Amazon.com
IDEO, the world's leading design firm, is the brain trust that's behind some of the more brilliant innovations of the past 20 years--from the Apple mouse, the Polaroid i-Zone instant camera, and the Palm V to the "fat" toothbrush for kids and a self-sealing water bottle for dirt bikers. Not surprisingly, companies all over the world have long wondered what they could learn from IDEO, to come up with better ideas for their own products, services, and operations. In this terrific book from IDEO general manager Tom Kelley (brother of founder David Kelley), IDEO finally delivers--but thankfully not in the step-by-step, flow-chart-filled "process speak" of most how-you-can-do-what-we-do business books. Sure, there are some good bulleted lists to be found here--such as the secrets of successful brainstorming, the qualities of "hot teams," and, toward the end, 10 key ingredients for "How to Create Great Products and Services," including "One Click Is Better Than Two" (the simpler, the better) and "Goof Proof" (no bugs).
But The Art of Innovation really teaches indirectly (not to mention enlightens and entertains) by telling great stories--mainly, of how the best ideas for creating or improving products or processes come not from laboriously organized focus groups, but from keen observations of how regular people work and play on a daily basis. On nearly every page, we learn the backstories of some now-well-established consumer goods, from recent inventions like the Palm Pilot and the in-car beverage holder to things we nearly take for granted--like Ivory soap (created when a P&G worker went to lunch without turning off his soap mixer, and returned to discover his batch overwhipped into 99.44 percent buoyancy) and Kleenex, which transcended its original purpose as a cosmetics remover when people started using the soft paper to wipe and blow their noses. Best of all, Kelley opens wide the doors to IDEO's vibrant, sometimes wacky office environment, and takes us on a vivid tour of how staffers tackle a design challenge: they start not with their ideas of what a new product should offer, but with the existing gaps of need, convenience, and pleasure with which people live on a daily basis, and that IDEO should fill. (Hence, a one-piece children's fishing rod that spares fathers the embarrassment of not knowing how to teach their kids to fish, or Crest toothpaste tubes that don't "gunk up" at the mouth.)
Granted, some of their ideas--like the crucial process of "prototyping," or incorporating dummy drafts of the actual product into the planning, to work out bugs as you go--lend themselves more easily to the making of actual things than to the more common organizational challenge of streamlining services or operations. But, if this big book of bright ideas doesn't get you thinking of how to build a better mousetrap for everything from your whole business process to your personal filing system, you probably deserve to be stuck with the mousetrap you already have. --Timothy Murphy
Book Description
IDEO, the widely admired, award-winning design and development firm that brought the world the Apple mouse, Polaroid's I-Zone instant camera, the Palm V, and hundreds of other cutting-edge products and services, reveals its secrets for fostering a culture and process of continuous innovation.
There isn't a business in America that doesn't want to be more creative in its thinking, products, and processes. At many companies, being first with a concept and first to market are critical just to survive. In
The Art of Innovation, Tom Kelley, general manager of the Silicon Valley based design firm IDEO, takes readers behind the scenes of this wildly imaginative and energized company to reveal the strategies and secrets it uses to turn out hit after hit.
IDEO doesn't buy into the myth of the lone genius working away in isolation, waiting for great ideas to strike. Kelley believes everyone can be creative, and the goal at his firm is to tap into that wellspring of creativity in order to make innovation a way of life. How does it do that? IDEO fosters an atmosphere conducive to freely expressing ideas, breaking the rules, and freeing people to design their own work environments. IDEO's focus on teamwork generates countless breakthroughs, fueled by the constant give-and-take among people ready to share ideas and reap the benefits of the group process. IDEO has created an intense, quick-turnaround, brainstorm-and-build process dubbed "the Deep Dive."
In entertaining anecdotes, Kelley illustrates some of his firm's own successes (and joyful failures), as well as pioneering efforts at other leading companies. The book reveals how teams research and immerse themselves in every possible aspect of a new product or service, examining it from the perspective of clients, consumers, and other critical audiences.
Kelley takes the reader through the IDEO problem-solving method:
>Carefully observing the behavior or "anthropology" of the people who will be using a product or service
>Brainstorming with high-energy sessions focused on tangible results
>Quickly prototyping ideas and designs at every step of the way
>Cross-pollinating to find solutions from other fields
>Taking risks, and failing your way to success
>Building a "Greenhouse" for innovation
IDEO has won more awards in the last ten years than any other firm of its kind, and a full half-hour Nightline presentation of its creative process received one of the show's highest ratings.
The Art of Innovation will provide business leaders with the insights and tools they need to make their companies the leading-edge, top-rated stars of their industries.
