Creativity and Innovation Management Competencies
Creativity and Innovation are often used interchangeably, yet they are (and should be) separate and distinct.
Creativity and Innovation
Management Competencies
The words Creativity and Innovation are often treated as interchangeable. In fact they are (and should be) separate and distinct.
There are six levels of competency required.
Creativity can be defined as
Whereas innovation can be defined as
It is clear from the above that at least six creativity management competencies are required (including one holistic).
1. Problem Identification
Problem identification alone requires considerable expertise
Ask five people what the problem is and it is not unusual to receive six answers.
Customers, sales, marketing, designers, technicians, finance, and management all have their own ideas regarding what the problem is.
Thus any problem identification session should include as diverse a variety of people as possible.
Further, people’s ideas about what the problem is are not static.
Their views change according to the information they have.
The process of information gathering is the first step in the problem identification process and the good decision-making process.
2. Idea Generation
Before the group brainstorming session, it is wise to ask each contributor to research in-depth their perspective of the problem.
Thus when they arrive at the group session, their ideas and contributions are more mature.
Once we have a problem to be resolved in mind, we can begin the idea-generating.
This involves generating a large number of ideas as possible, a large number of diverse ideas and a large number of novel ideas.
Competencies in Idea Generation Techniques
Competencies in idea-generation techniques are a must
For example, creative thinking versus critical thinking is used where ideas are generated without evaluation and then critically evaluated at a later stage, preferably in a polar opposite environment.
Creative thinking is best done in an environment with many stimuli, whereas critical evaluations tend to be more effective in conservative, corporate environments where factors such as the bottom line have more gravity.
3. Idea Selection
Idea selection involves just as many people as the previous sections.
All must input their arguments if the best decision is to be made.
Many more ideas are chosen than will actually make it through to the final commercialisation stage.
The Economist (2003) stated that 3000 bright ideas are needed for 100 worthwhile projects, which in turn will be winnowed down to four development programmes for new products.
And four such development programmes are the minimum needed to stand any chance of getting one winner.
4. Development
Development is the prototyping, experimentation, and funnel stage.
The best of the best ideas have their viability tested by going through a stage-gate process.
There is a fine line. Keeping an idea in the funnel longer allows it to attain its potential but takes away resources that may allow other ideas to flourish.
5. Commercialisation
Finally, commercialisation is the ultimate testing ground for decisions made thus far.
However, commercial failure is not necessarily disastrous.
If strategic, technical, and other competencies are learned they will aid the success of future endeavours.
Creativity and innovation infrastructures may blossom and that helps improvements in the product, process, positioning, and paradigm levels.
Ridley Scott scored an early failure with Blade Runner but went on to great successes later.
This article was contributed by Kal Bishop, MBA
Creativity and Innovation Management Competencies
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