Workshop Activating Creativity THE HR challenge for the coming years by Alexander Crepin

voor managers
exploring creativity opportunities

+31
653 641 905 Created by Alexander Crépin

Program for this morning:
• Why activating creativity is important
• What is creativity about?
• The creativity mindset
• What do you do to enable creativity?
• Creativity Training, left & right brains
• Some exercises

Why
activate
creativity
Crépin Consult, Alexander Crépin for inspiration, innovation & results

Creativity is the prime source of innovation
- main driver of growth & wealth creation
- key to improvements in the social field
- essential tool in addressing global challenges (climate change, health
care & sustainable development)


There is no doubt that creativity is the most
important human resource of all

Without it there would be no progress and we
would be forever repeating the same patterns.”
— Edward de Bono

Six think/mindset hats


Urgency for being cre :
- Global hyper competition


The product lifecycle & Hyper competition

The days of getting up to 10 years of good profits out of the product life cycle


The product lifecycle has collapsed . . .

Competitors launching
new products or services
within 1 or 2 years!!

The (HR) challenge:
mobilizing all your creative potential
for continuous innovation


In the end
you can only succeed with
creativity & innovation
not with spending cuts!

Klaus Kleinfeld
when CEO at Siemens AG


Creativity is
the greatest source of

competitive advantage
"Innovation" is a normal way of doing business, not just as an initiative

Micklethwait & Wooldridge
the Economist


Just 40 years from now, some 30% more
people will be living on this planet
A lot challenges of population growth to
be solved in a sustainable manner
- Housing 9.0
- Food & Drink
- Health care
- Energy
- …….

Crépin Consult, Alexander Crépin for inspiration, innov0tion & results

People, Planet & Profit

requiring all kind of
creative answers & solutions


ideas
rule the world

Progress no longer depends on natural resources, raw materials, trade of goods and services or giant factories


ideas

are the currency

of the new economy

~Richard Florida


creative employees
=

fuel for success

Future jobs
- Problem predictors
- Problem recognizers
- Problem analysts
- Problem brokers
- Problem solvers
requiring creactive competencies & a creactive culture


"My contention is that creativity is
as important as literacy and
should be treated with the same
status….
We're now running education
systems where mistakes are the
worst thing you can make…….
If you are not prepared to be wrong,
you'll never come up with anything
original!...... “

Sir Ken Robinson, TED lecture 2006


What is creativity?


What is creativity?

Skill?


What is creativity?

Gift? Skill?


What is creativity?

Gift? Skill?

Behaviour?


What is creativity?

Gift? Skill?

Unique
Behaviour? Talent?


What is creativity?

Gift? Skill?
Attitude ?

Unique
Behaviour? Talent?


What is creativity?

Gift? Skill?
Attitude ?

Unique
Behaviour? Talent?

Process ?

Creativity?
there is no single, authoritative
perspective or definition of
creativity Wikipedia


Creativity ?
Traditional view:

all ideas just come up through an
abstract & inscrutable process……..


Creativity
a complex & mysterious
human process


We “hardly” understand
where our creative power
comes from,
how to become the driver
of our creativity ?


Creativity is primarily known
for its creations

something

NEW DIFFERENT or

that never existed before!


DESIGN

“the one element that breathes life into marketing is good design”
...Steve Jobs

pe
rf
or
ma
nc
es

Recycling ……


Defining creativity is complicated because
of its many dimensions


Creativity is
seeing things
in a different way
than most people do
(Walt Disney)


Creativity:
SEEING
something
new & different


Creativity:
Seeing
the same
differently


Creativity:
Seeing relationships where none exist


SEEING the same, THINKING differently


Creativity
to IMAGINE
something
new & different


Creativity
doing
or

making
something new & different


Creativity
seeing
thinking
imagining
doing or making
something new / different

Creativity is Courageous

“There is a big difference between rushing ahead blindly &
knowing the danger and acting anyway Robert Terry


Creativity: a process
Mondriaan Victory Boogie-Woogie
Boogie-

Friends saw it

It slowly became a great, dancing field, where larger
forms broke down into smaller pieces, where lines could
be edges of rectangles and rectangles could be thought
of as lines.
Creativity requires tenacity!

Creativity: the process of bringing something new into being

The mindset:
Everybody has
creativity!!
Some have more than others

anyone can increase their chances of coming up with new and original ideas that is,
IF they would only immerse themselves in the little understood process of creation


People are full of

good ideas
what & how

better, faster, cheaper, more fun,
greener, more beautiful …..