Customer Reviews:
Kudos to Ideos.......2007-08-28
Excellent book with good insights. If you are in the business of innovation, this is one book that you shouldn't miss. I also recommend EIGHTSTORM: 8-Step Brainstorming for Innovative Managers.
Innovation for All.......2007-06-29
Through anecdotes, Kelley demonstrates how stumbling blocks to innovation can be overcome. He shows an appreciation for experimentation, momentum, and embraces failure as a true path to knowing. Failed prototypes are wonderful learning tools. Kelley's perspective keeps spirits high. He leaves much of the innovative process open ended - nearly encouraging innovation on innovating.
Interestingly, Kelley notes how medicine is becoming personalized and that the future can not be perfectly predicted. Still, he says we must aim at it. This was an important nugget of wisdom for me, a research coordinator at a think-tank-like public health research group, the Healthcare Innovation and Technology lab at Columbia University. On a daily basis we deal with innovation to improve healthcare and need to effectively innovate. Given that we tread a very specific territory - health and technology - and that Kelley's book could be so useful to us, it is obvious that he really has something to offer to everyone.
Innovation and creativity "how-to" guide.......2007-06-07
The Art of Innovation explains many of IDEO's creative techniques and in so doing paints a picture of the physical context in which all that creativity occurs, namely IDEO's office, your average geek's idea of paradise brimming with high-tech prototypes, foam cubes, "tech box" caddies with giant Post-Its and coloring pens ... and yes, it does look more like a playschool than Dilbertesque gray cubicle-land. Teamwork, friendship and a shared passion for helping clients innovate is clearly what binds people together and stimulates their creativity, while a supportive and forgiving management structure doesn't just tolerate weirdness, it actively encourages it. IDEO seems to have taken Tom Peters' advice "If you want to do weird, hire weird people" to the next level. In IDEO-land, "normal" people would probably stand out a mile.
Two creative techniques - brainstorming and prototyping - are particularly well described, in a way that encourages the reader to try something different. I've learnt some new tricks and even started applying them since reading the book.
El arte de innovar estilo IDEO.......2007-06-01
IDEO ha hecho de la innovación un arte, el cual es un proceso sistematizado, con pasos muy definidos, congruentes y faciles de llevar por las personas que conforman dentro sus empresas los equipos de innovacion y diseño.
Skip it and go right to 10 Faces.......2007-03-19
I recently read both this book and the Ten Faces of Innovation. My recomendation is to skip this book. It is written more like an advertisement for IDEO and was left feeling like Tom has crossed the line into arrogance. If you read it as a stand alone book there is a lot of useful information. However most of the concepts are covered in Ten Faces. If you have time read both books but if time is of the essence then jump right into the Ten Faces, you won't be disappointed.
Book Description
The author of the bestselling The Art of Innovation reveals the strategies IDEO, the world-famous design firm, uses to foster innovative thinking throughout an organization and overcome the naysayers who stifle creativity.
The role of the devil's advocate is nearly universal in business today. It allows individuals to step outside themselves and raise questions and concerns that effectively kill new projects and ideas, while claiming no personal responsibility. Nothing is more potent in stifling innovation.
Drawing on nearly 20 years of experience managing IDEO, Kelley identifies ten roles people can play in an organization to foster innovation and new ideas while offering an effective counter to naysayers. Among these approaches are the Anthropologist—the person who goes into the field to see how customers use and respond to products, to come up with new innovations; the Cross-pollinator who mixes and matches ideas, people, and technology to create new ideas that can drive growth; and the Hurdler, who instantly looks for ways to overcome the limits and challenges to any situation.
Filled with engaging stories of how companies like Kraft, Procter and Gamble, Cargill and Samsung have incorporated IDEO's thinking to transform the customer experience, THE TEN FACES OF INNOVATION is an extraordinary guide to nurturing and sustaining a culture of continuous innovation and renewal.
Customer Reviews:
How many faces do you recognise?.......2007-08-13
Building on the Art of Innovation, Kelly brings us the new theory of the ten faces of innovation. It is simple to read and easy to understand. Another book which I found just as breezy to read was Eightstorm: 8-Step Brainstorming for Innovative Managers.
Good stories, but very IDEO-centric.......2007-07-30
Tom Kelley's book The Ten Faces of Innovation defines ten personas (thankfully not "named"--Bob, Sally, etc--just titled) that exemplify roles in an innovative team. They aren't job titles or exclusive positions, and people can work across roles as well.
