generating ideas, you can use the criteria to identify the ideas with the greatest potential.

4. Generate Ideas

Finally, we come to the part most people associate with brainstorming and creative problem solving: idea generation. And you probably know how this works. Take only one creative challenge. Give yourself some quiet time and try to generate at least 50 ideas that may or may not solve the challenge. You can do this alone or you can invite some friends or family members to help you.

Irrespective of your idea generation approach, write your ideas on a document. You can simply write them down in linear fashion, write them down on a mind-map, enter them onto a computer document (such as MS Word or OpenOffice) or use a specialised software for idea generation. The method you use is not so important. What is important is that you follow these rules:

Write down every idea that comes to mind. Even if the idea is ludicrous, stupid or fails to solve the challenge, write it down. Most people are their own worst critics and by squelching their own ideas, make themselves less creative. So write everything down. NO EXCEPTIONS!

If other people are also involved, insure that no one criticises anyone else's ideas in any way. This is called squelching, because even the tiniest amount of criticism can discourage everyone in the group for sharing their more creative ideas. Even a sigh or the rolling of eyes can be critical. Squelching must be avoided!

If you are working alone, don't stop until you've reached your target of 50 (or more) ideas. If you are working with other people, set a time limit like 15 or 20 minutes. Once you have reached this time limit, compare ideas and make a grand list that includes them all. Then ask everyone if the have some new ideas. Most likely people will be inspired by others' ideas and add more to the list.

If you find you are not generating sufficient ideas, give yourself some inspiration. A classic trick is to open a book or dictionary and pick out a random word. Then generate ideas that somehow incorporate this word. You might also ask yourself what other people whom you know; such as your grandmother, your partner, a friend or a character on you favourite TV show, might suggest.

Brainstorming does not need to occur at your desk. Take a trip somewhere for new inspiration. Find a nice place in a beautiful park. Sit down in a coffee shop on a crowded street corner. You can even walk and generate ideas.

In addition, if you browse the web for brainstorming and idea generation, you will find lots of creative ideas on how to generate creative ideas!

One last note. If you are not in a hurry, wait until the next day and then try to generate another 25 ideas, ideally do this in the morning. Research has shown that our minds work on creative challenges while we sleep. Your initial idea generation session has been good exercise and has certainly generated some great ideas. But it will probably also inspire your unconscious mind to generate some ideas while you sleep. Don't lose them!

5. Combine and Evaluate Ideas

After you have written down all of your ideas, take a break. It might just be an hour. It might be a day or more. Then go through the ideas. Related ideas can be combined together to form big ideas (or idea clusters).

Then, using the criteria you devised earlier, choose all of the ideas that broadly meet those criteria. This is important. If you focus only on the "best" ideas or your favourite ideas, the chances are you will choose the less creative ones! Nevertheless, feel free to include your favourite ideas in the initial list of ideas.

Now get out that list of criteria you mad earlier and go through each idea more carefully. Consider how well it meets each criterion and give it a rating of 0-5 points with five indicating a perfect match. If an idea falls short of a criterion, think about why this is so. Is there a way that it can be improved in order to increase its score? If so, make a note. Once you are finished, all of the ideas will have an evaluation score. Those ideas with the highest score best meet your criteria. They may not be your best ideas or your favourite ideas, but they are most likely to best solve your problem or enable you t achieve your goal.

Depending on the nature of the challenge and the winning ideas, you may be ready to jump right in and implement your ideas. In other cases, ideas may need to be developed further. With complex ideas, a simple evaluation may not be enough. You may need to do a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) or discuss the idea with others who will be affected by it. If the idea is business related, you may need to do a business case, market research, build a prototype or a combination of all of these.

Also, bear in mind that you do not need to limit yourself to one winning idea. Often you can implement several ideas in order to solve your challenge.

6. Draw Up an Action Plan

At this point, you have got some great ideas. However, a lot of people have trouble motivating themselves to take the next step. Creative ideas may mean big changes or taking risks. Some of us love change and risk. Others are scared by it. Draw up an action plan with the simple steps you need to take in order to implement your ideas. Ideas which involve a lot work to implement can be particularly intimidating. Breaking their implementation down into a series of readily accomplished tasks makes these ideas easier to cope with and implement.

7. Do It!

This is the simplest step of all. Take your action plan and implement your idea. And if the situation veers away from your action plan steps, don't worry. Rewrite your action plan!

