Report 103

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

Wednesday, 15 December 2010
Issue 178

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

IF YOU LIKE REPORT 103 ..

If you like Report 103, I expect you will enjoy my new book. Learn more here

PARTICIPATION IN IDEA GENERATION EVENTS

If you have read Report 103 for any length of time, you will know that my company produces, markets and supports an idea management software (Jenni – see below) which enables companies to run ideas campaigns. Based on creative problem solving, Ideas campaigns are events in which participants submit ideas in response to an innovation challenge, such as, “In what ways might we adopt our product to suit better the Chinese market?”

A concern that some of our new clients have is that participation levels are lower than they expect. In other words, they had visions of everyone in the company happily submitting ideas to the challenge when in fact, they typically see between 25 and 35% participation rates. We have to explain that such levels are normal, that anything beyond 30% is excellent and that in most cases they do not really want higher levels of participation. Let’s look at why all of these are true.

Participation Rates

I have been an avid user of the Internet since 1994 and one of the things I have always valued are discussion forums, that is email lists or bulletin boards in which people could ask questions and get answers; start discussions; and explore ideas with others sharing a common interest. Because I was starting up one of Thailand’s first Internet and multimedia production houses, there was little expertise locally. However, by participating in specialist forums, I could learn a lot and eventually share my knowledge with others.

Even then, I noticed that, broadly speaking, in such forums about 3-5% of participants were high level contributors who took part in many discussions, shared lots of ideas and helped out others. Another 20% or so were occasional contributors who asked questions and shared ideas from time to time – but not often. And a handful of the others participated perhaps once or twice a year. The remaining 60-70% were “lurking” as we called it. In other words, they watched the discussions and learned but never contributed.

As our first clients started using Jenni in 2004, we noticed that these rates were consistent with idea management participation levels. Moreover, as I discussed this with other innovation practitioners, I found that these participation levels were consistent across almost all innovation initiatives and similar activities.

In short, less than 20-25% participation suggests that something is wrong. Most likely the problem is due to:

Lack of awareness: no one can participate in your innovation initiative if they do not know about it.
An innovation unfriendly corporate culture: no one will participate in an innovation initiative if they feel it is a waste of time or that participating could have consequences. (Believe it or not, I’ve run across firms like this – but they usually don’t have any kind of idea management structure in place)
Poorly framed innovation challenges: if people do not understand what kind of ideas are wanted, they will not submit any.

More than 30% participation, on the other hand, is excellent. It suggests good promotional efforts and a culture that encourages innovation.

That said, other factors can contribute to participation levels. A highly promoted ideas campaign looking for incremental improvements to operations can show high levels of participation. A highly technical ideas campaign focusing on a complex issue is likely to result in relatively few people submitting ideas. Also, if an ideas campaign is only open to a small group, such as a team, participation percentages tend to be a lot higher as everyone knows each other

Creativity not Quantity

When they get started with idea management software, managers sometimes complain to us that “only” 30% of their employees (or a business unit or a team) is participating in an ideas campaign and ask what can be done to improve this. My response has always been: “what is your aim with our service? Is it to maximise the participation level or to innovate better?”

After all, irrespective of whether you are running an ideas campaign, a brainstorming action or another form of collaborative idea generation, you should ultimately be looking for one or more highly creative ideas that you can implement in order to solve the problem or achieve the goal implicit in the innovation challenge. Thus, your aim should be a variety of creative ideas rather than a huge number of ideas of indeterminate quality. That is, creativity should be more important than quantity.

Forcing Higher Levels of Participation

Of course it would be possible to achieve higher levels of participation, perhaps by requiring that people submit ideas or otherwise pressuring employees to participate. However, the result is likely to be a high number of mediocre ideas and duplicate ideas all of which you will need to assign experts to review. This will eat up company resources without providing any discernible increase in the overall level of creativity.

Of course you could argue that a brilliant idea may be hidden in an employee’s head and without pushing for 100% participation, there is a chance that the idea may never be submitted. But let’s be honest. If an employee has a fantastic idea, particularly one that is a solution to a well promoted innovation challenge, she will certainly submit it. Forced participation only pushes people without relevant ideas to participate. Alternatively, if everyone submits a great many ideas, you may find that your reviewers simply do not have the time or resources to review every idea properly. Hence, with massive levels of participation, that innovative idea may well be submitted – but never identified as a solution!

Realistic Expectations and Goals

Rather than focusing on maximising the level of participation in your innovation initiative and especially in any ideas campaign or other event, you should focus on promoting the initiative and the challenge so that you can be sure that every eligible participant knows about it. That way, you can ensure that people with creative ideas will participate.