Great creative thinking arises quite often out
of rather ordinary thought processes…….

That’s within the reach of all of us!


Human beings are creative!
All children are born artists
The problem is to remain an artist as we
grow up (Pablo Picasso)


we are
creative
creative
iv

we are creative
until ……….
we join an organisation!
“ The things we fear most in organizations -- fluctuations, disturbances, imbalances -- are the primary sources of creativity “
- Alfred North Whitehead
“ To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong or making a mistake "
- Joseph Chilton Pierce


how does your culture
encourage
creativity

how & how well
are you taking advantage of
existing creative potential
in & around your organisation


what
happens
with ideas
in your own
organization


Do you have
an ideas box


Do you have an
ideas mail address


Do you
have an ideas
web page


Does your behavior invite to come with new ideas?


do you offer a stage for
nieuwe ISO 26000 richtlijn
employees & stakeholders
Maatschappelijk Verantwoord Ondernemen
to pitch their ideas ?

ook HRM uitdaging!
do you help them to make a
great pitch?


Do employees trust you to
communicate openly about their ideas ?

Ensure a culture that provides a feeling of security for creative ideas

do you allow risk taking
to surpass customer
expectations


do you accept
making mistakes
in attempts to meet customer expectations

“An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail.”
~Dr. Edward Land

do
you
listen


How about the silos in your
organization

S S
R A U
& L P
F D E
i P
S L
H n
R Y


is there
time to
think &
discuss ?

do you support an employee
who is looking for expertise to
further develop an idea ?

do you have the mechanisms for identifying how
and where else in- or outside the organization your
employee might find the expertise?


do you also look from a customer’s point of view
to find new ways to delight (new) customers

Apple did so & made innovation the central goal of the organization!

Apple turned “mature” low-margin sectors—PC’s, music, and mobile phones, tablet computers— into huge money-makers

do you make inspiration walls?


do you (need to) control the creative
processes ?

control is out

do you embrace or fear
the new, the unknown?

“The stress system is not rational. It reacts when provoked and the reaction is powerful
enough to derail even the most innovative thinkers out there” Edward de Bono

do you ask for creativity?

“At GE, the only things that move the culture are the ones
that show up in our income statement. It’s just the way
we were raised………
GE is run by the numbers, focused on making money for the
shareholders”
Steve Denning in Forbes 4/25/2012


do “ideas” appear
on the agenda of meetings?


do you maximize the serendipity around you?

“The Black Swan” is a symbol of the impact of the unexpected on
human affairs – a reference to the discovery by Tasman of black
swans in Western Australia when the Netherlands Academy of
Sciences had pronounced that all swans were white!
The Black Swan is an “outlier”. Black Swans are unpredictable
matters; after they occur they have an impact and are fully
predictable and explainable!
Serendipity is finding something you were not looking for, the
black swan, and make it a new reality

serendipity the “knack of making fortunate discoveries unexpectedly, by accident or coincidence”

do you create customer value in “Blue
Oceans” where demand is created rather
than fought over ………
Where competition is irrelevant because the rules of the game are waiting to be set

rather than by competing head-to-head with other suppliers in
the “Red Oceans”, the known market space ………


Impossible?
or
Nothing is impossible
&
Impossible is nothing

do you say farewell to out dated pieces in
order to make room for new?


Do you reward
excellent failures

I have not failed!
I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work!
Thomas Edison


do you celebrate creativity successes


Do you have a culture of personal & corporate innovation
the “Six-C’s of Innovation”
Curiosity
Creativity & rebellion
Collaboration
Change
Courage
Creating excitement every day


do you ..
would you ..
what is withholding you


“The most important developments
in civilization have come through
the creative process
but ironically, most people have
not been taught to be creative.”
Robert Fritz, The Path of Least Resistance


Human beings are already creative!
All children are born creative
The challenge is to remain creative as
we grow up and get educated


…We're now running education systems where
mistakes are the worst thing you can make…

….. If you are not prepared to be wrong
You'll never come up with anything original!......

