Creativity, key to innovation.
When we speak of creativity we inevitably associate it with ideas. In the business world ideas are the driving force of any company.
It is an entrepreneur’s idea that generates a new enterprise, which can develop only thanks to new ideas that generate new products and new solutions for an ever changing market.
We can say that a company owes its success to the creativity of its people.
But, what really is creativity? Among the various possible definition we prefer this one: ‘Creativity is the process that links old to new ideas in order to form new combinations that better satisfy a need”
This definition allows us to make a few important reflections:
– Creativity is a conscious voluntary action; behind a creative act there is always a decision;
– Ideas are not necessarily new ones: sometimes it is enough to look at old ideas from a different perspective;
– There must always be a need to satisfy: a motivation is needed to set the creative process in motion.
Austrian economist Schumpeter defines innovation as an invention that can be turned into a business that generates profits. As a consequence creativity is the key to Innovation.
Our experience teaches that creativity is not the prerogative of a few individuals (the so called “creative” people), but something that can be stimulated and developed both at the individual and at the group level.
How can we develop creativity?
It is important to underline that creativity is an inborn quality of the human being and that the problem is to bring it to the surface and to develop it.
There are two methods to develop creativity:
1) Increasing knowledge and experience by:
– Travelling (above all in countries with cultures different from ours)
– Developing personal contacts
– Cultivating hobbies (Especially those that keep the mind active)
– Reading books and magazines
2) Applying creativity techniques. These techniques have been developed in the USA in the seventies and one of the first event concerning creativity had been the course on creativity for young graduates held by General Electric in 1973.
The techniques on creativity are of two types:
– Group techniques: the most important are Brainstorming e Synectics
– Individual techniques: like ‘Lateral Thinking’, an approach developed by Dr. E. De Bono of Cambridge University, or ‘Mental Mapping’.
In order to allow a person to express his or her creativity in a company other conditions are needed.
First of all there must be a positive climate and a good interpersonal communication. Secondly it is necessary to help people become conscious of their potential and to encourage them to freely express their creativity proposing ideas and opinions.
How can we manage creativity?
Like every other process the creative process must and can be managed through clear and shared rules. It can be divided into two phases:
1) Divergent phase: it consists in gathering ideas and information. In this phase the group must give ample space to imagination in order to generate the largest possible number of ideas and solutions (using techniques for creativity development).
2) Convergent phase: ideas and solutions generated in the divergent phase are analyzed and selected using a number of techniques. An effective tool is the Pugh Matrix that makes it possible to identify the best possible solution on the basis of criteria selected according to each specific context.
It is important to note that creativity techniques integrate quite naturally with methodologies widely used in the so called “Lean New Product Development” approach such as Quality Function Deployment (QFD). QFD requires that a number of creative solutions be identified and analysed .
To this purpose creativity sessions can be very useful.
We at GC&P believe that creativity is important not only to develop successful products/services but also the people involved may have benefits: a positive impact on business climate and an increase of people productivity.