Cultivating an imaginative culture that behaves creatively

23 June, 2011

Michael Eckersley, PhD

Cartagena de Indias, Colombia

September 17, 2012


Cultivating an imaginative culture that behaves creatively

about us

OUR PRACTICES TOUCH RESULT

human research & discovery

products new value

concept development

servicesconsumer experience

design strategy systems perception

visualization / simulation

brands human behavior

environments system behavior

Q: How can an innovation culture

be cultivated in organizations?

Q: What would success look like?

What will new value, solutions and advantages resemble?

Q: What kinds of sensibilities, skills, and talents should be sought for to accomplish such

work?

Q: What tools, processes and

leadership should teams be given in order to succeed?

the context

Organizations are struggling to be competitive in a dynamic global economy, to achieve sustainable growth, and find the future first. All at the same time.

The challenges are significant...

changing ourselves

We are shaping the world faster than we can change ourselves, and we are applying to the present the habits of the past.”

– Winston Churchill

changing ourselves(1945)

The corporate environment has grown increasingly unstable, accelerative, and revolutionary... The adaptive corporation, therefore, needs a new kind of leadership. It needs “managers of adaptation” equipped with a whole set of new, nonlinear skills.

–Alvin Toffler, The Adaptive Corporation

the adaptive corporation(1985)

“Management is shifting from a stance of predicting and controlling change to one of building an organization to sense change and to respond appropriately – adaptive management”.

–Christopher MeyerMonitor

sense and respond(2003)

Work (and workers) today are very different from the atomized, industrial work models of the past

“In the archives of any decent -sized organization, an unfiltered record will show institutional life in all it’s boredom and inefficiency. Most initiatives fail. Internal competition trumps external goals. People are petty, whiny, and unmanageable.”

–Nicholas Lemann

the gap between what we are

and what we need to be is large

“Powerful constituencies inside the company collectively beat the change idea into a shape that more closely conforms to the existing business model rather than to the opportunity in the market.”

--Clayton Christensen

Efforts at change or innovation are

routinely met with stiff resistance.

Norms and best practices have

their place, but new value creation

requires experimentation.

“Innovation is a social or economic term, not a technological one, defined in terms of demand rather than supply. changing value and satisfaction obtained from resources by the consumer.”

–Peter Drucker

Innovation: a social phenomenon

we have built a system of organizational life that

repels human creativity,that inhibits innovation

SchedulesGoals

BudgetsMargins

ProjectionsCostsTeamsClients

AnalystsVendors

PRSales

ProductionService workers

ManagersStrategistsMarketersDesignersEngineers

AdministratorsRegulators

Auditors

too often lost is a sense of cohesion and integrated effort by people passionate to create new value as a pathway to the future

© HumanCentered 2007, All Rights Reserved

“90% of all publicly traded companies have proved themselves unable to sustain for more

than a few years a growth trajectory that creates above-average shareholder returns.”

–Clayton Christensen & Michael RaynorThe Innovator’s Solution

the growth imperative


Create new business models and organizational cultures that

promote innovative behavior

Goal:

how?the approach:

create the conditions that foster organic growth, social innovation, integrative thinking, creative behavior


All we have is us to produce the futures to produce the futures

we desire


management as an art:a systematic practice,

intellectual and practical

–Richard Buchanan, Case Western


The corporate imagination is a competency for seizing opportunities and creating

new ideas, new value

Human imagination is the ability to look at noisy, ambiguous situations, spot the critical dynamics, and visualize a more interesting, promising future than others are willing or able to see. The corporate imagination is the collective ability of it's people channeled to supply new ideas and systems.

What creativity is

•Creativity is not a characteristic of individuals; it is a class of activity.

•Ideation is not creativity. Uninformed ideas have no value.•Creativity changes the systems that give objects meaning.•Though there may be accidental discoveries, there is no

unintentional creativity.–from R. Robinson & J. Hackett, “Creating the Conditions for Creativity”, DMI Journal

“Creativity is an inspired riff on something understood deeply”. It is not making something up out of nothing. The value of creativity to an organization is in the solutions, the actionable ideas, the differentiated advantage it provides.

(and isn’t)


Design and integrative Design and integrative approaches to management approaches to management offer a way to change how offer a way to change how

companies think about risk and companies think about risk and opportunity, and act in adaptive opportunity, and act in adaptive

ways to define the future

(abductive)


productsservicesbrands

communicationssystems

experiencesetc.

conceivedprogrammed

organizeddeveloped

builtcrafted

engineeredfashioned

etc.

functionalityreliability

beautyelegance

profitabilityefficiencyviability

etc.

so what is design?