* The Anthropologist, who observes people and discovers ways to help them
* The Experimenter, an expert in prototyping and testing, probably the classic "innovator"
* The Cross-Pollinator, with broad interests who enjoys connecting different cultures
* The Hurdler, who champions projects and carries them over beaurocratic obstacles
* The Collaborator, who brings people together to work cooperatively
* The Director, encouraging, inspiring, supporting, organizing and championing innovators
* The Experience Architect, a specialist in designing full "experiences" that transcend simple products or services
* The Set Designer, creating spaces that inspire and support innovation
* The Caregiver, who improves the subjective, emotional aspects of products and how they relate to us
* The Storyteller, who tells stories about people and products in creative and interesting ways
The book is heavily IDEO-centric, and most of the examples are from Kelley's own 20-year career there. Not really a surprise for a book subtitled "IDEO's strategies..." but worth mentioning; this is basically IDEO in book form. It includes several weird asides that are clearly IDEO/Kelley quirks, for instance his long tangents into the power of napping at work, comfortable hotel beds, and (ugh) T-shaped people. The IDEO focus gets pretty old after a while, and makes you wonder about the broader applicability of the ideas. What works in a design consulting company that works almost exclusively on short-term projects may not be the best structure for others.
But the personas are broad and--as mentioned above--not exclusive to people's job roles, so they are good signposts for anyone interested in developing their own innovation skills. I suspect it would be less interesting for a sole inventor/designer, but for people working at companies they are especially applicable.
Innovation-in-depth.......2007-06-07
The Ten Faces of Innovation describes ten complementary personas - personality types or roles that contribute in different ways to creative teams:
Anthropologist - this is perhaps the most literal title, meaning people who have been professionally trained as social anthropologists to observe people and processes and interactions `with a fresh eye'. These are probably the biggest antidote to "But we've always done it like that" thinking.
Experimenter - willing to take a chance, maybe, but also willing to explore alternatives and test concepts through prototyping, trial-and-error and applied science.
Cross-pollinator - like a bee flitting between the private parts of flowers, the cross-pollinator spreads good ideas and techniques between specialisms, breaking down silos and sharing good practice
Hurdler - able to leap tall buildings (well project hurdles anyway) in a single bound. They are adept at finding ways over (or more likely around) around immovable obstacles to reduce the banging-your-head-against-a-wall bruising.
Collaborator - knits people and teams together by finding common interests and objectives. Sometimes described as the spider who weaves the web linking everyone to everyone else.
Director - nothing to do with the title on her business card, the Director provides clarity and direction, a rallying point for the troops yet with the humility to actively listen to input from the team.
Experience architect - with an uncanny knack of putting themselves in the customer's shoes, experience architects can visualize products and services at the point of use, no mean feat when they are barely on the drawing board and even the customers are an unknown quantity.
Set designer - this is a fascinating persona: someone who creates visual spaces and physical representations relating to the job at hand. Not really office architects as such, set designers invent scenarios and contexts. They are also comfortable to break unwritten rules and help people mix fun with work (now there's a thought!).
Caregiver - in the sense of nurses and doctors (no, not the teenage version), caregivers support their colleagues, providing a sympathetic sounding board and gentle encouragement when times are tough, and motivating and inspiring people to give there all at all times.
Storyteller - anyone familiar with The HP Way or the origins of Apple and Microsoft will recognize the value of constantly telling and re-telling inspirational stories as a way of reinforcing corporate culture. It's clear that this is a comfortable personal for author Tom Kelley since both books quite literally tell a story.
The book is peppered with genuine examples, most of which involve the genesis of familiar but once remarkable products that broke the mold in some way - style, design, functionality, whatever. Some of you reading this may have bought Palm V PDAs, for instance, on the strength of their sleek looks and brilliant user interface - the Graffiti stylus script language so close to English that anyone can pick it up with a few minutes' practice. How many of you appreciate the innovative use of glue instead of screws to bond the Palm V's case together, or the flat-pack lithium batteries inside? Like many other examples, the attention to detail and the multiple overlapping layers of innovation go well beyond the obvious external visual cues. This is innovation-in-depth.
Whether you are interested in applying innovation and creativity to work initiatives or life in general, the IDEO books are inspirational, instructional and fun to read - what a combination. Recommended.
Easy suggestions for increasing innovation.......2007-05-04
Welcome to an enjoyable, easy read - which is not to dismiss Tom Kelley's fine ideas. With the aid of Jonathan Littman, Kelley works throughout this book to show how innovation can be much more painless than most people think, and more fun. Kelley makes thinking collaboratively sound like a blast. In the process, he convinces you that your organization should nurture and cherish playing with ideas. Although he admits that his consulting company, IDEO, found itself grinding along on tedious projects at times, and that he has watched people shoot down perfectly good suggestions, his underlying message is one of open possibility. He presents 10 roles you can play during meetings, any one of which would be enough to add considerable value. By showing that these roles are temporary, he sends the message that if you want to stay competitive, you can change, and even must. As he examines everything from product names to rules governing how workers decorate their cubicles, Kelley demonstrates the many opportunities you have to create something new. The cost is often little or nothing; sometimes innovation simply means getting out of your employees' way. We recommend this book to managers who wish to break old patterns and encourage creative thought companywide.
