creativity management

Creativity Management

Sandy Cormack

[email protected]

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


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’


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


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’


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


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


Style is Relative

An individual may be more innovative or more adaptive, relative to others in the group

MEMore adaptive than…More innovative than…


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


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


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


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


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

creativity management

Business

problem b problem b

people problem

range problem b

hand problem

narrow range problem

innovative creative

adaptive creative style

creative adaptors