Managing Creativity NICOLAE - MOULDER PDF

Managing Creativity:
ones own and other peoples
ACADEMIA DE STUDII ECONOMICE DIN BUCURETI
Mariana NICOLAE
James MOULDER
Managing Creativity:
ones own and other peoples
Editura ASE
Bucureti
2010
Copyright 2010, Editura ASE

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NICOLAE, MARIANA
Managing Creativity: ones own and other peoples / Mariana Nicolae,
James Moulder. - Bucureti : Editura ASE, 2010
Bibliogr.
ISBN 978-606-505-376-2
I. Moulder, James
65.012.4
ISBN 978-606-505-376-2
Editura ASE
Tehnoredactor: Carmen Nica
Coperta: Simona Buoi
For all who wish to have thoughts they haven't had before.
About the authors

Professor Mariana Nicolae holds a university degree in English literature
and linguistics from the University of Bucharest, Romania, a Ph.D. in
Education from the same university, and is currently working on a doctoral
degree in Management. Besides teaching, research and academic
management, her current duties involve institutional building, coaching and
mentoring, networking with people and organizations, publishing, traveling
both in-country and abroad to attend conferences and seminars and
organizing (inter)national conferences in Romania.
www.mibcom.ase.ro
mariana.nicolae@rei.ase.ro
James Moulder was educated at Rhodes University in South Africa and

Linacre College in the University of Oxford. His majors were theology and
philosophy. He has taught various business related subjects in MBA
programs in Australia, China, England, Indonesia, New Zealand, Romania,
South Africa and Spain. He retired in 2006 and lives in Melbourne,
Australia. His present research is focused on reading Confucius in business
environments and exploring organizational climates that encourage and
support creative thinking. In South Africa and Australia, his consulting
work involved working with multinationals on scenario thinking and
corporate creativity, as well as on general management training in creative
thinking, problem solving and decision making. Moulder is also a poet and
currently writes under the inspiration of Romanian poets, including
Eminescu.
Iulian Lixandru is a graduate of the Bucharest Academy of Economic

Studies. He has a bachelors degree from the Faculty of Economic
Cybernetics, Statistics and Informatics and a Masters Degree in
International Business Communication obtained from the Faculty of
International Business and Economics. Iulians professional interests
revolve around ERPs and business intelligence systems, communication and
leadership.
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...................................................................................... 11
PART ONE
Managing One's Own Creativity ..................................................... 13
1
2
3
4
5
6
Adaptors and Innovators .......................................................................... 15

The Four Step Creative Process ............................................................... 19
Brainstorming........................................................................................... 22
Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats for Exploring an Idea................... 25
Kurt Lewin's Force Field Analysis for Achieving a Goal........................ 29
Software for Creative Thinking ............................................................... 33
PART TWO
Managing Other People's Creativity.............................................. 37
7 When does an organization's culture encourage creative thinking? ........ 39
7.1 Alan Robinson and Sam Stern's criteria ........................................... 40
7.2 Teresa Amabile's criteria .................................................................. 43
7.3 The Situational Outlook Questionnaire's criteria.............................. 47
8 How may organizational design encourage creative thinking?................ 50
8.1 Blanchard and Waghorn's Structural Model..................................... 51
8.2 Moulder's Cascading Model ............................................................. 55
An appendix from the Center for Creative Leadership
The Innovation Assessment Process............................................................. 65
Conclusion................................................................................................... 67
Postscript
Managing Creativity in Higher Education Institutions ............................... 69
10
PART THREE
A Guide To The Literature Behind The Book............................ 75
1
2
3
4
5
6
7

Brainstorming........................................................................................... 89
Kurt Lewin's Force Field........................................................................ 104
Software for Creative Thinking ............................................................. 108
When does an organization's culture encourage creative thinking? ...... 117
7.1 Alan Robinson and Sam Stern's criteria.......................................... 117
7.2 Teresa Amabile's criteria................................................................. 119
7.3 The Situational Outlook Questionnaire's criteria ............................ 122
8 How may an organization's design encourage creative thinking? ......... 124
8.1 Blanchard and Waghorn's Structural Model................................... 124
8.2 Moulder's Cascading Model ........................................................... 125
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...................................................................................... 11
PART ONE
Managing One's Own Creativity ..................................................... 13
1
2
3
4
5
6

Brainstorming........................................................................................... 22
Kurt Lewin's Force Field Analysis for Achieving a Goal........................ 29
Software for Creative Thinking ............................................................... 33
PART TWO
Managing Other People's Creativity.............................................. 37
7 When does an organization's culture encourage creative thinking? ........ 39
7.1 Alan Robinson and Sam Stern's criteria ........................................... 40
7.2 Teresa Amabile's criteria .................................................................. 43
7.3 The Situational Outlook Questionnaire's criteria.............................. 47
8 How may organizational design encourage creative thinking?................ 50
8.1 Blanchard and Waghorn's Structural Model..................................... 51
8.2 Moulder's Cascading Model ............................................................. 55
An appendix from the Center for Creative Leadership
The Innovation Assessment Process............................................................. 65
Conclusion................................................................................................... 67
Postscript
Managing Creativity in Higher Education Institutions ............................... 69
10
PART THREE
A Guide To The Literature Behind The Book............................ 75
1
2
3
4
5
6
7