If you must look at participation rates, then you should consider anything above 25% as being good. Moreover, when you look at participation rates, look not only at idea submission, but also at collaboration. Most idea management tools now allow users to add building blocks or comments to ideas. Some people may be very active in building other ideas rather than submitting their own ideas.

And always keep in mind that the purpose of an ideas campaign or similar initiative is not to maximise the number of ideas. Rather it is to maximise innovation opportunities. Hence, your goal should be a high level of creativity rather than a high number of ideas.

BOOK REVIEW: PERSONALITY POKER BY STEPHEN SHAPIRO

Some months ago, I posted a simple question in a couple of LinkedIn Innovation forums. I asked innovation consultants on the forums how they innovated in their businesses. I was disappointed but not terribly surprised that no one responded with a real answer. The sad truth is that a lot of innovation consultants are not terribly innovative with their services or business models.

Fortunately, there are a few exceptions to this situation. One of them is Stephen Shapiro who has developed a most intriguing and innovative approach to building effective innovation teams using a specially made set of “Personality Poker” playing cards. And the good news is, he has shared his knowledge and experience in an excellent book entitled Personality Poker.

Stephen has clearly devoted a considerable amount of research and experience into the development of personality poker. The concept however, is simple. He has divided people into four main personality types and associated each type with a suit of cards. For instance, “Define the Challenge – those who prefer facts and principles.” are spades, while “Generate Solutions – those who prefer ideas and experience” are diamonds. Each personality type is further differentiated by low cards and high cards within the suit.

Stephen has also devised several different games, based on traditional card games, in which the aim is to hold cards that represent yourself while giving to colleagues cards that you believe represent them. As a result, members of a team or employees of a company can get a better sense not only of their own personality types, but also of their colleagues. Interestingly, Stephen points out that just as important as these discoveries are the discussions that arise as cards are distributed.

The book goes into considerable detail about the logic behind the personality types as well as what can be interpreted from the results. It explains the kind of responsibilities that each personality type will thrive with and why. It also shows how to communicate most effectively with different personality types.

One thing I found particularly interesting is that although diverse teams are far more productive than non-diverse teams in terms of accomplishing innovative tasks, the best results come when members of the team handle sub-tasks that match their personality type. I would have assumed that diversity in handling tasks would have been more effective. However, I can see why it is not the case.

Personality Poker comes with a specially made set of playing cards, so you can try out Stephens method right away. And that points to my only real criticism of the book: the back cover is some 9 cm (about 3.5 inches) taller than the front cover and the deck of playing cards is attached to the elongated cover. As a result, the trade paperback sized hard cover book is abnormally tall and won’t fit in my bookshelf with other business and innovation books. But it would get lost among the large art books in mybig bookshelf! In the end, I may just have to cut the extended cover to keep my library organised the way I like it. But don’t tell Stephen!

Other than that relatively minor issue, Personality Poker is an excellent, well researched and well written book that every business manager keen on innovation should read.

Get Personality Poker on Amazon

WHY CEOS MIGHT LACK CREATIVE LEADERSHIP

Creativity might be the trait many CEOs say is essential for senior leadership, but Cornell University research finds it may actually block you from reaching the top slots.

“Our three studies show that when people voice creative ideas, they are viewed by others as having less leadership potential," said Jack Goncalo, assistant professor of organizational behaviour in Cornell's ILR School. The research will be published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology in 2011.

Its implication: “Creative people are getting filtered out on their way to the top.”

The reason is that our deeply held expectations of “creative people” and “effective leaders” often clash. Creative people are viewed as risky and unpredictable, while leaders are expected to reduce uncertainty and uphold the norms of the group. Although people claim they want creativity, when given the opportunity, they actually preserve the status quo by sticking with unoriginal thinkers, data suggest.

This might help explain why many of the 1,500 leaders surveyed in 2010 by IBM's Institute for Business Value doubted their abilities to lead through complex times, Goncalo said.

Perhaps promoted for their unspoken promises to preserve the status quo, leaders are often expected to change the status quo when they arrive at the top – an uncanny mismatch that was previously unidentified.

Bias against selecting the most creative thinkers for the highest jobs was pinpointed through three studies, Goncalo said.

One study included 346 employees working in jobs that required creative problem solving. The other two, at universities in the northeast United States, involved more than 180 students each. Jennifer S. Mueller of the University of Pennsylvania and Dishan Kamdar of the Indian School of Business conducted the research with Goncalo.

