HBack in 2006, Inventium’s founder, Dr Amantha Imber was working as a consumer psychologist in a big advertising agency. The agency had put her through a lot of creative thinking training which she loved. However, when she started getting deeper into researching the field, she realised that all these training companies had done was rip off Edward de Bono techniques from the 70s and re-package them as their own. She thought that, ironically, this was pretty uncreative.

1. p. +61 3 9018 7455
f. +61 3 9528 4787
m. +61 (0) 412 6565 38
e. info@inventium .com .au
PO Box 1251, Brighton Rd LPO, Elwood,
VIC, Australia 3184
Inventium
http://www.inventium.com.au/
Back in 2006, Inventium’s founder, Dr Amantha Imber was working as a
consumer psychologist in a big advertising agency. The agency had put
her through a lot of creative thinking training which she loved.
However, when she started getting deeper into researching the field,
she realised that all these training companies had done was rip off
Edward de Bono techniques from the 70s and re-package them as their
own. She thought that, ironically, this was pretty uncreative.

2. p. +61 3 9018 7455
f. +61 3 9528 4787
m. +61 (0) 412 6565 38
e. info@inventium .com .au
PO Box 1251, Brighton Rd LPO, Elwood,
VIC, Australia 3184
Amantha had always been a bit of a science geek and kept reading the
jargon-filled academic journals long after leaving university. She noticed
that there were hundreds, if not thousands, of studies being conducted
around the world that looked at what variables increased a person’s
ability to think more creatively and a company’s ability to innovate.
However, she realised that there was a great divide between this great
research that was being done in the world of academia, and what was
actually getting used in the ‘real world’.
So in 2007, she had the idea of starting a company that applied the
science of psychology and neurology to boosting creativity and
innovation - something that had never been done before. Since
Inventium opened its doors, Amantha and her team, have helped
literally thousands of people across Australia, the United States, the UK,
Europe, Africa and New Zealand improve their ability to generate great
ideas.

3. p. +61 3 9018 7455
f. +61 3 9528 4787
m. +61 (0) 412 6565 38
e. info@inventium .com .au
PO Box 1251, Brighton Rd LPO, Elwood,
VIC, Australia 3184
Second of all, give people a sense of
Five ways to inspire progress. Research employee motivation
innovation and engagement and learn how these
impact on innovation and performance. A
Ok, so you have identified the need to recent study revealed that the majority of
innovate within your business or managers wrongly believe 'recognition for
organisation, but where on earth do you good work' (either public or private) to be
start? Or perhaps you already have started, the most important factor. However, the
but you have hit a plateau and need to most important factor was revealed to be
ramp things up again? Whatever the case, 'progress'. The study revealed that making
here are five simple ways you can inspire progress was most frequently associated
your team – and yourself – to innovate. with high motivation, positive emotions and
innovation, more so than any other
First of all, make it challenging. No one ever workday event. Managers should therefore
came up with a great idea from being given ensure that they are provide goals that
a really simple task. Easy and enable progress to be made and
straightforward tasks do not breed acknowledged. As individuals, we should
creativity. Likewise, when people are also set ourselves small goals that we can
stressed and tearing their hair out, it is not work and progress towards.
likely to will come up with any great ideas.
Make sure that both you and your team feel Thirdly, provide autonomy. As a manager, it
significantly challenged by the problems is incredibly tempting to tell people how to
and projects you are working on. When get from A to B, however, this temptation
humans feel challenged they naturally like must be resisted as it completely kills
to solve these challenges, and when an easy innovation. If you simply tell people how to
answer does not immediately present itself, solve problems, they will lack the
that is our moment for our creativity to motivation to come up with better solutions
shine. themselves. Instead, ensure people are