Brainstorming........................................................................................... 89
Kurt Lewin's Force Field........................................................................ 104
Software for Creative Thinking ............................................................. 108
When does an organization's culture encourage creative thinking? ...... 117
7.1 Alan Robinson and Sam Stern's criteria.......................................... 117
7.2 Teresa Amabile's criteria................................................................. 119
7.3 The Situational Outlook Questionnaire's criteria ............................ 122
8 How may an organization's design encourage creative thinking? ......... 124
8.1 Blanchard and Waghorn's Structural Model................................... 124
8.2 Moulder's Cascading Model ........................................................... 125
Introduction
Tom Peters likes to ask an audience whether anyone present knows what it
means to 'manage' the human imagination:
So far, not a single hand has gone up, including mine. I don't know what it
means to manage the human imagination either, but I do know that
imagination is the main source of value in the new economy. And I know we
better figure out the answer to my question quickly.
Tom Peters, Crazy Times Call for Crazy Organizations,
New York: Vintage, 1994, page 12.
Because creativity is driven by the imagination by focusing on what could
be the case rather than on what is the case, our book picks up Tom's
challenge in the context of managing our own and other people's creativity.
The first part of the book is about managing one's own creativity about
managing one's imagination about enriching and encouraging it. It involves
understanding and honouring the difference between adaptors and
innovators, as well as a four step creative process. It also involves mastering
brainstorming and three of the tools that are driven by it Edward de Bono's
Six Thinking Hats, Kurt Lewin's Force Field Analysis and software that
stimulates creative thinking.
The second part of the book is about managing other people's creativity
about managing other people's imagination about creating a climate and a
culture that stimulates and encourages creative thinking. It has a theoretical
and a practical dimension. The theory covers three sets of criteria for
assessing the extent to which an organization's culture encourages creativity.
The practical dimension explores two ways of designing organizations in
which creative thinking is required. One of them is rooted in the idea of
managing an organization's present and future simultaneously. The other
was created by us and employs the idea of coaching for creativity. Like the
first model, it has been tested in management environments and found to
work.
The third part of the book is about the literature that helped to create part
one and part two. It's about the ideas that shaped our ideas about the ideas
that helped us to figure out how to manage our own and other people's
creativity our own and other people's imagination. There are summaries of
12
the books and articles that inspired each chapter of the book, as well as
questions for discussion and further study.
There's also an appendix on a process for assessing an organization's
capacity for innovation.
Finally, there's a postscript some reflections on how the ideas in our book
could be used in higher education institutions.
Like any book that's about acquiring or refining a skill, the readers who try
to implement our suggestions are the ones who will get the best return on
their investment. A good place to begin is with the questions at the end of
each chapter questions for reflection and discussion which could lead to
experimentation.
May you benefit as much from trying out our ideas as we have benefited
from experimenting with them and sharing them with you.
Mariana Nicolae and James Moulder
PART ONE
Managing One's Own Creativity
This part of the book is about two theories and four tools.
One of the theories is about two ways of thinking creatively: inside the box
and outside the box. The other is about a four step process for thinking
creatively, a process that creative thinkers honour.
The tools are brainstorming, Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats for
exploring an idea, Kurt Lewin's Force Field Analysis for achieving a goal
and software that stimulates creativity.
Please remember that it's impossible to acquire or refine a skill by reading a
book about it. One has to try what the book suggests. And, like when one
learned to drive a car, one has to try again when one stalls the engine or
floods the ignition system or forgets to put on the handbrake.
Chapter 1
Adaptors and Innovators
People have different creative thinking styles:
some prefer to focus their creativity on how to improve what
they've got.
some prefer to focus their creativity on how to replace what
they've got with something else.
So, a good first step towards managing your creativity is to try to decide
which you prefer:
to try to improve what you've got?
to try to replace what you've got with something else?
KAI is a self-report questionnaire that may assist you to make this decision.
The process is straightforward:
first you complete the KAI questionnaire with a certified
practitioner or you complete an approximation to it like the one
in this chapter.
then you validate what it tells you about your creative thinking
style by asking your family, friends and colleagues at work to
what extent they agree with the result you got.
More about KAI
It yields scores between High Adaptation and High Innovation. The range of
scores is 32 to 160, with a theoretical mean of 96.
Although small differences can be quite noticeable, most of us are not at the
extremes. Nevertheless, most of us are either Adaptors, who prefer 'to make
improvements in existing ways of doing things', or Innovators, who prefer
'to do things differently'.
Range of KAI Scores
High Adaptors
32
High Innovators
48
64
80
96
112
128
67% of people
are in this range
see Kirton, 1994: 1419
144
160
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Managing Creativity
Kirton equates the more adaptive style with (active, creative) attempts to
maintain a paradigm; and the more innovative style with (active, creative)
attempts to shift a paradigm.
But neither style is better than the other; depending on the circumstances,
each has benefits and drawbacks.
Cultures show no variation in Adaptor Innovator distribution.
In business or industry, there are roughly equal numbers of Adaptors and
Innovators.
Companies may be skewed in one direction or another; for example, at the
board level. Departments usually are skewed; and smaller units are nearly
always skewed. This creates differences in climate, policy, operation,
tolerance, and understanding between one organizational element and
another.
A six step approximation to the KAI questionnaire
1. From each of the 13 pairs, tick the statement which you think
comes closest to describing you.
2. If there are cases in which you can't choose, that's OK. 2. Simply
ignore that pair.
3. Add the ticks in each column to see whether you are more likely
to be an Adaptor or an Innovator.
4. Share your results with people who know you, members of your
family, friends and colleagues at work and ask them to what extent they
think your profile is a good description of what you do. The more they agree
with the result you have, the more likely it is to be reliable.
5. If you end up with the same number of ticks in each column, use
the conversations with people who know you to help you decide whether
your creative thinking style is adaptation or innovation.
6. If you still can't decide which option you prefer, simply accept
that you don't have a strong preference for either of the options.
Adaptors
are more likely than Innovators
[] - to prefer improving the
existing structures over mould
breaking change
Innovators
are more likely than Adaptors
[] - to prefer mould breaking
change over improving the
existing structures
17
Adaptors
are more likely than Innovators
[] - to start work only on projects
that can be completed
[] [] -
[] [] -
[] [] [] -
[] [] -
[] -
[] -
Innovators
are more likely than Adaptors
[] - to attach more value to