CPS and Innovation

Any effective innovation initiative or process will use CPS at the front end. Our innovation process does so. TRIZ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRIZ) also uses elements of CPS. Any effective and sustainable idea management system or ideation activity will be based on CPS.

Systems and methods that do not use CPS or use CPS badly, on the other hand, tend not to be sustainable and fail early on. Suggestion schemes in which employees or the public are invited to submit any idea whatsoever are effectively asking users of the system to determine a problem and then offer a solution. This will result not only in many ideas, but many different problems, most of which will not be relevant to your strategic needs. Worse, having to evaluate every idea in the context of its implied problem – which may not be clear – is a nightmare from a resources point of view.

Systems and methods which are based on CPS, but in which creative challenges are poorly defined, also deliver poor results either because users do not understand the challenge or the problem is poorly understood and the resulting challenge stimulates ideas which in themselves are good, but which are not actually solutions to the true problem.

Use it!

That said, CPS is a conceptually simple process – but critical to any innovation process. If you do not use it already, familiarise yourself with the process and start using it. You will find it does wonders for your innovativeness. As always, if you want a little support in using CPS or training for your managers, give a shout! We'd be delighted to organise something for you and your colleagues.

CREATIVITY AND SCHIZOPHRENIA

By Jeffrey Baumgartner

Creative people are at best perceived as being eccentric and at worst downright crazy! Indeed, surveys have shown that creative people suffer a higher than average rate of mental illness, particular depression and bipolar disorder. While this link has been established through studies, not much research has been done to identify the mechanisms responsible for the link. However, a recently published paper, with the sexy title “Thinking Outside a Less Intact Box: Thalamic Dopamine D2 Receptor Densities Are Negatively Related to Psychometric Creativity in Healthy Individuals”* not only looks at the mechanisms but finds an interesting correlation.

The researchers looked at dopamine D2 receptors in the brain. Previous research has shown a relationship between D2 receptors and divergent thinking. Creative thinking, of course, is a form of divergent thinking. As the authors write: “Creativity can be generically defined as the ability to produce work that is at the same time novel and meaningful, as opposed to trivial or bizarre.” So, although creative thinking is divergent, it is still meaningful.

People with schizophrenia, on the other hand, are characterised as having divergent thoughts that are not meaningful or even rational. In fact, dangerous and frightening thoughts which cannot be distinguished from reality are commonplace among people suffering this mental illness. Hence, it might be argued that within creative people, the divergent thinking process might be effectively controlled, while in schizophrenics, it is not controlled.

This is what the researchers found. Highly creative people as well as those suffering from schizophrenia have lower than average densities of D2 receptors in the thalamus. Fewer D2 receptors are believed to result in less filtering of thought running through the brain. And it is that substantial mess of relevant and sometimes irrelevant thought circulating in the minds of some people that distinguishes them as creative. People who have more normal levels of creativity have average densities of D2 (higher than creative thinkers). As a result, their thoughts tend to be more filtered and less varied.

This rather confirms what we already know: creative people are creative, because their minds continually come up with ideas, many of which are creative – in other words these ideas diverge from the norm, but are still relevant to the problem or issue at hand.

Schizophrenics, the research found, also have lower than average densities of D2 receptors which likewise results in a high level of uncensored thought in their brains. However, unlike creative people, they cannot process this thought in a structured and relevant way. This leads to uncontrolled disturbing and dangerous thinking that is typical of a person with this condition.

Implications

There are a number of implications to this research, which managers should bear in mind.

Firstly, this is further evidence that there is a physical and genetic difference between highly creative people and averagely creative people. This does not mean that averagely people cannot become more creative. But it does mean that people who are not naturally creative are that way for a physical reason which cannot be changed. They will have to try harder in order to be more creative and they will need to learn creative tricks and techniques to help them think more divergently. Creative people, on the other hand, cannot help being creative. They probably do not need special tools. Indeed, highly creative people sometimes find the problem is slowing down the thoughts in order to focus on developing an idea. Or sometimes, they just want a little peace and quiet in their minds. Perhaps this is why drug and alcohol abuse is so commonplace among creative people. Some people want to turn off the creative noise for a while.

