Creativity in innovation processes

Vesa Harmaakorpi

5 credits

Vesa HarmaakorpiProfessor

Innovation SystemsLappeenranta University of Technology

Lahti School of Innovation

Content and requirements

Lectures 24 h Assignment Exam (lectures + the study material)

Vesa Harmaakorpi

Evaluation

Assignment 50 % Exam 50 %

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Lecture days

7 May 2013, Background: Innovativeness and creativity (6 h), Vesa Harmaakorpi

8 May 2013, Workshop on creativity (6 h), Anne Pässilä

16 May, 2011 Creative methods of innovativeness (6 h), Tapani Frantsi

17 May, 2011 Innovation session (6 h), Tapani Frantsi

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Focus of the course

Creative personality Creative thinking skills and methods Creative will and motivation

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Creative personality

• Develop your own creative and innovative thinking.

• Feel encouraged to use methods that enhance creativity and innovativeness.

• Are able to view your own identity and role as innovation promotor.

• Are aware of the positive use of methods and ways of action.

Vesa Harmaakorpi

Skills and methods of creative thinking

• To see and experience different ways of approaching problems and solving them.

• To get ideas for new integrated methods.• To get ideas how to apply the methods in

different environments and processes.

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Creative will and motivation

• To analyse your own motivation, interaction and your own style of intervention with others.

• To analyse the issues that are found problematic in the work of a creative group.

• Your socio-cultural reading ability is challenged, you will learn to observe the different status and hierarchies in communication.

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Group assignment

• What is creativity?• Decsribe a concrete situation in which creativity

has bloomed.• Describe a concrete situation in which creativity

has been killed.

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The new innovation paradigm

Vesa Harmaakorpi

Vesa HarmaakorpiProfessor

Innovation systemsLappeenranta University of Technology

Lahti School of Innovation

Origins of innovation?

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Science-based Science, technology, innovation (STI)

Practice-based Doing, using, interacting (DUI)

Innovations - new ideas taken into practice

Combining knowledge, expertice and technology in novel ways.

Many different types: product, process, oganisational, social, system, service…

They are often developed complex, interactive and continuous priocesses.

They are not a marginal phenomenon but a part of everyone’s life.

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Analytical vs. interpretative process of innovation

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ANALYSIS INTERPRETATION

•The focus is a project, with a well-defined beginning and end•The thrust is to solve pre-defined problems•Managers set goals•Managers convene meetings and negotiate to resolve different viewpoints and eliminate ambiguity•Communication is the precise exchange of chunks of information

•The focus is a process, which is ongoing and open-ended•The thrust is to discover new meanings•Managers set directions•Managers invite conversations and translate to encourage different viewpoints and explore ambiguity•Communication is fluid, context-dependent, undetermined

Looking for structural holes…

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Metal industry

Biotechnologyresearch

Information technology research

Nanotechnology reserach

.

Clients

Distances in structural holes

Geographic Cultural Social Organisational Cognitive Communicative Functional

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Video

Stora Enso Packaking

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Group assignment

Discuss what happened in the video What has that to do with innovation? Distances?

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Innovation System

Vesa Harmaakorpi Autio, 1998

Absorptive capacity in innovation systems

Vesa Harmaakorpi Autio, 1998; Zahra & George, 2002

Third generation regional innovation systems

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Knowledge exploitation subsystem

Knowledge generation subsystem

Innovation policyInnovation intermediary toolsInnovation culture

Constructed competitiveness

Cross-disciplinarity

Related variety platforms Changing

Techno-

Economic

Paradigm

Economic

Development

Policy

Science and

Technology

Policy

Innovation system

Modes of knowledge production

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Mode 1 knowledge production is traditional knowledge production based on single disciplines. It is homogeneous and primarily cognitive (STI).

Mode 2 knowledge knowledge production, by contrast, is created in broader, heterogeneous interdisciplinary social and economic contexts within an applied setting (DUI).

Science-based innovation (STI, Mode 1)

Practice-based innovation(DUI, Mode 2a)

Practice-based innovation (DUI, Moodi 2b)

Most typical logics and capital

Agglomeration – Clusters – Economies of scaleIntellectual capital – Financial capital

Proximity

Related variety – Innovation platformsSocial capital – Institutional capital

Distance

Developing innovation capability – Breaking silos Social capital – Structural capital

”Near distance”Most typical innovation types and processes

Radical technological innovations and related concepts

Analytical

Radical concepts and system innovations

Interpretative

Organisational innovations - Social innovations - Service innovations

InterpretativeMost typical innovation methods and environments and knowledge transfer mechanism

Scientific methods

World class scientific centres

Technology diffusion for the firms of clusterScience and related expertise

Methods of intellectual cross-fertilisation (also virtual)Arenas of intellectual cross-fertilisation in value networks

Scanning and absorbing technology and market signalsNetworks, Serendipity, Customers

Problem-based learning (e.g. culture-based methods)Arenas of developing organisational innovation capabilityOrganisational learning

”Normal” staff, Customers Most typical logics of knowledge production

World classic scientific expertise in narrow fieldCodifield knowledgeAnalyticalHomogeneous knowledge production

Brokering – General ability to build possible worldsFuture-oriented SyntheticHeterogeneous knowledge production

Brokering – General ability to build possible worldsTacit knowledgeSymbolicHeterogeneous knowledge production

Most typical communication

Integrative Dissipative Dissipative

Most typical evaluation

Input-type measuresOutput-type measures

Dynamic measures Dynamic measures

Group assignment

Describe the differences between science-based and practice-based innovation.