thinking up new projects than
to implementing them
to care about the consequences [] - to neglect the consequences
of their actions
of their actions
to accept change that's likely to [] - to see the status quo as
needing a fairly complete
improve or strengthen the
transformation
status quo
to be seen as methodical and
[] - to be seen as adventurous and
prudent
willing to take risks
[] - to assume that ideas for
to canvas support for changes
radical change are self
before proposing them
evidently valuable
to attach a high value to being
[] - to question basic assumptions
efficient within a system
about any problem
to resist 'sticking your neck out' [] - to be able to live with
against prevailing opinion
rejection and hostility
to reject, or be very sceptical
[] - to criticize proposals for
of, changes that challenge the
change without regard for the
cohesion of the group
cohesion of the group
to be more interested in solving [] - to enjoy seeking out problems
problems than looking for them
to appear impervious to
[] - to become bored with routine
boredom and able to maintain
tasks and to do systematic
a high level of accuracy in long
maintenance work only in
spells of detailed work
short bursts
to respond to criticism from
[] - to see criticism from close
close colleagues by moving
colleagues as an interesting
towards greater conformity
challenge
to see innovative ideas for
[] - to see adaptive ideas for
change as threatening or unsafe
change as no change at all
18
Managing Creativity
Questions for Reflection and Discussion

