The Art of Innovation- Integrating Creativity in Organizations Dimis Michaelides European Conference for Creativity and Innovation, Faro, September 2011

1. The Art of Innovation
Integrating Creativity in Organizations
Dimis Michaelides
European Conference for Creativity and Innovation,
Faro, September 2011

2. Innovation happens when
the SOURCES of creativity
are mobilized
in an organized
STRUCTURE
& within an appropriate
CULTURE

4. Talent
Method Energy
The SOURCES of Creativity are the elements required
for any purposeful creative act

5. Talent

6. Talent
The set of skills required
to imagine new things
and make them happen
We ALL have creative
skills and we can ALL
develop them further

7. Energy

8. Energy
The attention and
personal resources
we devote to an
issue

9. Method

10. Method
The way we confront
challenges
Method makes creativity
more effective, because
it helps develop Talent,
and channel Energy in
purposeful ways

11. Creative Problem Solving Method
Alex Osborn and
Sidney Parnes in the
1950’s proposed a
method in sequential
stages with the
systematic practice of
DIVERGENT &
CONVERGENT
thinking
Photos used with permission of the Creative Education Foundation, Inc.

12. TRIZ Problem solving by Altshuller

15. Many creative techniques support the
practice of creative method
Provocation
Pluses potentials concerns & overcome
Guided visualization
Analogies
Mind mapping
What’s Good About It?

16. ENRICH YOUR SOURCES OF CREATIVITY
Help people enhance their creative skills, mobilize their
creative drive, train and practice creative methodology

17. MONSANTO used creative method, to redefine
food sweetening and beat its competition to
market with Nutrasweet

18. System Individual
Target Team
The STRUCTURE of Innovation is the organized
context in which innovation happens

19. Individual

20. A Job Can Be…
A Chore
• we don’t like it but we have
to do it
A Career
• we are OK with it as a path
to something better
A Calling
• we do it because we love it

21. Team

22. Team

23. Target

24. Target
What does innovation
mean for YOUR
organization?
Clearly defining objectives
gives purpose to innovation
Innovation can be directed
to new or improved
products/services or to
a new business model or
to new processes and
ways of working

25. Radical Innovation
Space tourism (Virgin Galactic?)
Commercialized GPS
Digital camera
MP3 (Apple & others)
Personal computers (Apple, IBM)
ATMs (IBM, NCR)
Disposable diapers (Procter &
Gamble)

26. Differentiation or Business Model Innovation

27. Kaizen

28. System

29. System
the mechanism by which new ideas are exploited
CREATIVITY CLUB Creativity
Champions

30. DESIGN A STRUCTURE TO SUPPORT INNOVATION
Match jobs to individual preferences, train people in
innovative teamwork, define innovation strategy and
goals, set up good systems to manage new ideas

31. TOYOTA’s long-term target of innovation through
continuous improvement made it a world leader.
Participation in Toyota’s suggestion system is
expected of all staff.

32. Ideas
Risk Freedom
Humor Engagement
The CULTURE of innovation is the set of values,
behaviors and norms that promote innovation

33. Ideas

34. Ideas

35. Freedom

36. Empower your
people with open
job remits
Minimize rules and
regulations
Promote debate
and free
expression

37. Engagement

38. Engagement
The unwritten contract between the employer
and employee to help each other grow
It is a relationship based on trust

39. Humor

40. Humor helps:
Overcome tensions
Improve communication
Build relationships
Reduce anxiety & stress
See things from novel
viewpoints

41. Risk

42. Organizations are more likely to be innovative
if they create the environment where
employees can take reasonable risks

43. SHAPE A CULTURE TO PROMOTE INNOVATION
Support new ideas, open debate and minimal regulations,
ensure strong organization-people commitment,
encourage laughter, play and reasonable risks

44. SOUTHWEST AIRLINES credits its success to a culture
whose values include freedom, engagement and humor.
After the attacks of 9/11, when all airlines announced
layoffs, SOUTHWEST announced a profit-sharing scheme.

45. Unlike models real
life organizations are
not so tidy!
It is the skillful
synthesis of these
12 elements that
makes an
organization
innovative

46. Ten years ago, WHIRLPOOL launched a global effort to embed
innovation as a core competency. The company redesigned
processes, trained thousands of people, built an innovation
management system and changed the culture of the company.
In 2007, WHIRLPOOL generated more than $2.5 billion from
product innovations and had a pipeline of $4.5 billion.

47. The Art of Innovation
Integrating Creativity in Organizations
www.theartofinnovation.net
www.dimis.org