Thoughts and Notes on 'Creativity and Strategic Innovation Management' by Malcolm Goodman and Sandra Dingli
Ch. 1
Change “is a business constant.” Business cycle:
“Change is rarely managed well.” Digital is now and the future. |
|
Types of change:
“Selling focuses on the needs of the seller while marketing focuses on the needs of the buyer.”
Ch. 2
“The man who is denied the opportunity of taking decisions of importance begins to regard as important the decisions he is allowed to take.” C. Northcole Parkinson, 1958.
What makes decision making difficult?
Business decision making model
Contigency approach – “not necessarily ‘one best way’”
In a seller’s market, efficiency is the value
In a buyer’s market, effectiveness comes before efficiency
Ch. 3
Management is relational.
Management by email dehumanizes
“People like being treated as people.”
Dynamic managers seek to increase efficiency:
Autocratic managers are good in emergencies.
Democratic managers are good if the democracy is not cynically practiced.
Ch. 4
“Discovery consists of seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.” Albert von Szet-Gyoergyi
“Creativity is a natural gift and a part of the wholeness of every individual. This offers the individual the opportunity to derive more satisfaction out of life." (p. 54)
“We all have the mental resources to be creative.” (p. 55)
“Creativity often requires a tremendous struggle for a vision to be realized.” (p.56)
Creativity increases if it is encouraged.
“Heightened tension and emotional pressure are bad for creativity.” (p.60)
No trust = little creativity
Ch. 5
To be creative a person must be:
Stages of creative problem solving:
Stage 1
Stage 2
Idea generation and development
If a group has a hard time coming up with suitable ideas:
Substitute
Combine
Adapt
Magnify and minify
Put to other uses
Eliminate or elaborate
Rearrange or reverse
Creative problem solving takes time.
Use relaxation techniques
Classical music
Use metaphors – the problem is like…
Use analogies
The art of punning (p.92)
Drawing
Guided imagery
Selection:
Pare down possible solutions:
Color code them – everyone in the session gets a color or two and places it next to their favorite solutions.
The decide about difficulty –
Stage 3
Plan – make it happen
Ch. 6
Employees need to trust their managers in order to be creative.
Ch. 7
Creativity blockers:
Managers need to know about group dynamics.
“Good managers do not attempt to manage creativity, they manage for creativity…” (p. 129)
Ch. 10
Initial spark –
Idea evaluation –
Invention –
Launch
Ch. 13
Efficiency does not equal effectiveness
“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right thing.” P. F. Drucker
Leadership theories –
Traits theories:
Behavioral theories –
Contingency theories –
Situational leadership:
Emerging theories –
“Regular and reliable face to face communication is a vital determinant of lasting levels of trust (Thomas et al., 2009)” (p. 223)
Ch. 15
“If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.” Seneca, Epistulae Morales #71 [I would say that every wind is favorable…]
- Incremental – small and gradual
- Transitional – radical responses over a defined period after recognizing that change is happening
- Transformational – “fundamental change in behavior, attitude and belief;” radical, “new and different ways of working”
“Selling focuses on the needs of the seller while marketing focuses on the needs of the buyer.”
Ch. 2
“The man who is denied the opportunity of taking decisions of importance begins to regard as important the decisions he is allowed to take.” C. Northcole Parkinson, 1958.
What makes decision making difficult?
- Information overload
- Shareholder, financial and government pressure
- Shorter business recycling times
Business decision making model
- ID problem
- Create decision criteria
- Prioritize criteria
- List alternatives
- Analyze alternatives
- Select solution
- Implement decision
- Evaluate decision
Contigency approach – “not necessarily ‘one best way’”
In a seller’s market, efficiency is the value
In a buyer’s market, effectiveness comes before efficiency
Ch. 3
Management is relational.
Management by email dehumanizes
“People like being treated as people.”
Dynamic managers seek to increase efficiency:
- Run meetings effectively
- Time management
- Stress management
Autocratic managers are good in emergencies.
Democratic managers are good if the democracy is not cynically practiced.
Ch. 4
“Discovery consists of seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.” Albert von Szet-Gyoergyi
“Creativity is a natural gift and a part of the wholeness of every individual. This offers the individual the opportunity to derive more satisfaction out of life." (p. 54)
“We all have the mental resources to be creative.” (p. 55)
“Creativity often requires a tremendous struggle for a vision to be realized.” (p.56)
Creativity increases if it is encouraged.
“Heightened tension and emotional pressure are bad for creativity.” (p.60)
No trust = little creativity
Ch. 5
To be creative a person must be:
- Original
- Fluent
- Flexible
- Able to Elaborate
Stages of creative problem solving:
Stage 1
- Explore the problem
- Create a problem statement – the problem may different than is first thought
- Why? In what ways might we…?
- Who? What? Where? When? Why and how? The 5 Ws and an H
- Stakeholder analysis
- “Problem owner states problem”
- Brainstorm
- Gather ideas in round robin format
- Mind map or force field
- Wishful thinking
- State problem
- Blue sky imagining
- State desired outcome
- Relate outcome back to problem
- How to –
- “How can we…”
- “In how many ways…”
- Generate 20 to 30 questions
Stage 2
Idea generation and development
If a group has a hard time coming up with suitable ideas:
- take a break
- have each person focus on a different object in the room
- wildest ideas – introduce something completely random to break tension
Substitute
Combine
Adapt
Magnify and minify
Put to other uses
Eliminate or elaborate
Rearrange or reverse
Creative problem solving takes time.
Use relaxation techniques
Classical music
Use metaphors – the problem is like…
Use analogies
The art of punning (p.92)
Drawing
Guided imagery
Selection:
Pare down possible solutions:
Color code them – everyone in the session gets a color or two and places it next to their favorite solutions.
The decide about difficulty –
- Simple – little time or money
- Hard – more time or more money
- Difficult – most time and most money
Stage 3
Plan – make it happen
Ch. 6
Employees need to trust their managers in order to be creative.
Ch. 7
Creativity blockers:
- Perceptual
- Emotional
- Process skill – lack of technique
- Communication
- Environmental
- Cultural
Managers need to know about group dynamics.
“Good managers do not attempt to manage creativity, they manage for creativity…” (p. 129)
Ch. 10
Initial spark –
- Generation
- Selection
Idea evaluation –
- Is it effective?
- Is it relevant?
- Does it fit the organization?
- Will it offer a competitive advantage?
Invention –
- Implementation
Launch
Ch. 13
Efficiency does not equal effectiveness
“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right thing.” P. F. Drucker
Leadership theories –
Traits theories:
- Dominant traits for CEOs in Britain include:
- Manipulators
- Egocentric
- Sense of entitlement
- Exploitive
- Lacking empathy
- Lack social conscience
Behavioral theories –
- Autocratic
- Democratic
Contingency theories –
- Path goal theory
- Fielder contingency theory
Situational leadership:
- Telling
- Selling
- Participating
- Delegating
Emerging theories –
- Charismatic
- Visionary
- Transactional
- Transformational
“Regular and reliable face to face communication is a vital determinant of lasting levels of trust (Thomas et al., 2009)” (p. 223)
Ch. 15
“If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.” Seneca, Epistulae Morales #71 [I would say that every wind is favorable…]