Inspiring and fun.......2007-04-17
If you want to create an environment where innovation is the norm, what do you do? Tom Kelley doesn't have a prescription, but he does have some people he'd like you to meet. This book is about the roles that people in an innovation driven organization take on to create fresh new ideas on a regular basis.
If you're an individual contributor, this is a very helpful book both to understand the people around you and your own specific skills. What's more, although in some ways Kelley is describing personality attributes, he is also describing skill sets and ways of looking at the world that you can decide to cultivate. No one is going to be excellent at all of these roles- but that doesn't mean you can't strive to be well rounded!
As a manager, the main take-away lesson is that there are many different types of creativity that can reinforce each other if put together. The most important part of building a creative organization may come at the hiring stage, where you can most easily create a mix of the different personas. But if you're in a stable organization, as most of us are, you can use the "ten faces" to identify the different styles of creativity in your people, and use that information to form teams and projects to bring out their best.
The book is very heavy on anecdote and example. Every one of the ten personas has several stories that illustrate how such an approach can generate ideas that otherwise wouldn't have been considered. The Anthropologist will put themselves in the place of the average user or consumer, as did a woman who faked a pregnancy to see how she would improve the birthing experience at a major hospital. The Experience Architect will take a commodity service and turn it into a show that customers will enjoy for its distinctiveness, like the ice cream "cooking" at Cold Stone Creamery.
The persona that I found most intriguing, and perhaps also furthest from my own, was the Set Designer. Kelley believes strongly in the power of space to shape the minds of those who inhabit it, and just reading about some of the things that go on at IDEO is enough to make my own cube - which I had thought very nicely decorated - seem drab and uninspired.
"The Ten Faces of Innovation" is not a good book to read if you want to know exactly how to change your company, but it is an excellent resource for spotting the early creative behavior every innovator should want to encourage in their team.
Book Description
Creativity in Product Innovation describes a remarkable new technique for improving the creativity process in product design. Certain "regularities" in product development are identifiable, objectively verifiable and consistent for almost any kind of product. These regularities are described by the authors as Creativity Templates. This book describes the theory and implementation of these templates, showing how they can be used to enhance the creative process and thus enable people to be more productive and focused. Representing the culmination of years of research on the topic of creativity in marketing, the Creativity Templates approach has been recognized as a breakthrough in such journals as Science, Journal of Marketing Research, Management Science, and Technological Forecasting and Social Change.
Customer Reviews:
A great framework if not a great book...........2007-05-25
I use Goldenberg and Mazursky's "creativity templates" in teaching my MBA classes good habits for coming up with new product ideas. They like the idea of templates - a few concrete and specific ways of coming up with new product ideas by thinking about the product attributes in a novel way. For example, "replacement" - the replacement template removes one attribute of a product but has the same function served by something other feature. I illustrate this concept with a high chair with no legs - it sits directly on an adult-sized dining chair, which provides a different way to keep the baby off the ground, so to speak.
Although the ideas behind the book are excellent, the authors' writing style is wordy and complex, not at all easy to follow. It's a shame, because business students could really benefit from the template idea. I roll my eyes at the thought of actually asking students to buy it, but I think the ideas the authors have are otherwise worth the price of the book.
Interesting approach, but underestimates the customers.......2006-11-12
In a situation where a company is looking for alternatives to a new product or service, is the consumer a rich source of creative alternatives?
According to the authors, the answer is NO. They maintain that ideas can be generated in two ways: based on creative thinking or based on market information (or the consumers). They believe that the consumers may provide information concerning the improvement of existing products but they cannot help in creating truly original products, since consumers may be a reliable source of information for present needs, but they are not able to predict future needs.
In the book you will find the Creativity Templates approach, in which they trace the common characteristics behind known creative ideas or products and based on them create new products or ideas. According to this approach: "Over time, market needs and desires are 'mapped' or 'encoded' into a product, the configuration of which becomes a physical representation of past selection of the market or an 'echo' of past customers' preferences. (p.23)
Therefore, the Templates approach places the product itself as a tool to predict the market trends and the characteristics a new product should have to answer future needs of customers. While the approach applies familiar characteristics to new products, it also has a surprise element, since the characteristics are new concerning the specific product; this produces an effect of "unrecognized familiarity".
Concluding, the book is a good reading and has very good ideas, or directions, in order to create original and interesting products, but I would not focus too much on it. I still believe that consumers are the most expert innovators.