(deductive) (inductive)

“Design is a complex problem solving process whereby artifacts are structured to attain goals”

–Herbert Simon


In most people's vocabularies, In most people's vocabularies, designdesign means veneer. It's interior decorating. It's the fabric of the curtains of the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a human-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.

– Steve Jobs

so what is design?

"Design is only secondarily about pretty lumpy objects, and primarily about a whole approach to doing business, serving customers, and providing value."

"Design... has become central to enterprise strategy."

–Tom Peters

so what is design?


What is design thinking?

1. Conditioned inventiveness2. Human-centered focus3. Environment-centered concern4. Ability to visualize5. Tempered optimism6. Bias for adaptivity7. Predisposition toward multi-functionality8. Systemic vision9. View of the generalist10.Ability to use language as a tool11.Affinity for teamwork12.Facility for avoiding the necessity of choice13.Self-governing practicality14.Ability to work systematically with qualitative

information–Charles Owen, IIT


“Our interest now is in how to use design thinking, the methods and concepts of design practice, in the art of management to shape the organizations in which we live and work.”

–Richard Buchanan, Case Western

Smart firms are using design to Smart firms are using design to reshape management practice

a human-centered design approach

(learn & respond)

the conventionalbusiness approach

(predict & provide)

adapted from Vijay Kumar, IIT

sell them to customers

develop offerings

create a business

develop concepts & offerings

build a business

around them

deeply understand

users/contexts

>

>

build the bridge

physical/biological

socio-cultural

psychological

spiritual

Deep Search:human factors

global

macro economic

market/industry

organizational

High Search:environmental

& market factors

Learning Cycle 0

LearningCycle 1(time)

0

-1

-2

-3

- 4

+4

+3

+2

+1

“street-level” issues & operations

bottom-upinnovations

top-down innovations

Sources of design innovation

Social innovation: Contributor archetypes

thewarrior

theexplorer

thesaint

theartist

Inspired by challenge, individually and/or with a team, it is all about winning.

Inspired by exposure to new and different worlds, imagining something that has never been.

Inspired by connecting with and helping others; making the world a better place.”

Inspired by self-expression, making meaning through art, music, acting, writing, etc.

adapted from “Cultivating organizational creativity in an age of complexity.” IBM 2010 Chief Human Resource Officer Study


Design thinking offers ways to Design thinking offers ways to reframe old problems, ways of reframe old problems, ways of getting past sapping conflicts getting past sapping conflicts

and lousy trade-offs.and lousy trade-offs.It is a distinctively

and lousy trade-offs.and lousy trade-offs.integrativeIt is a distinctively integrativeintegrative

way of looking at the world.


Integrative thinking is “the predisposition and the capacity to hold two diametrically opposing ideas in their heads. And then, without panicking or simply settling for one alternative or the other, they’re able to produce a synthesis that is superior to either opposing idea. Integrative thinking is my term for this process...that is the hallmark of exceptional businesses and the people who run them.”

-Roger Martin, Rotman, “The Opposable Mind”

Design thinking and integrated Design thinking and integrated thinking: two sides of the same coin


Many of the current trends in business and industry are dilemmas or dilemmas or dilemmas or polarities to managepolarities to managepolarities to manage, not , not , not problems that can be solvedbe solvedbe solved. Distinguishing between the problems you can solve and those you cannot is important. The objective

of polarity management is to get the best of both oppositesoppositesopposites while avoiding the limits of each.

Polarity management is a Polarity management is a mode of integrated thinking

– Barry Johnson, “Polarity Management”, HRD Press

Managing polaritiesrefusing tradeoffs, looking for synthesis

physical world digital world

Forward-thinking business designs will seek to create new value at the intersection

of the physical and virtual worlds

systems thinking

design thinking

Finding solutions to complex problems requires both analytical and creative

thinking styles working together

efficiency disruptionComplex systems (for example, the human

body) are able to adapt in an orderlyfashion to unexpected challenges because

their many distinctive parts worksmoothly together

zero sumexpand the

pie

Creative leadership is about seeking opportunities for shared value creation, even in the toughest

times and most difficult circumstances

adapted from “Cultivating organizational creativity in an age of complexity.” IBM 2010 Chief Human Resource Officer Study

Social innovation is a human

phenomenon of collective intelligence,

understanding and imagination. The

sweet spot of innovation is more about

the people than about technology or

business models. Mastery is earned not

by power or control, but through patient

collaboration and persistent influence.

23 June, 2011


Cartagena de Indias, Colombia

September 17, 2012


Muchas gracias!!Cultivating an imaginative culture that behaves creatively

Cultivating an imaginative culture that behaves creatively

Design

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