The British are known for pushing the boundaries of alternative art and music and fashion, art is very much of a part of the British culture. I think my creative thinking skills were developed when I was living there in the 70s. London has always been a creative city, based on innovation and ideas. The creative industries - from architecture and advertising to the performing arts and publishing - add £21 billion annually to London's output, more than all the production industries combined and second only to Business Services at £32 Billion. The creative industries represent London's third largest sector of employment, with 525,000 people working either directly in the creative industries or in creative occupations in other industries.
You probably know a big part of London is covered by CCTV and is the most monitored city in the world. Something like a CCTV camera for every 14 citizens. It is estimated that there are now 400,000 CCTV cameras in 32 London boroughs (including inside shops) costing £20+ million. The latest creative idea is a troop of pole dancing robots equipped with CCTV heads. The full-motion robots were recently unveiled at the Mutate Britain, Behind the Shutters Gallery in London. Artist Giles Walker perfectly meshed the UK's new national symbol (the CCTV) with robotics in a way that almost makes their Orwellian future sexy. Not really sure what’s the real world application is for these robots, but I want one for our office.
The London Business School was having serious discussions about adapting their MBA programs to the fast changing world as a result of their recent global CEOs’ survey. Why, because CEOs were completely dissatisfied with the relatively robotic thinking procedures of the MBA graduates. CEOs worldwide unanimously agreed that the graduates they were receiving into their businesses were NOT capable of the CEO’s prime requirement: Creative Thinking and Innovation.
Despite what we see out they’re of new products and crazy business ideas. The world is in a Creativity Crisis. Those who are to survive in the 21st century, already named by President Vincente Fox of Mexico at the 5th Annual United Nations Congress for Creativity and Innovation as: ‘The Century for the Development of Creativity and Intellectual Capital’, must develop their “Creative Thinking” skills. What’s “Creative Thinking” skills?
What’s “Creativity Thinking” in the truly sense? It is not about coming out of novel ideas. It’s not just dreaming up new things. It starts with the awareness of one’s mental capabilities. Most people are not aware of the following facts:
- That almost everyone can generate creative ideas at least five times as fast as they thought possible.
- That flexibility, originality and innovation are not inherent. They are trainable, learnable and applicable skills that can be learned in the same way as any other ‘language’. That all individuals are inherently creative but creative in different ways.
- That the popular left / right brain model is both incomplete and dangerously wrong. Our mind doesn’t work that way. There is no scientific ground on this.
- That personal antagonisms in the corporate context surrounding creativity are counter-productive and should be put into the trashcan.
Creativity Is NOT Innovation. Although the two have connections. Here’s a good definition from Fast Company: There is a difference between creativity and innovation. Creativity is the process of generating something new. It is a prerequisite for innovation. Innovation however, is the practical application of creativity. A good idea is a great thing, but if the idea is not implemented, for whatever reason, we simply have creativity. Innovation is therefore, in effect, proof of an idea. This makes implementation part of the mix.
Business innovation is NOT dependent on creative people. Creative people often cannot handle the complexity associated with innovation. Complexity and coping with changes are the core of any innovation effort. Ideas are easy. Ideas are cheap these days. Any innovation often need to dealt with many complex elements that make bringing any innovation to market so difficult.
How can firms foster innovation? Can organizations cope with the changes necessary to produce advancements? The best way to infuse innovation into your company is not by hiring creative people. That's only 25% effective. Building a culture of “prototyping” is very foreign for may organizations. It is the best way (the other 75%) to inspire non-traditional thinking. It starts with encouraging experimentation, which elicits learning. Experimentation means prototyping in product-service developments, and development systems and technologies that maximize learning. It means putting multi-disciplinary thinking to work and getting rid of functional silos. It requires a new level of collaboration with lines connecting different boxes in an organizational chart. Of you can, throw out the organization chart.
100 (or even 50) years ago, if you had a great product you could sit back and make money for five or ten years if not more. But nowadays, it only buys you 6-12 months of advantages and you almost have to start thinking the next 5 steps. No one can afford to relax and be happy for long. From an organizational perspective, innovation as "a fairly analytical process, an ongoing management activity—not going out into the forest and thinking up crazy new ideas. Review trends outside of your industry, scanning for weak signals, building future scenarios and reviewing your core assets etc. These are business activities that are not included in B-school training.
