Proprietary and Confidential to North Highland Infusing your work with creativity and innovation 1
Proprietary and Confidential to North Highland
Infusing your workwith creativity andinnovation
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- -Copyright 2014 The North Highland Company. All Rights Reserved.
Session Objectives
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Baseline some perspectivesWhat’s a useful definition of creativity andinnovation? What are some examples?
Increase awareness of the dominate thinkingapproaches in the workplace todayWhat’s come before, what creates the workplacewe have today.
Provide 3 things you can do differentlyWays you can challenge your own thinking, andthat of others around you.
- -Copyright 2014 The North Highland Company. All Rights Reserved.
Creativity and Innovation – which is which?
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The Huffington Post, Scott Kaufman, PhDLifecycle of innovation, Tom Fishburne
What is often lacking is not creativity in the idea-creating sense but innovation in theaction-producing sense, i.e. putting ideas to work.Theodore Levitt
- -Copyright 2014 The North Highland Company. All Rights Reserved.
Just a couple of definitions….
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Photo credit: Dr. Julie Williamson
Innovation: A new matchbetween a need and a solution(Terwiesch and Ulrich, 2010)
Creativity: the ability to transcendtraditional thoughts, rules,patterns, and relationships and tocreate meaningful interpretations.
Tend to focus on themanagement of all ideas,not on the generation of
great ideas
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Innovation in History
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If I’d asked people what they wanted, they would have asked for faster horses.Henry Ford, 1920s
Source: The Atlantic, November 2013, Fallowshttp://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/11/innovations-list/309536/
- -Copyright 2014 The North Highland Company. All Rights Reserved.
Innovation in History
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If I’d asked people what they wanted, they would have asked for faster horses.Henry Ford, 1920s
Source: The Atlantic, November 2013, Fallowshttp://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/11/innovations-list/309536/
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Innovation Last YearTime Magazine ranks the 25 best inventions of 2013
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http://techland.time.com/2013/11/14/the-25-best-inventions-of-the-year-2013
Categories• Wildly entertaining• Extremely fun• Compelling• Interesting• Totally cool• A Major Deal• World Changing
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Some can change the world….
The GravityLightGravityLight produces 25 minutesof light from just the forceexerted by the weight of a bagof stones, sand or water—-anything heavy.
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http://techland.time.com/2013/11/14/the-25-best-inventions-of-the-year-2013
Deciwatt is a product developmentinitiative with a mission to explore
how ‘to do more with less’.
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Others are slightly unnerving…..
The Edible Password Pill from Motorola(aka Google)Swallowed once daily, the pill consists of atiny chip that uses the acid in your stomachto power it on. Once activated, it emits aspecific 18-bit EKG-like signal that can bedetected by your phone or computer,essentially turning your body into apassword.
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http://techland.time.com/2013/11/14/the-25-best-inventions-of-the-year-2013
Motorola Solutions centers onproduct development and
spends ~$1B on R&D
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But, for many, workplace innovation remains elusive
We know that the nation that goes all-in on innovation todaywill own the global economy tomorrow.
This is an edge America cannot surrender.
State of the Union Address, January 28, 2014
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- -Copyright 2014 The North Highland Company. All Rights Reserved.
What’s Going on Here?
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Scientific Management1. Replace loose approaches and experimentation with
methods based on scientific study of tasks2. Remove ‘learning by doing’, replace with scientific selection,
training, and development of employees3. Create detailed documentation, instructions, and supervision
for each worker and their discrete tasks4. Division of labor requires managers to plan the work, workers
to do the work, and planning the work requires scientificmanagement principles
F. Taylor, 1856 - 1915
predictable, efficient,organized, specialized, unemotional
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The Rise of Scientific Management
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- -Copyright 2014 The North Highland Company. All Rights Reserved.
So what do we do about it?
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What sparks ideas?ObstaclesProblemsCompetitionDesireAmbitionJoyChallengesInteractionTime pressure
What does it “look” like?ExperimentalIterativeMessyUnpredictableDisruptiveCombativeAnnoyingFrustratingSatisfyingPassionateConviction
- -Copyright 2014 The North Highland Company. All Rights Reserved.
Challenge This
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- -Copyright 2014 The North Highland Company. All Rights Reserved.
Consider the Anti-Cubicle Environment Think about a workplace refresh that creates natural interactions – break down
the walls literally and figuratively. Consider doing “sprints” offsite to get people out of their normal environment. Design space to express creatively in acceptable ways – idea walls, personal
profiles, problem solving spaces, design labs, etc. Encourage curiosity and health. Build it into the plan, create time and space
for it. Time is the determining factor!
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Magnatag.comPhoto credit: Dr. Julie Williamson
S2S Treadmill Desk
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Challenge This
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- -Copyright 2014 The North Highland Company. All Rights Reserved.
Gut Check for Sameness
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Low Trust High Trust
Low
Div
ersi
tyH
igh
Div
ersi
ty
Creative solutions abound,new solutions are producedorganically from the groupdynamic
Work gets done, change ishard to envision, new ideasdon’t emerge, threats maygo undetected
Individual focus, conflicthappens, communication is‘need to know’, innovation issilo-ed and secretive
Similar thinkers don’tcollaborate or share, lowtrust prevents a collective‘aha’, innovation suffers
Wildcatters Innovators
Steady ProducersLone Rangers
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Challenge This
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http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/pfd-process-flow-diagram-d_465.html
- -Copyright 2014 The North Highland Company. All Rights Reserved.
Expand the Thinking Paradigm
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Standardize to createpredictable outcomes.
Create opportunities to discover new matchesbetween needs and solutions.
Be efficient and move quickly.Build in time for people to explore optionsand to think critically.
Separate specialties to focus onspecific areas.
Support integrative thinking, createopportunities for experts to connect.
People only need to understandtheir immediate tasks.
People need to interact with others whohave different skills and challenges.
Eliminate questions by documentingeverything.
Encourage questions and interaction withothers, learning by doing.
Systems Thinking Design ThinkingStart by analyzing the processand collecting data.
Start by understanding the people andcontext in which the challenge exists
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Recognize the Value of Both
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Systems Thinking Design Thinking
Tim Brown, CEO of Ideo
Fredrick Taylor,Father of ScientificManagement
- -Copyright 2014 The North Highland Company. All Rights Reserved.
Three Things You Can Do
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The Anti-CubicleEnvironment• Does your environment
encourage creativity?• Are there ways you can
try differentenvironments?
Gut Check for Sameness
• Do you have high trustwith people who thinkdifferently from you?
• Do you need to developsome relationships thatpush you?
Expand how you think andsolve• Integrative thinking• Experiment and iterate• Include different voices• Reframe the problem• Learn by building and
doing
- -Copyright 2014 The North Highland Company. All Rights Reserved.
Following UpIf you have questions, comments, thoughts, or would like todiscuss further, please feel free to reach out!
Contact information:
JULIE WILLIAMSON, Ph.D
[email protected]://www.linkedin.com/in/juliewilliamsonwww.whathappensthen.com
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