Success in product and service innovation depends on creativity as a key input. Creativity in business is ‘the thinking of novel and appropriate ideas’, not just novel ideas for their own sake - that can be left to the artists. Without a healthy and continuing supply of apt ideas, most businesses would cease to exist. At the height of Sony's peak in innovation performance they produced 1000 new products a year (that's 4 every day). Sony eventually fell prey to hubris with dramatic consequences, but some companies manage to sustain these kinds of performance, renewing themselves and their products and services on a continuing basis. Fundamental challenges facing leaders in the 21st Century are how to harvest bright ideas when there isn't much time and convert bright ideas into innovations that last longer than next week's fad.
Human Dynamics can help by:
- Running better brainstorming workshops to help your people generate and develop great ideas and innovations
- Assessing your current creative capabilities, climate and culture with a view to developing strengths and minimising weaknesses
- Developing your people's capacity, confidence and competence to think creatively
- Turning great ideas into prototype designs in partnership with Imperial College London
- Providing masterclasses on creativity and strategy in collaboration with the Judge Institute, University of Cambridge
- Designing your company to release better creative ideas more frequently
- Analysing the climate for ideas using fully validated psychological inventories in partnership with Innovation Centre Europe
- Providing a bespoke toolkit of methods and approaches for encouraging personal and team-based creativity
- Professional problem solving, especially for complex, and intractable problems
- Facilitating strategic decision making processes so that options are fully considered before reaching a conclusion
Case Study:
Practical Creativity
Situation
Our client is a major pharmaceutical company that needs to leverage the full brainpower of its employees if it is to realise its ambitions.
The challenge
To develop the capacity and willpower to use creative thinking for the improvement of process chemistry. This was to enable the company to constantly improve its cost profile and generate 'hard to copy' innovations in process chemistry to keep it ahead in the face of mounting competition.
What we did
We designed a bespoke development programme, phased over 18 months, using real life projects as source materials to maximise the relevance to participants. Broad content included:
- The roots of creativity and innovation - examining the thinking behind successful invention and innovation
- Provision of The Creative Thinker's Toolkit - containing a wide range of analytical and intuitive approaches to creative thinking for use in 1:1 and group situations
- Developing a climate where creativity and innovation are business as usual characteristics
- Using real life projects that required the use of creative thinking and creative problem solving
At the same time we provided organisation development advice, guidance and support to help the unit create a micro-climate where creativity was valued, supported and resourced so that good ideas would convert into profitable innovations. We supported the unit in the development of an internal brand for creativity as part of the development of a 'unique selling point' for the unit. We also provided 1:1 and small group performance coaching to assist the top team in implementing the changes needed.
The result
The programme has delivered a number of tangible business improvement benefits, for example:
- An improved chemical process for an important raw material, with considerable implications for cost savings in the short and long term. This came from the consideration of a 'non-obvious' process step in the chemistry which had previously been discounted
- Laboratory design improvements which will lead to better cross functional working between different professional groups. Innovations in science these days require considerable cross fertilisation between experts and the results of designing the environment to increase the number of 'happy accidents' cannot be underestimated in terms of developing a breakthrough in a new chemical process
- An internal champion has taken up the challenge of sustaining creativity throughout the function. They have become a recognised expert on the subject as a result of this and this has produced demands for them to conduct internal consulting assignments within other functions for the company