Secondly, there is not a clear division between healthy creativity and severe schizophrenia. Many creative people will suffer mental illness. Indeed, the incidence of depression, bipolar disorder and other conditions is far higher among creative people than non-creative people. As a manager of an innovative company, you should be aware that your most creative thinkers are also most likely to suffer from illnesses which can impair their ability to be creative and do their jobs. If you wish to keep them and support them, you need to be aware that they may need mental health support just as their averagely creative colleagues occasionally need physical health support.

Thirdly, highly creative people are different to other people and sometimes in ways that are not pleasant for colleagues. As a manager you need to enable your creative thinkers to collaborate with less creative colleagues.

Finally, highly creative people tend to be excellent at generating ideas and problem solving. But because their minds are constantly turning, they are often not so good with implementing ideas or seeing projects through in the long term. Hence, teams that manage creative projects will function best with a mix of a highly creative people and averagely creative people.

Conclusion

In spite of what many creativity gurus like to say, there are clear differences between highly creative people and averagely creative people. And while the former can learn to think more creatively, they will never be as naturally creative as highly creative people. On the other hand, highly creative people are more likely to suffer mental illnesses ranging from depression to schizophrenia. Moreover, a lot of creative people suffer an inner unhappiness that I believe results from an unsettled mind.

For creative and non-creative people, it is useful to understand this. For managers overseeing creative people, it is important to understand that their most creative people are different and, as a result, may have special needs. If you wish to keep them in your firm and enable them to help your firm thrive on their creativity (and remember, innovation starts with creative ideas) you need to be sensitive to their special needs.

Further reading:

“Creative minds 'mimic schizophrenia'” BBC News, 29 May 2010 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/10154775.stm) – this article looks at the same research in more detail.

Reference:

* “Thinking Outside a Less Intact Box: Thalamic Dopamine D2 Receptor Densities Are Negatively Related to Psychometric Creativity in Healthy Individuals” (17 May 2010) by Örjan de Manzano, Simon Cervenka, Anke Karabanov, Lars Farde, and Fredrik Ullén; PLoS One. 2010; 5(5): e10670 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2871784/?tool=pubmed)

INNOVATION MISCONCEPTIONS

By Jeffrey Baumgartner

Owing to the increasing global interest in organisational innovation, more and more academic research is being carried out in the field. This is hardly surprising. Governments and industry are providing grants to good research projects in order to get a better understanding about innovation and how it works. Not only do businesses want to innovate, but governments realise that their business sector needs to be innovative in order to remain competitive in an increasingly global market.

What is surprising is how little of this research is apparently read by many innovation consultants and innovation product vendors. I frequently see blog posts, product descriptions and contributions to discussions (such as on LinkedIn) in which innovation professionals continue to write about assumptions which have been empirically proven to be completely wrong!

Brainstorming, voting on ideas, crowdsourcing methodology, rewarding the 'best idea' and rewards themselves are all topics that are seriously misunderstood in the innovation business. And since many of the assumptions are the opposite of the truth, the result is many companies are throwing substantial amount of time, money and resources at activities which are actually detrimental to their innovation processes!

Over the next few issues of Report 103, I hope to look at some of these fallacies, why they are believed and the research that disproves them. Today, however, my job is easy. I have recently come across a terrific video about rewards as motivation.

INNOVATION MISCONCEPTION: REWARDS

Daniel Pink, author of Drive – the Surprising Truth about what Motivates Us recently spoke at the Royal Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA – http://www.thersa.org/) on the topic of his book. In this short, entertaining video, he explains why most of our assumptions about what motivates employees is wrong.

If you've always thought that big financial rewards will motivate people to work harder and be more innovative, you are in line with current business thinking. But you are also wrong. Big financial rewards actually reduce the quality of work and lead to worse results than small rewards or no rewards. Particularly ironically, one of the most motivating rewards you can offer is: more work (with freedom).

Since most innovation initiatives involve rewards, it is critical to understand how rewards actually work in organisations. Watch the video to learn more:

http://www.creativejeffrey.com/creative/video_motivation.php

A longer complete video of Daniel's talk can also be found on the the RSA's web site.

 

JPB.COM & RELATED NEWS

 

BRUSSELS IMAGINATION CLUB SEEKS A HOTEL PARTNER

The Brussels Imagination Club (http://www.imaginationclub.org/brussels/) is an informal, non-profit group which I co-manage with my friend Andy Whittle. The club meets two evenings a month to hold short, experimental workshops on just about any topic, although creative topics are encouraged. Until recently, we have run this club as a hobby. But, a few months ago, we decided to put together a Board of Brains to explore whether or not we might expand the Imagination Club into something bigger.

