Center for Creative Leadership How to Lead Innovation in Your Organization Questions & Answers Q: Do you see limitations

of culture of e-mail correspondence for brainstorming A: Email can be an assistor and a resister when it comes to brainstorming. When used properly, the tool of email can be used to gather many ideas from a lot of people asynchronously. We use it where we establish rules up front (no judgment, strive for quantity, seek wild ideas, combine and build), and then post a routing list (e.g. Pat , then Chris, then Phyl, then Val, etc.) and have each one generate 10 ideas to a specific question (e.g. How to reduce cost). After theyve responded, they forward their answers to the next person, who reviews the list and adds to it. Then they forward to the next person with all answers. We typically do two rounds, and you can generate hundreds of ideas pretty quickly. This is a second-choice alternative to meeting face to face to brainstorm with the same guidelines. Q: What research is the information you discussed on leading innovation based on? Citations for the information presented in the webinar include: Ackoff, R., and Vergara, E. (1981). Creativity in problem solving and planning: A review. European Journal of Operational Research, 7, pp 1-13. Horth, D., & Vehar, J. (2012) CCL Viewpoint: How to be a leader who fosters innovation. Greensboro, NC: Center for Creative Leadership. Source: IBM 2010 CEO Study Capitalizing on Complexity Eckert, R., and Vehar, J. (2007). More lightning, less thunder: How to energize innovation teams (3rd ed.). Paul Smiths: New & Improved. Firestien, R.L. and McCowan, R.J. (1988) Creative problem solving and communication behaviors in small groups. Creativity Research Journal, 1, 106-114. Miller, B.J., Vehar, J.R., & Firestien, R.F. (2004). Creativity unbound: An introduction to creative process (4th Edition). Evanston, IL: THinc Communications. Miller, B.J., Vehar, J.R., Firestien, R.L., and Eckert, R.P. (2008). Four Key Principles of Creative Thinking Training. Conference proceedings: An international conference on creativity and innovation management Book 2, p. 59-69. Buffalo, NY: Buffalo State.) Osborn, A.F. (1993). Applied imagination: Principles and procedures of Creative Problem Solving (3rd ed.). Buffalo, NY: Creative Education Foundation. Parnes, S.J. (1992). Sourcebook for Creative Problem-Solving. Buffalo, NY: Creative Education Foundation. Parnes, S.J. (1981). The Magic of your Mind. Buffalo, NY: Creative Education Foundation. Stein, M.I. (1974). Stimulating creativity. New York: Academic Press. The concept of Praise First was developed in the early 1980s by Diane Foucar-Szocki, Bill Shephard and Roger Firestien. The POINt/PINt/PI acronym was coined by Bob Moore. It is written up in:Eckert, R., and Vehar, J. (2007). More lightning, less thunder: How to energize innovation teams (3rd ed.). Paul Smiths: New & Improved.

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Q: How do you put this into practice in a business where business thinking and management are valued over leadership and innovation thinking? A: My best suggestion is to frame innovation as part of the business thinking and management processes. Frame innovation as growth or continuous improvement, or new product development or whatever is of interest to the business thinkers and managers. Help them understand the value that innovation brings to what theyre trying to accomplish. Im a big believer in using the language and the values of the organization and then fitting innovation into that so that regardless of what youre doing and how youre doing it, people see how its of value to them. Another suggestion is to put it into practice covertly where you can control how its used and seen, so that it meets your needs. That might mean using it in team meetings that you run, or with your direct reports, or camouflaged so people dont realize that youre doing innovation, just that youre using valuable leadership techniques. Consider this story:

At a large consumer products company, two direct-reports walked into the managers office and explained that because there was not enough money, the research that had been planned to have consumers taste and provide feedback on a particular product needed to be canceled. The senior manager listened to the assistant brand managers and applied the principle of phrasing problems as question by asking them, How might we make sampling a reality? Her two assistant brand managers stared blankly back at her and repeated that the vendors price was too high making the sampling impossible. So she rephrased her question as, In what ways might we make the sampling a reality?