Creative Creativity.......2002-12-25
This book was wonderful....I really didn't expect much given one reviewer who said the book was "dry" but the book greatly exceeded my expectations and offered me a revolutionary way to think and to run my life. I found the book to be OVERFLOWING with insites which not only make sense but can be easily applied in business. In fact, I have already applied them! So in sum the book has already had an impact on my life.... READ IT AND USE IT.
DRY..........2002-07-12
A little creativity by the authors would have been helpful in trying to plow through the pages. This book is just bland! After the first two chapters I simply skimmed the rest of the book. Any meaningful information was lost in a poor execution. Save your money and buy something else.
It turns out that creativity is a science after all..........2002-06-28
Don't let the slightly academic style of the book put you off; it is nothing short of a revolution in creative thinking.
If you're ever so slightly fed up of brainstorming, pushing the envelope, thinking outside the box and sitting on beanbags waiting for creative inspiration, then this is the book for you.
It turns out that creative solutions are not just the inspired, almost mystical outpourings of a few talented creatives but universal patterns that can be accurately reproduced once you know the recipe.
Amazing as it sounds, Goldenberg and Mazursky have discovered the science underneath the art of creative thinking. This is a science not based on the psychology of creative genius but on discovering the 'DNA' of existing creative solutions and turning it into a simple recipe card of repeatable steps to producing a specific type of creative solution.
It seems, there are a number of surprises in this new science of creativity. Contrary to popular perception; truly creative solutions are to be found 'inside the box' of the problem; listening to the 'voice of the product' not the 'voice of the consumer' leads to the most successful new products and mental constraints not untrammelled freedom is the best route to creative solutions.
Not only is this book a major contribution to those involved with innovation but by discovering the science within creativity, the authors open up the exciting possibility of being able to teach creative thinking to researchers, business people and children alike.
Maybe one day, it will become a rudimentary part of the national curriculum?
Customer Reviews:
The origins, the methods and the uses of function modeling in systems design.......2007-02-23
Any deliberate kind of improvement or innovation involves design, the stock and trade of engineers and technologists. Yet engineers and technologists are trained as problem-solvers, specialists and experts, not as inventors or innovators; they are authoritative only about certain kinds of things and know little if anything about all kinds of things. In particular very few are trained in the design of all the sorts of things, or in other words, about systems in a general way. Yet, as experience has shown, creativity and innovation is enhanced as designs from one area are brought to bear on another. Engineers and technologists ought to be trained to design all sorts of things. Is that possible? Yes, if they learn "general design".
One of the few powerful and deep approaches to modeling and designing systems in general is function modeling. And function modeling, though still in its infancy (the approach still makes use of "intuitive logic", as if there were such a thing), has been systematized in the FAST method founded by Charles Bytheway, the author of this book.
Charles Bytheway is the quintessential inventor and innovator, the general or systems designer. This book provides a description of the origins of the FAST method and its general principles. It describes how it can be applied and what its strengths and advantages are. But more than anything, Mr. Bytheway is able, in this book, to capture the enthusiasm that accompanies the act of design and invention and the essence of doing rather than talking about innovation. This book ought to be particular interest to all systems designers, engineers, technologists as well as to managers who deal with issues of innovation.
FAST Creativity & Innovation.......2007-02-14
Charles Bytheway's book is a `must read' for anyone responsible for innovation. He explains a method that allows us to make the process of invention visible and auditable in a way teams can collaborate. As such, teams not only arrive at insights but can manage the process by which they arrive at them. Because of this they can set about improving the way they innovate and in a systematic fashion where errors can later be identified. That is, because of this book we can learn how to get better at innovating. This is achieved by making functionality explicit rather than leaving it assumed as is often the case. Charles has shared his approach in this book and we are now in a position to do what we previously struggled with. That is, manage the organisation's ability to systematically generate new ideas that afford competitive advantage.
I strongly recommend this book.
Dr Roy Woodhead
Technology Management
School of Technology
Oxford Brookes University
Oxford
England
Development of FAST with project examples.......2007-02-13
FAST Creativity and Innovation speaks to both the expert practioner and the novice. The book can be divided into two main segments. The first segment discusses how Charles Bytheway developed the methodology. The second covers four tangible project examples and one abstract example.
As a practioner of the FAST methodology, what I gained most from reading this book is an understanding of the way Mr. Bytheway thought as he developed FAST diagrams. His process is to switch roles constantly. In other words, think about the subject from several different perspectives. One example he gives to illustrate this concept is when he was teaching the how-why logic using the example "prevent highjacking". What he did throughout the discussion is he put himself in the shoes of the pilot, then the passenger and finally the airline president. This role playing gave him new insights that helped stimulate his creativity.
If you are an expert on FAST diagramming I would recommend this book to learn the development and genealogy of this important Value Engineering & Analysis tool. If you are a novice I would recommend this book because you will learn the FAST process from the creator of the methodology as well as some good examples of how to apply it.