From surveys, we know the main values members of the Imagination Club gain from participating in events are:

• Trying out new things in a safe, no financial risk environment.
• Meeting interesting new people from all over the world (it is an international group).
• Networking.
• Unique variety of events.
• Insightful and inspirational for the professional life.
• Self-improvement.

One interesting idea that the Board of Brains is exploring is to partner with a hotel which would offer us space and refreshments. The hotel would benefit from having a unique regular activities to offer guests as well as a unique means of promoting itself to an international group of frequent travellers.

We would like to try out such an arrangement in Brussels initially. If it works, we would expect to expand to other cities. If you are in the hotel business, with a hotel in Brussels, and would be interested in discussing this opportunity, please get in touch with me.

If you are interested in starting up an Imagination Club in your city, please also feel free to get in touch.

Contact: Jeffrey Baumgartner

JENNI INNOVATION PROCESS MANAGEMENT

Since 2004

In the increasingly crowded field of idea management, Jenni stands out as the only software product designed not merely to capture random ideas. Rather Jenni captures ideas, that align with your strategic needs, together with detailed reports that identify which ideas offer the greatest value potential. While other products leave you with a sack-full of ideas, Jenni leaves you with a clear set of actions to take in order to be more innovative. So what do you want: ideas or innovation?

Consider:

• Jenni's ideas campaigns structure aligns idea generation with strategy. In other words, you get the ideas you need when you need them.

• Jenni's defined user database and team management function allow you to open an ideas campaign to the entire company or just a few locations or a single team. In many cases, a diverse team focusing on a complex problem brings better results than 1000s of people most of whom do not fully understand the issues at hand. And, let's be honest, there are certain issues which you do not want everyone on the company to know about at this time!

• Jenni's idea evaluation tool is designed following the scientific peer review process. You send batches of ideas to experts for criteria based evaluation. When they are done, Jenni compiles their results into an overall score card and set of individual reports that can become the bases of intelligent business decisions regarding those ideas.

• Jenni's evaluation suite also includes idea clustering, SWOT analysis, elimination rounds, open development/idea export and implementation tagging. No other idea management software provides such a comprehensive set of evaluation tools and that means no other software can compare with Jenni when it comes to identifying winning ideas.

In short, if you want ideas, just choose the cheapest idea collection product you can find. But if you want to innovate, choose Jenni.

More information at http://www.creativejeffrey.com/jenni/

 

CONSULTING PARTNERS IN FRANCE AND/OR WALLONIA SOUGHT

We are keen to expand sales and support of Jenni innovation process management to the French speaking market and would like to find an innovation consultancy or training firm, or individual consultant, that would be interested in including Jenni with their portfolio of services.

We offer an attractive on-going commission as well as promotion of your business through the popular www.jpb.com web site.

If you are interested, please get in touch with me.

We are also always open to innovation consulting partners in other locations. In the Americas and India, please contact Dan Kenyon. Elsewhere in the world, please contact me.

Contact:
Jeffrey Baumgartner
Dan Kenyon

NEW: JENNI ON-LINE VIDEO DEMONSTRATION

In order to make it easier for you to see how Jenni works – and to show your colleagues how Jenni works, we have created a series of on-line videos demonstrating Jenni's key features. You can watch these videos by going to http://www.creativejeffrey.com/jenni/demo.php and filling in the form. Within a minute or so, you will receive by e-mail log-in information that allows you to watch the video clips as many times as you wish – and even to share them with your colleagues.

Incidentally, the on-line videos were prepared by our very own, ace-creativity consultant Andrew Greaves. Greavsie, as he is known to friends and colleagues, is based in London and has helped leading companies, particularly in the media business, tap into the creative talent of their employees. If you would like to boost the creative thinking skills of your people, e-mail Greavsie (Andrew.greaves@jpb.com) to discuss your particular needs.

 

ARCHIVES

You can find this and every issue of Report 103 ever written at our archives on http://www.creativejeffrey.com/report103/archives.php

Happy thinking!

Jeffrey Baumgartner

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Report 103 is edited by Jeffrey Baumgartner and is published on a monthly basis.

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