This time, the managers understood what they were being asked. With the reframing of the challenge the managers began to see a new course of action. In minutes, the three had generated ideas for a solution that was ultimately successful with no increase in budget. What unlocked this situation for the senior manager was her ability to step back from the situation, to keep the overall objective in mind, and to start phrasing the problem with questions that invited solutions. Source: Miller, B.J., Vehar, J.R., Firestien, R.L., and Eckert, R.P. (2008). Four Key Principles of Creative Thinking Training. Conference proceedings: An international conference on creativity and innovation management Book 2, p. 59-69. Buffalo, NY: Buffalo State.)

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Q: How do we stimulate innovative ideas? A: There are many answers to this question. Some of them were provided in the webinar: look for the value in all new ideas, and phrase problems as questions. Fundamentally though, whats required is the deliberate separation of generative thinking and evaluative thinking. Its important to create a culture (even if for five minutes in a meeting) where people will avoid judging ideas so that they can just generate freely. This approach demands that the problem is properly phrased as a question, and that people are on board with deferring judgment. This is not an easy thing to do, and it is temporary. But it is critical to stimulate innovative ideas. To be most effective at finding the really new ideas, be very deliberate about separating generative from evaluative thinking. Both are important, both are good, and both are very necessary, but trying to do both at the same time is like driving with one foot on the accelerator and one foot on the brake pedal youll create a lot of noise and heat, but you wont go anywhere. So be very deliberate about which mode youre using. Keep them as separate as oil and water, and great options will emerge. Generative thinking Dont judge yet Strive for at least 30-50 options Intentionally look for wild and unusual options Evaluative thinking Select novel options Affirmatively select and deliberately narrow down Check your objectives and tame down options as necessary Improve and refine options Important to make choices Recognize the need for focus Make it practical and better Capture value

Combine unrelated items and build on options Many right answers; the more the merrier Tolerate ambiguity Break the paradigm Capture every option

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Generative Thinking Guidelines Need some great ideas? Follow these 4 guidelines to get the good, the bad, the weird and the ugly Defer judgment dont evaluate any optionsyet . Plenty of time to evaluate ideas later. While there are bad ideas, for a little while, pretend there arent. Strive for quantity set a quota of at least 20-30 options quantity creates quality (more ideas, more good ideas, and also more bad ideasbut thats okay, youll evaluate them later) . Seek wild and unusual options Novelty requires you to encourage yourself to play, experiment, and strive for the weird and wacky. Its easier to tame down a wild idea than to make a weak one exciting. Combine & build on options let one option spark another option, then another. Combine ideas that dont seem to belong together. Rather than focusing on one or the other, focus on one and another.

Q: This was a tease - can you provide additional reading / research materials? A: At last count there were over 200,000 books on the topic of innovation. Let us know when youre done reading them all! We havent read all of them either, but here are some of the ones we recommend for further learning.

First, Id suggest the white paper that was emailed with your confirmation, and also the following from CCL: http://www.ccl.org/leadership/pdf/research/InnovationLeadership.pdf Here are some of my other favorites: Innovation The Art of Innovation, by Tom Kelly The Creative Priority: Driving Innovative Business in the Real World, by Jerry Hirshberg Diffusion of Innovations (4th Edition) by Everett M. Rogers Innovation and Entrepreneurship, by Peter F. Drucker The Innovators Dilemma, by Clayton M. Christensen Making Innovation Work: How To Manage It, Measure It And Profit From It, by Tony Davila et al. The Myths of Innovation, by Scott Berkun
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Open Innovation, by Henry William Chesbrough Creative Thinking Applied Imagination: Principles and Procedures of Creative Problem Solving, by Alex F. Osborn Brain Boosters for Business Advantage: by Arthur VanGundy Creative Leadership: Skills that Drive Change (2nd Edition), by Gerard Puccio et al. Forty Principles Extended Edition: TRIZ Keys to Innovation, by Genrich Altshuller Leading on the Creative Edge: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through the Power of Creative Problem Solving, by Roger L. Firestien More Lightning, Less Thunder: How to Energize Innovation Teams, by Bob Eckert and Jonathan Vehar Optimize the Magic of Your Mind, by Sidney J. Parnes Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fools Guide to Surviving with Grace, by Gordon MacKenzie Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative Thinking Techniques, by Michael Michalko Why Didnt I Think of That? By Roger L. Firestien

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