Book Description
How does your company define creativity? Or doescreativity define your company? In this remarkable book, Jerry Hirshberg, founder and president of Nissan Design International (NDI), distills his experience as leader of the world's hotbed of automotive innovation and reveals his strategy for designing an organization around creativity.
In The Creative Priority Hirshberg weaves together enlightening real-world anecdotes with the story of NDI's genesis to illustrate eleven interlocking strategies that came to define NDI's creative priority. Richly illustrated with NDI's elegant designs and sketched, The Creative Priority is at once a compelling narrative, a rich store of hands-on experience, and a grab bag of breakthrough insights that can help your business perform its most vital function.
Customer Reviews:
The Value of Design.......2006-03-14
Looking at several of the reviews already posted, the real value of this book is being missed. To see this book as being about automotive design misses the point altogether. This is a book to celebrate the largely untapped potential of focusing on design 'outside' of a particular market. The fact that the charter of the group specifically had to allow for the design of things 'other' than cars/vehicles, was to keep the problem-solving perspectives of the designers 'fresh' and 'exercised'.
Design is a fundamental principle that applies to the most critical aspects of the success of ANY business: optimizing relationships (the lifeblood of an enterprise's existence). The touchpoints at which any individual interacts with a business (whether customer, employee, supplier...) can all be optimized with thoughtful design considerations (it's not just about products).
Read Hirshberg and look 'beyond' the immediate problem. The principles are fundamental. Hirshberg does a great job of illustrating the principles within the context of his own experiences.
Review Part One - the first 6 chapters.......2006-03-04
The main take home messages from the first six chapters of `The Creative Priority' can be summarized as:
Creative Abrasion
In most cultures conflict is associated with negative emotions, which are usually considered counterproductive. Harmony and teamwork is very important supposedly for an organization to function effectively. However, when everyone thinks and acts alike no innovation can occur. All great thinkers, creative geniuses challenged the status quo. This is basically the root cause in every large company for the inability to innovate or to be creative, because the culture in most large companies is to conform rather than to stick out. That creativity goes along with a fair amount of conflict or friction is not a new idea. Most teams consisting of representatives from different functional areas will go through the phase of "storming" during the formation of the team. During this phase the team experiences a lot of conflict between the team members and will learn to deal with conflict in a constructive way - leading to creative abrasion.
It should be made clear that you shouldn't just dive into conflict head on, as it fosters creativity. Conflict for conflict sake does not assist in creative abrasion; it will lead to real abrasion, and probably more. Creative abrasion is difficult to implement as it needs to be nurtured, meaning that this would only work in a certain "culture", which has accepted a certain amount of conflict as "normal" and productive. Besides the right "culture" you need also to hire divergent pairs.
Hiring in Divergent Pairs
In order to create an environment for "creative abrasion" you cannot, must not, hire the same people - all mirror images of yourself. Again, in such a situation they would probably all think and act alike, therefore avoiding creative abrasion. However, you need to be careful in just hiring "difficult" people for the sake of it. The individual expertise of the pair has to match the job or project, in order to get to a synergetic relationship. My comparison of the divergent pair and creative abrasion would be Felix and Oscar in "The Odd Couple", who drove each other crazy, but not enough to split up.
As a chemist, Watson and Crick, the discoverer of the DNA Double Helix, come to my mind as an example of a divergent pair - a physicist leaving physics for chemistry and biology (Crick), and a former ornithologist changing towards research on viruses (Watson). From their different perspectives divergent pairs will have a better chance to solve any kind of complex problem.
Embracing the Dragon
Another integral part of the previous two points - Creative Abrasion and Hiring in Divergent Pairs - is the metaphor of embracing the dragon. The dragon is used as a symbol for a foreign or even threatening concept, standpoint, and even a hostile counterpart. By embracing the dragon you will assume the position of the "dragon" to see the situation from his side. However, there is a distinct difference between the two concepts of creative abrasion and embracing the dragon. Creative abrasion addresses the interaction between separate parties to form a new idea by combining their different viewpoints. However, embracing the dragon is focusing on the ability of a person to adopt a different or even threatening viewpoint to gain better insights into a particular problem. Or in other words, the ability to hold two divergent opinions in one's head. The connection between these two concepts is that they both threaten the status quo.
Creative Questions before Creative Answers
This concept addresses the issue of first defining the problem correctly, which requires that you might have to question previously formed believes and known standpoints - another form of the status quo. The main problem is to not define the problem with the already preconceived answer in mind. In my job at Abbott, I have experienced too many times that we defined the problem with a too narrow of a focus, which then lead subsequently that we did not identify the root cause of the problem. We would not fix the problem by the first time, but would apply "band aids" to the issue and had to come back later to give another try. My two sons, five and seven, taught me the concept of questioning so called "known" items, by asking me repeatedly what, how, and why on subjects, which are so clear to adults. However, I have a hard time explaining it to my kids.
