Creativity Management
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Creativity Management
Sandy Cormack
interzon@comcast.net
Creativity Management - Copyright 2010
Creative Style Defined
• Creative Style = Thinking Style– Theory explores the way
people solve problems– All people need to manage
change successfully– All people solve problems
and are creative, but not in the same manner
Creativity Management - Copyright 2010
Adaptors and Innovators
• Characteristics of the INNOVATIVE creative style:– Need for less structure
– Solves problems by breaking, modifying, eliminating, replacing the current paradigms
– Prefer radical, transformational change
– ‘Do Things Differently’
• Characteristics of the ADAPTIVE creative style:– Need for more structure
– Solves problems by refining, extending, improving the current accepted paradigm
– Prefer incremental, predictable change
– ‘Do Things Better’
Creativity Management - Copyright 2010
Descriptive Summary
High ADAPTOR seen as: High INNOVATOR seen as:
Problem Definition •Looking for threats from within (personnel, process, etc)
•Looks for threats from without (competition, new technology, etc)
Ideation •Producing a few, relevant, sound safe ideas for prompt implementation, respectful of precedent
•Producing many ideas that are exciting, “blue-sky,” and of high promise, but also too many seen as impractical, unsound
Methodology •Precise, reliable, master of detail, conforming, methodical, prudent•Seeking solutions to problems in tried and understood ways
•Thinking tangentially, approaching tasks from unsuspecting angles, often undisciplined/inefficient•Challenging the problem’s basic assumptions, manipulates problems
Management of Structure •Solves problems by use of rule, maintaining continuity, stability and group cohesion•Being an improver, rarely challenging rules, ‘too wedded’ to the current system
•Solves problems despite rule, radical, abrasive, creating dissonance•Being a mold-breaker, often challenging rules, customs and consensual views, but taking too many unnecessary risks
Decision-making •Seeking to achieve consensus, maintain continuity and stability
•Willing to stand alone, forge ahead without consensus
Common Pejoratives •Stodgy, narrow, pedestrian, conforming, over-cautious
•Irrelevant, unsound, undisciplined, abrasive, reckless
Creativity Management - Copyright 2010
The KAI
KAI developed in the mid-80s after 20 years of creative style research
• Inventory of 33 questions• Yields a score between 32
and 160 (general population range is 45-145)
• Places individuals on a continuum from ‘Highly Adaptive’ to ‘Highly Innovative’
Creativity Management - Copyright 2010
National KAI Distribution
Mean = 95, Standard Deviation ~ 20
Adaptors Innovators
Mild ~ 95-80 Mild ~ 96-110
Medium ~ 79-65 Medium ~ 111-123
High ~ 64-50 High ~ 124-139
Very High ~ 49 or less Very High ~ 140 or more
Creativity Management - Copyright 2010
Creative Style is NEVER a Pejorative
• All people problem-solve and are creative• Adaptors and innovators can be equally good or bad at problem
solving – they just do so differently• It takes a wide range of styles to solve all problems• Do not tolerate creative style differences – welcome them
MEYOU
Creativity Management - Copyright 2010
Style is Relative
An individual may be more innovative or more adaptive, relative to others in the group
MEMore adaptive than…More innovative than…
Creativity Management - Copyright 2010
Problem A - Problem B
• When I solve a problem by myself, I am faced only with the problem at hand (Problem A)
• When I ask for your help at solving a problem, I am now faced with two problems: – The problem at hand
(Problem A)– The problem that lies
between us because we have different creative styles (Problem B)
A
A
B
Creativity Management - Copyright 2010
Managing Creative Diversity
• Managing diversity is the key to managing change
• To be effective, we have to– MANAGE Problem B, so that we can– FOCUS MAXIMUM ENERGY on Problem A
B
Creativity Management - Copyright 2010
Narrow Diversity
• A group with narrow creative styles tends to communicate, work together and trust one another well (i.e. naturally minimize Problem B)….
BUT……prefer Problem A to fall within their ‘narrow range’
Problem A Range
Problem B
Creativity Management - Copyright 2010
Wide Diversity
• A group with widely dispersed creative styles can solve a wider range of problems
BUT……have more trouble managing Problem B
Problem B
Problem A Range
Creativity Management - Copyright 2010
Group Training• Diversity Audit – Perform KAI on a group and
– Ask members how diversity can be immediately used– Ask members what can be used in the future and how– Train them to accept and welcome creative diversity– Ask members to consider the costs of failing to accommodate diversity– Explore with them the relationship between managing diversity and
managing change– Train them techniques to simulate different creative styles
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