1. How, if at all, does Kirton's distinction help you to understand
and manage your way of being creative?
2. In the light of the table: Which list comes closest to describing
you? The one for Adaptors? Or the one for Innovators?
3. Think about the people you work with closely: Who seem to be
Adaptors? Who seem to be Innovators?
4. In which situations is being an Adaptor likely to be a strength? In
which situations is it likely to be a weakness?
5. In which situations is being an Innovator likely to be a strength?
In which situations is it likely to be a weakness?
6. If you could ask Kirton only ONE question, what would you ask
him? And why is this the question you would ask?
References and Acknowledgements
This chapter is based on:
Michael Kirton, editor, Adaptors and Innovators: Styles of Creativity and
Problem Solving, Routledge, 1994, ISBN 0415116627, pages 811.
http://www.kaicentre.com/new_book_text.htm
Chemical Innovation, November 2001, Volume 31, Number 11, pages 1422.
Chapter 2
The Four Step Creative Process
Whether you are a creative Adaptor or a creative Innovator, there is a
straightforward four step process for managing and enriching your ability to
think creatively:
Step 1
Preparation: Think about the problem
This step is about two things: defining the problem that requires a creative
solution and collecting information about it.
It's a good idea to try a number of definitions. Also to get as much
information you can; and from a variety of sources.
Step 2
Incubation: Stop thinking about the problem
This step sounds silly because it requires you not to actively think about the
problem. It requires you to allow your subconscious mind to take over.
Usually, you've been thinking long and hard about possible solutions to a
problem; but you haven't found a solution. So, it's time to relax. Go for a
walk. Take a bath or a shower. Try sleeping for a while. Do something
totally unrelated to what you've been working on.
Although this seems counterproductive, the incubation phase is critical to
producing new ideas. You won't know that it's happening, but your
subconscious mind will continue to work on the problem. In fact, it seems as
if it requires this time to find new and unusual links between the ideas that
you produced in the preparation stage.
Step 3
Illumination: Welcome the ideas you get
This is the moment when you get a new idea that seems to solve the
problem you were grappling with. This is the moment when your
subconscious mind transfers what it has been working on to your conscious
mind; and this is more likely to occur when you are relaxed.
20
Managing Creativity
This is why a new idea usually arrives when you've laid the problem to rest,
focused on different activities, or relaxed yourself enough to let your
subconscious thoughts come through; for example, while you are driving, or
showering, or staring into space, or dreaming.
Note that many people think that this moment is the most important step in
thinking creatively. It isn't. Both preparation (step 1) and incubation
(step 2) are more important steps. They are the steps that prepare the ground
for illumination (step 3).
Think of a world-class musician. A particular recital is like the illumination
stage. But when you think about it, the success of the recital depends on
things that happened before it:
it depends on things like understanding the piece of music that
was played a step which is like the creative thinker's first step
(preparation) a step which involves things like exploring
possible interpretations of the music that has been chosen.
it depends on things like rehearsing the piece of music that was
played a step which is like the creative thinker's second step
(incubation) a step which involves moving from a very conscious
playing of the music to an almost unconscious playing of it.
So, yes, behind a musician's skilled and effortless performance a lot of
things happen. Things that aren't particularly glamorous. Things that require
considerable effort.
So, yes, as with a recital so with creative thinking. Before ideas arrive a lot
of things happen. There's the preparation stage and the illumination stage.
Step 4
Verification: Develop, test, and refine the idea
This is the time to refine and polish your idea. Not all the ideas you have are
going to work. So, because we often find it difficult, if not impossible, to be
objective about our ideas, we should try to involve other people in this step.
Involve them in evaluating, testing and refining an idea that looks like a
good idea that looks like the creative thinking that's required.
21

1. When and where do you get your best ideas?
2. In the light of the four step creative process: Why do your best
ideas come to you when and where they do?
3. To what extent does your work environment make it difficult to
take the preparation step or the incubation step?
4. Is it possible to overcome or reduce these work related
obstacles?
5. If it is, what do you have to do? And when are you going to
do it?
6. If it isn't, what are the consequences for you and for your
organization? Is this something you can discuss with your
supervisor or with someone else who may be able to assist you to
manage the problem?

Jennifer Fleming, Creativity for Web Developers, Understanding the process of
innovation www.ahref.com/guides/design/199806/0608jefprintable.html
Paul E. Plsek, Models for the Creative Process, www.directedcreativity.com/
pages/WPModels.html#PageTopWPModels
Plsek reviews eight models for the creative process that have been published
since 1908.
Chapter 3
Brainstorming
Brainstorming drives all the thinking tools that exist, including the two that
will be explored in the next three chapters de Bono's Six Thinking Hats
(chapter 4), Lewin's Force Field Analysis (chapter 5) and software for
creative thinking (chapter 6).
Please note that brainstorming is "a tool for getting a large number of ideas
from a group of people in a short time" (Rawlinson, 1996: 36). In other
words, brainstorming doesn't aim for good ideas, or even for new ideas; it
simply aims to get a large number of ideas.
This means that brainstorming should be followed by using other thinking
tools like Affinity Diagrams or Filters which will be described after we've
said something about the first five steps towards an effective brainstorming
session.
Step 1: Preparation
This involves doing three things:
1. Specify a time limit for the brainstorming session; something like
30 minutes, but a longer or a shorter time may be necessary.
2. Select or invite someone to record the ideas; or, to prepare the
way for creating Affinity Diagrams or applying Filters.
3. Alternatively - and preferably - give the participants large Post-its
on which they can record an idea. These notes can be moved
around on the board where they are posted.
4. Remind the participants that, because the aim is to generate as
many ideas as possible, they shouldn't criticize their own or
anyone else's ideas.
Step 2: Topic
Display the topic or focus of the brainstorm on a whiteboard or a flipchart.
Alternatively, display the object that is the focus of the brainstorm:
something like a picture, or a flower, or a prototype of a new product.
23
Step 3: Private brainstorming

Allow the participants at least 10 minutes to brainstorm privately, recording
their ideas on the pieces of paper or Post-its that have been supplied. It isn't
essential, but, if it's possible, play some classical or relaxation music to help
people relax.
Step 4: Group brainstorming

There are three options:
1. