Promote innovation in the company. a divergent panorama

Perhaps for various reasons, the second half of this century has seen a growing interest in creativity and innovation: also, of course, in companies. In these, it seems that creativity is beginning to be postulated as quality was postulated some 30 years ago. Immediately, the emphasis was then on "control" of quality and its "management." Now, while continuing to "do things right" for customer satisfaction, we also have to "think better of things" to generate ideas that allow us to outperform our competitors. Perhaps we will soon speak of "imagination management", as we have been talking about quality management, or knowledge management. Without a doubt, we are going to need good ideas.

Without going too far into the past, the steam engine, the railroad, or more recently the automobile, the telephone, or aviation are recognized as great innovations. But we have also celebrated, for example, the arrival of household appliances, card payments or shopping carts; It is already seen that some innovations seem to have induced others, because, in their consolidation, they open new paths. But, as we well know, innovation in companies is not only aimed at new products or services; also to new methods and tools, new ways of managing your resources and capabilities, or new ways of reaching customers. We can also be innovative or original in a personal capacity, that is: in managing our time, in our continuous learning methods, in reacting to the unexpected, etc.

Although in itself the novelty already produces a certain satisfaction, we know well that it is not about innovating to innovate, but to improve the business; We innovate to get closer to the vision or strategic objectives formulated as a business project. Good ideas are known to have led to success in many organizations of different sizes; even many of these innovative companies have been able to afford failed attempts. It is not always properly about research or inventing: neither McDonald's invented the hamburger, nor Sony the magnetic recording of video or audio, nor 3M the paper; But these companies, like so many others outside and within our country, have a well-earned reputation as innovators. All are typically companies in which a business culture open to changes, new ideas,the assumption of risks and, therefore, possible failures.

Individual creativity

Given the right conditions, we all put our thinking skills to work, including divergent thinking, characteristic of creativity. Perhaps it is worth recalling here the Herrmann model of thinking brain functioning, to agree that there are modes of thought (divergent, synthetic, holistic, conceptual, systemic, analytical, proactive…) that we should develop further, for the benefit of our professional performance. All the modalities listed in the table, and surely others, can be developed: this helps, from the outset, awareness of their need. Taylorism seemed to leave no room for our ability to think and feel, but that is now over.

Systemic thinking

Conceptual thinking

Critical thinking

Strategic thinking

Holistic thinking

Analytical thinking

Synthetic thinking

Divergent thinking

Convergent thinking

Proactive thinking

Parallel thinking

Conciliatory thinking

By being good divergent thinkers, or perhaps by using common techniques such as those proposed by Edward de Bono, we can generate elaborate original ideas, with fluidity and diversity. If we are also good convergent thinkers, we can make a first evaluation of the validity of our ideas. But where do they come from? If we allow ourselves to be carried away by the more rational part of our brain, our thinking is probably linear, subjected to a kind of self-censorship. For this reason, far from the improvisation arising from consciousness, in many cases it is convenient to ask for help from distant memory or preconsciousness, and even entrust the work to the subconscious, which moves with greater freedom.

If creative demand is indeed a challenge, we have to internalize it to encourage the incubation of ideas. Then they can come up at any time, whether or not we are working on the problem. In fact - surely we have experienced it at some time - if an idea catches us on the wrong foot, it could disappear without giving us time to register it in consciousness. All of the above seems obvious, but experts denounce that, in companies, we often appeal to the imagination with some superficiality and even frivolity, and we prematurely close the creative processes without allowing ideas still in incubation to emerge (Zeigarnick Effect).

It should also be remembered that there are naturally creative individuals, as there are pragmatic, decisive, conciliatory, calculating… A study by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi concludes that creatives are individuals with complex personality, presenting opposite personality traits at different times. Although the study was developed on people who are socially recognized as creators, it can be admitted, from experience, that workers with a creative profile generally constitute a certain nightmare for their bosses. Naturally, it is easier to manage submissive, predictable and disciplined people, but new managers take on the challenge of managing each employee according to their characteristics and their moment.

In reality we can all be more creative if we set our minds to it, and if work did not provide us with opportunities, surely we would look for them outside of it. Some degree of personal fulfillment is a necessity for everyone, and creating valuable novelty is especially gratifying, as is high performance in what we do: all this has also been studied by Professor Csikszentmihalyi. Personal creativity - he tells us - constitutes a satisfactory channeling of our psychic energy and therefore contributes to our happiness.

But we must also remember that creative energy is not enough to ensure innovation; If we lack the necessary training and information about the field or system to which we wish to apply our imagination, we could end up being outlandish. A certain degree of creativity - natural or acquired - must be added a good dose of training and information, intrinsic motivation, perseverance, concentration capacity, alignment or commitment to the vision and strategy formulated, sagacity, and perhaps also daring, among other attributes. All this requires innovation in the company.