Describe the differences between innovation processes that lead to a technical product and to a social ”service product”.

How do they affect creativity?

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Video

Toothtroll

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Group assignment

What happened in the video? Users in the process?

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In the source of creativity

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Vesa HarmaakorpiProfessori

InnovaatiojärjestelmätLappeenrannan teknillinen yliopisto

Lahti School of Innovation

Is it possible to teach creativity as a ”general skill”?

It may be difficult to teach creativity in the traditional sense of the word, but it is essential to nourish creativity!

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Creative personality

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• Problem solver

• Artistic personality

• Creativity as a way of life

Business Creativity

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Creative-thinking skills

Motivation

Expertise

(Amabile, 1997

Obstacles of creativity

Fragmentation Lock-ins Association obstacles Fast falsification of ideas Playing wrong

Illusion, delusion, collusion Playing right – creative play?

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Complexity of creative people

Creative people are very energetic, but on the other hand, they have an efficient way of retiring to silence and rest

Creative people are simultaneously intelligent and naive In creative people, playfulness and discipline coexist Creative people are at the same time capable of fantasizing

and of very realistic thinking Extrovert and introvert characteristics coexist in creative

people

Vesa HarmaakorpiCsikszentmihalyi, 1996

Complexity of creative people

Creative people are at the same time humble and proud. Creative people are often psychologically androgyne. Creative people are at the same time traditional and

conservative as well as rebellious and revolutionary Creative people are at the same time very emotionally

committed as well as critical and objective in relation with their work

Creative people are susceptible both to agony and to pleasure

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Logical thinking and response to stimuli

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Response to stimuli

Logical thinking

”Mad” ”Geniuses”

”Intelligent beavers”

Super-creative groups

The groups share a common dream, a vision Conflicts generating between people with big egos are solved

by reminding of the importance of the dream Activities are consciously guarded against the pressure,

routines or uncomprehension from the outside world or other units of mother organization

The groups have a real or imaginary enemy which helps the group to steel itself in relation to the enemy

The groups see themselves as challengers or winning underdogs

Vesa Harmaakorpi (Bennis, 1997)

Super-creative groups

Working in the groups often means personal sacrifices to the individuals

The leaders of the super-creative groups are not necessarily the most intelligent or competent members in issues of substance

The members are made to play the most ”optimal location” and the most optimal role for the entity

The groups share a youthful spirit and a playful culture, misfortunes are accepted and you fall forwards, not backwords from them

The dynamics in the group arises from the fact that the members have to produce an external result from their work

Vesa Harmaakorpi (Bennis, 1997)

Harmaakorpi creativity triangleHarmaakorpi creativity triangle

Vesa Harmaakorpi 17.10.2002 Vesa Harmaakorpi

Self-efficacy

Communication

Silence

Focus

Openness

Openness Openness

Group assignmentGroup assignment

Vesa Harmaakorpi

Discuss what the elements in Harmaakorpi’s creativity triangle mean from the point of view of creativity

Find practical examples from your own work environment that have fostered those elements of

Do you find examples of supressive methods?

Components of creativity management according to Amabile

Challenges Freedom Resources Group work characteristics Guidance and encouragement Support of the organization

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Challenges

Engage the right people to the right tasks Give people the right degree of challenge in

their work Too easy challenges are frustrating, too

difficult ones cause anxiety

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Freedom

One must be given freedom to choose how to climb a mountain

Not freedom to choose the mountain where to climb

Shifting from one target to another in the middle of climbing destroys creativity

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Resources

Time: Too fuzzy and loose deadlines lead to frustration.

Too tight dead-lines lead to burnout.

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Group work characteristics

Seeking distances Casting groups that support each other Super-creative groups

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Guidance and encouragement

Disposing of the feeling of haste Disposing of the appraisal of criticism Recognizing the value of creative work Nonfalsifying communication Role model given by the leader

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Support of the organization

Reward system Open distribution of knowledge Putting aside the ”political” problems

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Rewarding as a tool to boost creativity

Money does not necessarily put an end to people’s creativity, but in many occasions it does not have a boost effect either.

Creativity and rewarding of monkeys – is that what puts an end to creativity?

How to reward?

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