For more information about research at Cornell’s ILR School, visit: http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/

Source: Newswise

THE WAY OF THE INNOVATION MASTER: MY NEW BOOK

The Way of the Innovation Master, my new book, is now available via Amazon and in bookshops which stock it. You can also order and download ebook versions of the Way in Universal epub and Amazon Kindle formats.

Are you an Innovation Master?

Are you an innovation master? Do you have the knowledge and insight necessary to lead your company up a path of innovation? It's a path that leads to increased profits from innovative new products and services, improved operational efficiency and being permanently several steps ahead of the competition?

If you are not yet an innovation master, waste no time! Buy The Way of the Innovation Master now and learn the secrets of encouraging, managing and implementing innovation in your company or, indeed, any company!

In The Way of the Innovation Master, you will learn:

How to define an effective innovation strategy at the corporate level and divisional level.
How to structure and prepare a comprehensive innovation plan designed to fit with your business’s strategy and culture. After all, without an innovation plan, your company is not going to innovate!
The importance of insight and how to brainstorm unique opportunities to gain new insights that your competitors will never discover.
How to motivate your employees and colleagues to participate in your innovation initiatives. Right now, most of them will tell you they “don’t have time to innovate.” That’s not true. Find out what they really mean and how to encourage participation.
Various approaches to collaborative idea generation, such as classical brainstorming, non-verbal brainstorming, suggestion schemes, idea management, ideas campaigns and solo-idea generation. More importantly, you will learn which of these methods work, which is a waste of time and why.
Why your middle managers may be killing innovation and an incredibly simple approach you can teach them that will motivate subordinates not only to think more creatively, but to develop their ideas into viable propositions. But read carefully! This concept is so simple, you might miss it!
Why rewarding the “best ideas” reduces creativity and innovation as well as a remarkably easy way to formulate reward propositions that encourage more creativity and result in fewer irrelevant ideas.
Which rewards schemes promote innovation and which stifle it.
Why idea voting promotes mediocre ideas and buries the most innovative ones.
The best evaluation strategies for identifying potential innovations. This is critical, the most innovative ideas are often hard to identify at first.
How to sell an idea up the corporate ladder.
When to kill an idea before it kills your business.
And much, much, much more.

The Way of the Innovation Master is not an ordinary business book full of dry prose, confusing jargon and generic case studies. Rather it is a unique and special book presented in three cycles.

The Journey (first cycle)
In the first cycle, you learn about Supertrade, an innovative start-up of the 1950s which grew and grew until it became a bureaucratic monster devoid of creative thinking. You will meet Jane who takes the reins of the company following the disastrous mismanagement of one of the founders’ grandsons. Jane is determined to rediscover the innovative potential of Supertrade. As a result, she embarks on a journey to the Temple of Ideas, a haven of creative thinking hidden atop an obscure mountain in Southeast Asia. As she climbs the mountain, she learns lessons that will prepare her for her learning in the temple. Along the way she meets someone you know.

The Dialogue (second cycle)
In the second cycle, you meet two old company presidents. Both are upper class British gentlemen who have inherited family empires and until recently gave little thought to growth and innovation. But they have recently come to realise that the times are changing and that they must introduce innovation initiatives into their empires. They discuss their thoughts and experiences in a series of dialogues that are both humorous and reflective of real conversations business leaders have as they adopt new innovation processes in their companies.

The Lessons (third cycle)
The third cycle is a series of concise, information-rich lessons that every innovation master needs to know. Each lesson covers a concept, method or process. And each lesson builds upon the previous ones, as well as Jane’s journey and the company presidents’ dialogue, in order to build your knowledge and understanding of the innovation process.

Together the three cycles take you on a journey of learning and experience that will prepare you to become an innovation master and enable you to launch an effective and profitable innovation process in your company.

The Way of the Innovation Master is a truly unique book, one like no other business book you have ever read. Learn more or get yours via http://www.creativejeffrey.com/books/ or from Amazon.

JENNI INNOVATION PROCESS MANAGEMENT (IPM) SOFTWARE

Whether your company is looking for business model innovation ideas, suggestions for incremental improvements or new product concepts, Jenni innovation process management software provides you with a collaborative platform for generating ideas and evaluating them for business viability.

Moreover, unlike many idea management products, Jenni provides you with total control over ideation focus, participation and evaluation criteria. Indeed, Jenni provides you with the best idea evaluation tool set available on the planet!

For more information about Jenni, visit http://www.creativejeffrey.com/jenni/index.php or reply to this newsletter and I will put you in touch with someone who can discuss your innovation needs.