FAMOUS “FAILURES” 1
Leonardo da Vinci Albert Einstein
*Got poor grades and failed
*Lack of aptitude for his entrance exams to Zurich’s
learning languages, a Polytechnic Institute
horrible speller with
poor grammar

Thomas Edison
*Of himself:
“I have not failed.
I’ve just found 10,000
ways that won’t work.” Winston Churchill
*Twice failed the entrance exam to
Sandhurst British military college


I cannot do without something that is
greater than myself, something that is my
life – the power to create
Van Gogh


- 3 times in 19 , in 19 , in 19
- 1600 people tested on creativity
- Starting at the age of 5 years
- Using a NASA creativity recruitment test


Test results amongst 5 year olds: 98%
Test given to 280,000 adults: 2%


Test results amongst 5 year olds: 98% !!!
Same test given to 280,000 adults: 2%


The more you know about something,
the more creative you could be!
Great creativity comes from breadth as much as depth

However:
Sometimes too much knowledge can interfere with
"The only thing I know is that I do not know"
redefining the problem in new and creative ways.
Socrates
If you don’t know too much, you won’t know that
“it can’t be done.”


Great creativity comes from breadth as much as depth

Louis Pasteur:
Chance favours the prepared mind

Thomas Edison:
I have not failed!
I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work!
Creativity is about learning how to fail well


Great creativity Connecting the dots
Steve Jobs:
Creativity is just connecting things
When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they
didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s
because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.
And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve
had more experiences or they have thought more about their
experiences than other people.
“Unfortunately, that’s too rare a commodity. A lot of people in our industry haven’t
had very diverse experiences. So they don’t have enough dots to
connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a
broad perspective on the problem. The broader one’s understanding of
the human experience, the better design we will have. [Wired, February 1996]


Creative geniuses tend to be less the
ones with the quickest answers
and
more the ones who keep working till
they get it right

I’ve found 10,000 ways that won’t work……. Thomas Edison


The most exciting phrase to hear in
science about new discoveries,
is not 'Eureka!', but

'That's funny'
Isaac Asimov


Creativity It is a journey of many steps
It is about learning how to fail well

Trial & error, luctor et emergo
we all live, of creation and destruction, of
control and letting go, of picking up the pieces
and making something new


FAMOUS “FAILURES” 2
Steven Spielberg Sydney Poitier
*Dropped out of high school * Dropped out of his
after being placed in a elementary school
learning-disabled class

Agatha Christie
Steve Jobs * Thought to have had a
* Dropped out after only one learning disability
semester


Civilization
…. If civilization is stability, kindness, safety, the arts and a culture that cherishes more than merely
winning whatever game is being played, we live in a very special time. There are certainly more
people living a civilized life today than ever before in history. (And we still have a long way to go). ……..

The people who create innovations, jobs, culture and art
of all forms have a choice about where and how they do these things.

And over and over, they choose
to do it in a society that's
civilized, surrounded by people who provide them
both safety and encouragement.
I'm having trouble thinking of a nation (or even a city) that failed because it invested
too much in taking care of its people and in creating an educated, civil society. ……

Seth Godin October 2012

Food for thought?


Time for a short break


Time for
creativity
Creativitime


Creativity Training helps
1:
The Wall Street Journal reported that a two
year in-house creativity course at General
Electric resulted in a 60% increase in
patentable concepts


2:
Participants in Pittsburgh Plate Glass
creativity training showed a 300% increase
in viable ideas compared with those who
elected not to take the course


3:
At Sylvania, several thousand employees
took a 40 hour course in creative problem
solving
ROI: $20 for every $1 spent


WHAT HAPPENS IN OUR HEADS


Our brains

Left Right

Train the brain


Our Brains: about 100 billion cells


Every cell has thousands of
connections

The connections enable data transfer between
our senses
Data signals follow or develop a path, which
becomes the easy way to transfer sense data
Our brains follow this easy route
Our brains prefer the familiar routing

thought patterns develop like this


Thinking
in essence transferring signals
between brain cells, usually
according a familiar manner,
our thought patterns


Thought patterns
data clusters
our brains cluster & store data

in similar situations the brains use the stored
data to follow up in the familiar way

Thought patterns are Thinking habits


If you think what you always think,
you get what you always got

Albert Einstein

if you do what you did
you get what you got

Creativity is the ability to restructure one’s understanding of a situation in a non-obvious way
John Kounios


Cracking existing patterns of thought
Challenging our thought patterns to
use byways & D-tours


Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels.
The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them,
disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing
you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things.
They push the human race forward. While some may see them as
the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy
enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

Whole brain thinking

CONVERGENT DIVERGENT
THINKING THINKING

Logical
Rational
Selection
Evaluation

Divergent thinking provides a basis for convergent thinking

Whole brain thinking
Divergent thinking
Thinking in different directions
Searching for a variety of answers to questions that
may have many right answers
Brainstorming

