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MANAGING
CREATIVITY AN OXYMORON! NOT. by Kal Bishop
Interrogated on a beach in Barbados by friends
insistent that there was little validity to my speciality, I have felt
compelled to come up with the most common objections in the field of Managing
Creativity and Innovation.
a. Managing Creativity and Innovation is an oxymoron! When
ideas are required, leaders tend to herd people into a room with a flip chart
and conduct (usually an ineffective) brainstorming session. Implicit in this
action is an acceptance that certain techniques and processes can increase
problem identification, idea generation and the elicitation of tacit knowledge.
Structures such as the Hero's Journey are accepted as increasing
creative output when idea streams (such as in screenwriting) are needed.
Product development theory has proven innovation strategies that allow
better idea selection, development and commercialisation. Frameworks such as
the S-curve and idea funnels allow the efficient monitoring of ideas through a
pipeline and effective go or kill decision-making.
b. Creativity cannot be managed because ideas occur out of
the blue. Ideas are the result of the mind working on particular problems at
various cognitive levels. Though you cannot predict what an idea will be, where
it will occur and what form it will take you can increase the likelihood of
ideas occurring. Further, you can increase the number of ideas produced, the
rarity of those ideas, the diversity of those ideas and the frequency of their
production.
c. Creativity is not a process. If you analyse the
behaviour of people who are used to generating many ideas regularly, you will
find that common patterns emerge. There is a definite process that triggers
creative activity on multiple cognitive levels, resulting in the required
insight. The process includes identifying and intensely investigating a
problem, forcing production of ideas using creative versus critical thinking
and other techniques; seeking stimuli and allowing the unconscious mind to take
over by engaging in rest and unrelated activities.
d. Creativity is not tangible; creativity cannot be
measured. Analysts can measure (and therefore make tangible) creativity by
quantifying a wide number of criteria. For instance, idea generation can be
measured according to the number of ideas produced, their novelty, their
variety and the frequency of their production. The DIY Creativity and
Innovation Audit that comes with the MBA dissertation lists more than 150
benchmarking criteria, allowing holistic measurement.
e. Creative people will be creative whether they are
"coached" or not. Perhaps. Consider the infinite number of people who have been
working on half finished manuscripts for months and often years. Management
techniques increase creative output enabling completion in much shorter
periods. Further, management techniques encourage targeted prolific activity,
thus allowing the building of competencies and improvement.
f. Managing Creativity is not a useful activity unless it
results in economic gain. Creativity can be defined as problem identification
and idea generation. Innovation can be defined as idea selection, development
and commercialisation. First use creativity to generate an idea pool and then
use innovation to select feasible ideas, which can be developed and
commercialised.
These and other topics are covered in depth in the MBA
dissertation on Managing Creativity & Innovation, which can be purchased at
http://www.managing-creativity.com
ABOUT THE
AUTHOR
Kal Bishop is a management consultant based in London, UK. He has
consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as
Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation
workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and
written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be
reached on http://www.managing-creativity.com
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