4. p. +61 3 9018 7455
f. +61 3 9528 4787
m. +61 (0) 412 6565 38
e. info@inventium .com .au
PO Box 1251, Brighton Rd LPO, Elwood,
VIC, Australia 3184
clear on the problem that has to be solved, innovation. Asking people to submit any old
and give them the room to explore how idea into a suggestion box will result in a
they can get from A to B. When people have stack of ideas that are completely off
autonomy and flexibility, they come up with strategy. To ensure time spent on
significantly more innovative solutions. innovation and idea generation is as
productive and efficient as possible, make
Fourth, you must encourage assumption
sure you spend time defining the key
crushing. Think about whenever you are
problems and opportunities that you want
faced with a problem to solve, there is
your team to innovate around. This means
always a bunch of assumptions sitting in the
that the ideas you receive will complement
back of your head. These relate to things
the overall business strategy.
you automatically assume to be true about
the problem, however, the bad thing about
these assumptions is that they effectively
How to overcome
put up a fence in our brain that limits
thinking from moving beyond that point.
“Team-think”
Inspire people to come up with more Most of us have been a victim of groupthink
innovative solutions to problems by at some stage in our working lives. If you
identifying and then crushing the have been sitting with the same team for
assumptions they have by asking the past year, you’ve probably also become
themselves, “What if the opposite was a victim of ‘team-think’.
true?” By asking this question of every
assumption they make, they will get to This happens a lot in companies that deal
some very inventive solutions. with similar problems for their various
clients. I work with several advertising and
Finally, provide clear problems and media agencies and often the key issue for
opportunities for people to solve. This many of their clients is generating
might sound a bit obvious, but few awareness for their products. When the
organisations do this well in regards to

5. p. +61 3 9018 7455
f. +61 3 9528 4787
m. +61 (0) 412 6565 38
e. info@inventium .com .au
PO Box 1251, Brighton Rd LPO, Elwood,
VIC, Australia 3184
agency tries to generate ideas on how to do one workshop for a national postal services
this, the strategies tend to revolve around organisation, we had the artistic director of
the same few media channels, such as TV, a circus troupe, a creative director from an
print and outdoor campaigns, or creating a advertising agency, an 18-year-old
viral video and posting it on YouTube. university student and a TV host. Needless
to say, the ideas generated in the workshop
Research suggests that teams which have
were wonderfully varied.
been together for a while develop a set of
entrenched assumptions, ways of doing So, rather than try to think creatively on
things and set patterns of behaviour. The your own, try to partner up with someone
good news is there is a cure: introducing a you don’t normally work with. Use them as
new member to the team. Studies show a springboard for fleshing out your ideas
that when a new member joins a team, and let them go in directions you wouldn’t
existing assumptions, attitudes and if you were working on your own. Most
behaviours are far less likely to be importantly, listen to their input and be
activated. The new person triggers new open to going in directions you would not
thoughts and behaviours. normally.
While it can be tempting to leave
harmonious teams alone, rotating
Creativity loves
employees around to different teams
regularly, say every 6–8 months, can
boundaries
considerably enhance creativity. Letting your mind wander wherever it
When I run idea-generation sessions for needs to, starting with a blank canvas and
clients, I almost always insist they invite being free of rules are all considered
people who do not work for their company. conducive to creativity. However, the latest
I encourage them to include as diverse a psychological research has shown the
mix of people as possible. For example, in complete opposite.

6. p. +61 3 9018 7455
f. +61 3 9528 4787
m. +61 (0) 412 6565 38
e. info@inventium .com .au
PO Box 1251, Brighton Rd LPO, Elwood,
VIC, Australia 3184
In one study, a group of adults was asked to to complete, our brains switch into
make a construction using Lego. One group autopilot if it is a familiar problem.
was given no constraints; they were told
However, this autopilot mode dramatically
that they could build whatever they liked.
impairs performance when we have to think
The other group had several constraints
of completely novel ideas. Constraining the
placed upon them; they were told that their
way we think forces us to search for new
construction must contain no right-angled
and creative ways of completing the task or
joints and they could only use one kind of
solving the problem. In a paradoxical way,
brick.
putting constraints on our tasks lifts the
The constructions built by the ‘constraints’ constraints on our thought processing.
group were judged to be significantly more
Here are a couple of tips to help apply these
creative and lateral than those in the ‘free
findings:
expression’ group.
- Try to avoid taking on tasks that are
So why does this happen? When completing open-ended and overly broad. If you find
tasks, we typically draw on what we know yourself in this situation, challenge yourself
rather than seeking new ideas and opinions. to apply a constraint to the task to make
Often, information retrieval becomes yourself perform more creatively.
automated in our brains because it is useful - Whenever you feel yourself going into
and saves us having to come up with new autopilot, ask your boss to apply a
solutions every time we face a problem. In constraint to the task (or do it yourself).
other words, when we are assigned a task