Convergent thinking
Narrowing-down from many possible viewpoints
Directed toward achieving a goal or single solution
Involves trying to find the one best answer
Emphasis shifts from idea generation to evaluation

Be clear about which process
you are using at the current time


Diverging & Converging
idea

idea

idea
Problem Implementation
Solution
idea innovation

idea

idea

view & mindset


….“We must constantly look at things
in a different way.
Just when you think you know something,
you must look at it in a different way.
Even though it may seem silly or wrong,
you must try!
Dare to strike out and find new ground.”
“Despite what anyone might tell you, words and
ideas can change the world.”…
From the movie: Dead Poets Society

Opportunity is nowhere


Opportunity is NOW here


AHA, Eureka
the inner voice
Many people who experience
supernormal moments of
great creativity

report a willingness to let themselves be
open to the non-logical, non-linear and
unexplainable promptings of an inner voice

Creativity & fear for the new, the unknown

People say they want new
ideas, creativity but in reality
often reject it!
Creative ideas are by definition novel,
and novelty often triggers feelings of
uncertainty that make most people
uncomfortable

Want to change the game? Embrace discomfort

While many workplaces encourage creative thinking, organizational behaviour often kills a creative idea before it gets a chance to fly.

New ideas are often dismissed in favour of the tried & trusted, that even supporting objective evidence may not help break down barriers


Attitudes That Kill Creative Ideas
Not practical for operating You’re two years ahead of your time

Don’t be ridiculous That beyond our responsibility

It isn’t in the budget It’s too radical a change

We’re not ready for that We tried that before

We don’t have time Top management will never go for it

We’ve never done it before It costs too much

We’ll be the laughing stock Has anyone else tried it?

That’s not out problem Let’s form a committee

Can’t teach an old dog new tricks Are our competitors doing it?


Kill
the
idea
Killers


from

creativity
to

reality
a challenging process


Creativity =
Idea + Action

Innovation =
Creativity + Productivity

Innovation is
the process by which creative ideas are:
captured, filtered,
funded, developed,
modified, clarified,
commercialized and/or
implemented and …..
accepted in the market


Innovation: Forward & Backward
Forward Innovation:
development of new functions in new or
existing products, market or technology

Backward Innovation:
development of existing functions more
rapidly and cheaper


Dimensions of Strategic Innovation
A. Managed Process: Combining (non-) & traditional approaches to
business strategy
B. Strategic Alignment: Building support
C. Industry Foresight: Understanding articulated emerging trends
D. Consumer/ Customer Insight: Understanding (un) articulated needs
E. Core Technologies and Competencies: Leveraging & extending
corporate assets
F. Organizational Readiness: The ability to take action
G. Disciplined Implementation: Managing the path from inspiration to
business impact.


Systemic Approach to Innovation

Marketing Organizational
Innovation Innovation

Product Business Strategy
Innovation Innovation Innovation

Process Technology
Innovation Innovation


Creativity
phenomenon initiated & exhibited at individual level
Variables: a.o. personality, motivation & expertise

Innovation
operates much more at group & organizational levels
Focus more on interrelationships, interactions & dynamics among actors &
components of the organization & its environment


creativity fuels innovation

Creativity
without innovation significantly diminished value

the converse also true:

Innovation
without creative ideas an engine without any fuel


Few creative ideas are in
themselves practical…
The innovation process does
not end with an idea…..
it starts with an idea!!
John Arnold

Google: innovation is accepting some chaos
General Electric: operational excellence

Who is right


Google: Innovation is accepting some chaos
General Electric: operational excellence
Who is right?

Both are right!
Innovation is chaos AND operational excellence:
- The first 20 %, the part of generating ideas is likely to be chaos
- Operational excellence is likely to be the other 80%


Life of any business is finite
For companies to endure, the drive for efficiency must be
combined with excellence in entrepreneurship

Through the process of innovation,
new businesses must emerge before
the old ones decay


Developing a creative mindset & culture
• Embracing creativity as success driver
• Starting to encourage creativity
• Training to enable creativity
• Sharing creativity outcomes


Would you consider “time to think”?


Creative
Creativity
Creative idea
Creative person
Creative organization

- What do you think of first with these words ?
- Who are you thinking about first ?
- Which moments are you thinking of ?

Ingredients of creativity?


What makes a person “creative”?


What makes someone a “creative” role model?