Corporate creativity

Undoubtedly, companies are becoming aware of the importance of their intellectual capital, although there is still a long way to go. Regarding the impulse of ideas in favor of innovation, it must be remembered that it is not only a matter of originally and efficiently solving old or new problems; companies also need creativity to achieve new goals and better exploit their competitive advantages.

Reach new goals

Solve problems

Better exploit the benefits

Create new items

differentiators

We discover nothing when we say that the innovative movement has to spring from the corporate culture and the company project; It must be inspired by the vision of the company and, consequently, by customer satisfaction. Otherwise, it could generate misaligned efforts, and lead to the result of individual creatives. Alignment is - Robinson and Stern at Corporate Creativity emphasize - a critical ingredient as a catalyst for corporate creativity. Thus, the concept of creative tension -the one created by the distance between the reality of the company and its reference vision- would allow us to expect a good flow of ideas, if it were not for some physical and psychological resistance that is often present. The excess, by the way,tension (both at the organizational level and in the immediate environment) does not seem recommendable, because it simultaneously increases the psychological barriers to creativity. Sometimes, managers, not knowing how to energize their employees, choose to pressure or stress them in search of greater performance. It can be effective in the short term, but it does not seem the best solution but the simplest.

Creativity and teamwork

On the other hand, it would be said that, in general, we have been falling into the temptation to assimilate corporate creativity to a kind of team creativity: perhaps due to the diffusion of different forms of brainstorming that Alex Osborn conceived. The truth is that innovation requires the appropriate combination of individual work and teamwork; Or, in other words, work in the job and work in a meeting. The dose obviously depends on the type of creative challenge and the stage of the process: identification of the problem, incubation of ideas-solutions, their appearance and formulation, evaluation, and implementation. In the simplest case, it would appear that the first half of the process is individual and divergent, and the other half team and convergent;But the challenges are not always simple and it may be necessary to work as a team from the very identification of the challenge, including underlying problems.

To be specific, the task of simplifying and making the instruction manuals for certain electrical appliances (sometimes poor translations from other languages) more accessible would be more affordable than addressing the task of improving the work environment with originality and efficiency, or for example, improve customer satisfaction in service companies. In the latter cases, the solution sought depends on various factors that can be related in a complex way: it could happen that by improving one factor, another is weakened. Although this oppositional thinking reminds us of the TRIZ method (theory for creative problem solving, which emerged in the Soviet Union in 1946), the Osborn-Parnes method (United States, 1941) may be more familiar to us. These methods, and the variants that emerged later,They highlight the importance of identifying the problem in depth. Many experts have continued to insist on this, including Jacob Getzels; of course, if we have not rigorously analyzed the problem, we have to doubt the subsequent process.

1. Formulate the creative challenge.

2. Collect information about it.

3. Analyze and define the problem.

4. Generate ideas.

5. Select and specify the solution.

6. Establish the action plan

It must be said that, to a greater or lesser degree, all the stages of the Alex Osborn and Sidney Parnes method (see box) make use of the brainstorming technique, and have their own divergent phase and their complementary convergent phase. It can serve as a reference for complex creative challenges, which must be tackled by suitable teams of people.

Role of middle managers

John Kao reminds us that the leader must create a climate that allows difficulties to be converted into creative energy. Managers have to consolidate a culture that encourages creativity, which sometimes means starting by neutralizing physical and psychological barriers. Many companies already have an advantage in the innovative culture, but the others are close. Despite the fact that they too may have valuable ideas, middle managers, whose role has evolved significantly in recent years, enjoy a privileged position to identify areas in need of innovation.

In corporate creativity, we can distinguish between bottom-up initiatives (suggestions from workers, for example in the Japanese kaizen teian style), horizontal initiatives (individual or group level) and top-down initiatives; the latter typically consist of the identification of sources in need of imagination. In this way, middle managers entrust the creative work to professionals closest to the challenge. The table collects some of the tasks that correspond to the new middle managers, in relation to innovation.

· Creation of favorable climates.

· Inform and develop collaborators.

· Diffusion of creativity as a value.

· Receptiveness to suggestions.

· Identification of sources of innovation.

· Analysis and definition of problems.

· Take care of the desired alignment and · synergy.

· Evaluation of innovative proposals

· Putting valuable ideas into practice.

· Recognition of creative efforts.

· Consolidate the innovative experience.

conclusion

The benefits of innovation (perhaps more properly speaking, the harm of complacency and immobility) are manifested when you bet on it authentically, from a company project shared by all its people. From that available reserve of emotional energy (intrinsic motivation), ideas can arise that add significant value to the company. They will arise, if we establish and feed the appropriate channels, and develop the intellectual potential of the organization, both in the creative capacity and in the rest of the competence dimensions. We saved a phrase read in The Daily Telegraph, for readers who have accompanied us here: "Creativity means questioning the established, and looking for new and better ways of doing things, for the benefit of the organization."It helps us to remind those employees who repeatedly ask themselves the why of things within companies: first they are identified as critical and perhaps "put under observation", but sooner or later their creative vein appears.