Stepping Back from the Canvas
Stepping back from the canvas is another name for the fact that you are too close to the problem during the problem solving session. It is necessary to build in steps during the process where you deliberately do not focus on work. Sometimes this will led to insights into the problem, because you had not thought every second about your problem, but led the mind wander off. Specially, when you get stuck in your work, it is helpful to take some time off (step back from the canvas).
Failure, Cheating, and Play
Celebrate failures as a team instead of generating a culture where failure is not allowed. This quickly leads to risk adverse behavior, which is counterproductive in a creative environment. Learn from the mistakes, however.
Cheating has usually a negative connotation in most cultures. However, it is important to work together and build on each other's ideas, as it is done routinely in brainstorming. Again, the culture in the organization is very important. You do not want to create an environment where people have their ideas "stolen" from them.
Last not least, play around with your ideas. That way you may become more "creative" .
My biggest concern is the fact that Jerry Hirschberg had a "white canvas" or blank sheet of paper in front of him when he started to assemble his new design studio for Nissan. The concept listed above are very useful, but they may not work, when you have to turn around a major company.
Unleashing Creativity.......2005-12-17
This is a very good book. In it Jerry Hirshberg shares his experiences as founder and president of Nissan Design International. In so doing he characterizes the leadership, organization, and group dynamics that foster breakthrough innovation. Here is a sampling of the kind of thinking he unpacks...
* Bureaucratic "structure" with its need for predictability, linear logic, conformance to accepted norms, and the dictates of the most recent "long range" vision statement, is a nearly perfect idea killing machine.
* The atmosphere that follows out of the creative priority, while challenging and stimulating, also becomes supportive and humane, since a workplace safe for ideas is a workplace safe for people.
* Creative expression is a bipolar event; it requires both a sender and a receiver.
* There is a vital connection between abrasiveness and original thinking.
* Creativity and destructiveness are at the same time polar opposites and closely related cousins.
* The very idea of a "balanced person" as some kind of ideal is somehow troubling.
* New truths are often in plain sight, but are rendered invisible or menacing by an associated language, or a stubborn set of assumptions.
* Nothing can so effectively move work forward at times as not working.
* Work tends to be a convergent activity, focusing on the task at hand. Play is a divergent activity. It opens out and is not easy to contain.
* Creative people can't be boxed up in an ivory tower. They need direct contact with real world information to develop new ideas.
* In the quest for creative thinking, research should never be left to someone else, as nothing stimulates the imagination as the impact of direct experience.
* Imaginative thinking cannot be constrained by preconception or prior intentions. Creativity does not play by the rules; it plays with the rules.
I would recommend this book for both leaders and members of creative groups as well those with whom they interact.
highly recommended.......2005-11-10
The Creative Priority is an excellent book that I recommend to absolutely everyone. The book is of particular interest to managers and executives of businesses, but it could prove useful for anyone interested in creativity in business. The book is particularly interesting to anyone interested in automotive design or industrial design in general. The book has many interesting designs and sketches throughout to help illustrate many of the design stories. Rather than simply stating and explaining techniques for fostering creativity in the workplace, Jerry uses real-life experiences as a leader of automotive innovation to illustrate the ideas behind creating a workplace organized around the principle of creativity. He claims that all the strategies must be taken together as a whole. The essence of the situation, he insists, is a necessity of recognizing creative thought as the paramount organizing principle of the business. It is recognizing the distinction between an innovative business and one that has creativity as its prime goal. Rather than simply applying techniques in an attempt to promote creative progress, creativity must be given priority. The ideas contained within the book are the result of experience and observation gained by Jerry over his nearly twenty year career in the business of creativity. The book progresses in an almost story-like fashion, narrating the account of Jerry
A great sampling of design, business, and creativity.......2000-06-08
This is a great book for designers and auto enthusiasts. It's really a quick read with good writing and editing. Hirshberg really talks about the nuances of design and the management of creativity in a saturated product market. There is a nice balance of design decision details and macro level organizational management described through the book. Hirshberg's mini-stories from one project to the people responsible for the ideas really get you thinking about all car designs. He touches on a range of production and concept cars - everything from the Nissan Pathfinder, Pulsar NX, Infiniti J30 and a few which never made to our asphalt ecosystem. There are also humorous multi-cultural experiences with his Japanese counterparts - which are great lessons for those uninitiated to other ethnicities and particular business etiquette. The best of all are the hand sketches of the Infiniti J30, Gobi concept vehicle, boat designs and other early development stages. I wish there were more pictures for us right-brainers. A big part of his later chapters deal with how to create an environment that is naturally stimulating for creativity -and some of his methods are not in the studio.