Example traits of creative role models
- curious
- a need to find solutions
- asking questions & listening
- drive, passionate to succeed
- persisting, willingness to overcome obstacles, tenacious
- courageous, exploring boundaries
- sensible risk-taking
- open minded, out of box thinker
- independent, nonconforming thinking & judgement
- interested in “the other”
- vision, intellectual playfulness
- knowledge
- flexible & adaptable

What is your perspective?


a “fertile” perspective:
ideas come from
everyone & everywhere
• Encourage / challenge everyone to use their imagination
• Every department (Eg. HR, Finance, Accounting, etc) are expected to offer ideas
• ask "why not" and "what if" questions
• making mistakes is OK, taking “stupid” risks isn’t!
• Embrace openness
• Learn more about different professions & industries
• Get your customers involved in this process. Ask them about their current problems.
• Ask stakeholder to share their "why not" and "what if" ideas
• How could certain principles or themes in employee hobbies or interests be applied?
• Study the natural world around you, is Mother Nature is an almost infinite source of creativity


Look from a different
perspective
&
something different
will emerge

Problem: Sales decreasing

Redefine the problem for alternative solutions


Who’s perspective?

Your competitors Your supplier
Your fathers Your main customer
Your son / daughter Your best friend
Your all time hero Your enemy
Superman Etc.


Who’s perspective?

Black Hat:
Using black hat thinking, look at all the
The premise of the method bad points of the decision.
is that the human brain Look at it cautiously and defensively.
thinks in a number of Try to see why it might not work.
This is important because it highlights
distinct ways which can be the weak points in a plan.
deliberately challenged It allows you to eliminate them, alter
them, or prepare contingency plans
to counter them.


Challenging the Problem
"Why do we need to solve the sales problem?"
"What's the roadblock here?"
"What will happen if we don't solve the sales problem?

These questions will give you new insights.
You might come up with new ideas to solve the problem.


You look at things & ask -
why?
I dream of things that never were &
ask

George Bernard Shaw

Rephrase the Problem
Stating the problem differently often leads to different ideas
To reword a problem result in looking from different angles

Ask for “ways to increase productivity”
Rephrasing and ask for “ways to make the jobs easier”

‘be productive’ might seem like a sacrifice for the company, while ‘make your job easier’
may be more like something you’re doing for your own benefit.

In the end, the problem is still the same, but the feelings — and the
points of view — associated with each of them are vastly different!


Rephrasing the Problem
- We don’t have enough customers
- There is too much competition in this market
- Customers don’t like our products
- Customers don’t know where to buy our products
- Customers think we are too expensive
- We position ourselves not right to meet ambitions
- Our sales force is lacking creativity …….


Think in reverse:
If you feel you cannot think of anything new, try turning
things upside-down.
Instead of focusing on how you could solve a problem/
improve operations/ enhance a product, consider how
could you create the problem/worsen operations/
downgrade the product.
The reverse ideas will come flowing in!
Consider these ideas – once you've reversed them again –
as possible solutions for the original challenge


Think in reverse:
• What could we do to stop sales?
• What could we do to have customers
stop buying our products?
• What ……..

• What could you do with these new points of view?


Give options to become creactive:
At individual level
At organization level

At board level
On the work floor


Some options to become cre :
- more time / budget / resources to turn ideas
into practice
- better knowledge about how our brains work & what
creativity improves
- more initiatives to surround oneself with free
creative minds
- openness for external impulses that enable
creativity


According to a 2010 study by IBM, creativity is the
single most important attribute that CEOs think is
important for future business success.
Without new ideas, new products, and new processes,
the risk is to be left behind by the competition

So HR professionals pick up the challenge!

Activate Creativity

Epilogue……
….. Creativity can take many forms and come in many
blends, in part because its intellectual, stylistic, and
personality facets can combine in essentially an infinite
number of ways.
Some people will have more of the intellectual attributes,
others more of the stylistic attributes, and still others
more of the personality attributes ...
creativity will manifest itself depending on the blend of
characteristics one brings to one’s attempt at creative
performance and the opportunity to do so provided by the
organisations culture …….

cre

activate your creative potential
The challenge for HR

OK or not?


Time for new business initiatives?

HR start activating creativity!
Call + 31 653 641 905

Alexander Crépin
info@crepinconsult.nl

See also my workshop

coaching = investing in your future

Thank you for being
interested in
creativity
I help to succeed

Alexander Crépin + 31 653
641 905

Workshop Activating Creativity THE HR challenge for the coming years by Alexander Crepin

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Workshop Activating Creativity THE HR challenge for the coming years by Alexander Crepin