If you can remember car lines and wonder why a Nissan and Infiniti grill (or any car for that matter) looks the way it does - this book is for you. FYI - you can probably get essentially the same book in hardback at a used place for the paperback.
Book Description
Lessons from the creative professions of and for art, science, design, and engineering: how to live in and with the Plenitude, that dense, knotted ecology of human-made stuff that creates the need for more of itself.
Customer Reviews:
A book for all educators.......2007-10-13
I highly recomend the Plentititude to all the creators among us. The Plentitude is succinct and focused. It gives insight into the role of the discipline in which one is trained, how this influences further thought and how this training limits potential solutions. The Plentitude's greatest gift, is that it demonstrates how we are all designers. This is both a boon to our very existence and the source of our pollution; both thought pollution and physical object pollution.
Average customer rating:
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Breakthrough Zone : Harnessing Consumer Creativity for Business Innovation
Roy Langmaid , and
Mac Andrews
Manufacturer: Wiley
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ASIN: 0470855398 |
Book Description
A breakthrough is a discontinuous change that makes new things possible and takes performance in a market to a new level. This book is about creating breakthroughs in large organizations where so much energy is often committed to existing activity. Drawing on their wide experience of working with top companies including British Airways, BUPA, and Carphone Warehouse, Ray Langmaid and Mac Andrews argue that it is customers themselves who are best-placed to conceive great new products and services, but that they will need time and trust to work out how these might best be created. Traditional ways of talking to customers such as focus groups lack honesty and place perceptual barriers - what is needed is a new approach that is open, honest and ongoing. The solution is the Breakthrough Zone, a creative meeting of customer and executives in which desires are unlocked and needs identified. Versatile enough to be used with groups of any size, this process is built on personal relationships, and proven to generate really innovative ideas for brand extensions and product development.
Provides the tools and techniques to enable you to get closer to your customers - a step-by-step guide shows you how to implement the 'Breakthrough Zone' process
Explores why this type of communication is so much more effective than focus groups or traditional database-driven approaches to engaging in customer dialogue
Previous innovations generated in the Breakthrough Zone include BA's 'Beds for Business', BT's 'It's Good to Talk' and new market strategies for VISA and Dell
Download Description
A breakthrough is a discontinuous change that makes new things possible and takes performance in a market to a new level. This book is about creating breakthroughs in large organizations where so much energy is often committed to existing activity. Drawing on their wide experience of working with top companies including British Airways, BUPA, and Carphone Warehouse, Ray Langmaid and Mac Andrews argue that it is customers themselves who are best-placed to conceive great new products and services, but that they will need time and trust to work out how these might best be created. Traditional ways of talking to customers such as focus groups lack honesty and place perceptual barriers - what is needed is a new approach that is open, honest and ongoing. The solution is the Breakthrough Zone, a creative meeting of customer and executives in which desires are unlocked and needs identified. Versatile enough to be used with groups of any size, this process is built on personal relationships, and proven to generate really innovative ideas for brand extensions and product development.
Provides the tools and techniques to enable you to get closer to your customers - a step-by-step guide shows you how to implement the 'Breakthrough Zone' process
Explores why this type of communication is so much more effective than focus groups or traditional database-driven approaches to engaging in customer dialogue
Previous innovations generated in the Breakthrough Zone include BA's 'Beds for Business', BT's 'It's Good to Talk' and new market strategies for VISA and Dell
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Human Resource Planning, published by Thomson Gale on September 1, 2006. The length of the article is 9527 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Building and sustaining a culture that supports innovation.
Author: Jay Jamrog
Publication:
Human Resource Planning (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 29
Issue: 3
Page: 9(11)
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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This digital document is an article from Coatings World, published by Rodman Publications, Inc. on April 1, 2003. The length of the article is 871 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Business idea champions: where do they come from? (Business Corner).
Author: Phil Phillips
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Coatings World (Magazine/Journal)
Date: April 1, 2003
Publisher: Rodman Publications, Inc.
Volume: 8
Issue: 4
Page: 20(2)
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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Creativity and economy. (plastics in automobiles): An article from: Plastics Engineering
Victor Wigotsky
Manufacturer: Society of Plastics Engineers, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
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ASIN: B0008MFODS
Release Date: 2005-07-28 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Plastics Engineering, published by Society of Plastics Engineers, Inc. on September 1, 1989. The length of the article is 5926 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Creativity and economy. (plastics in automobiles)
Author: Victor Wigotsky
Publication:
Plastics Engineering (Refereed)
Date: September 1, 1989
Publisher: Society of Plastics Engineers, Inc.
Volume: v45
Issue: n9
Page: p23(8)
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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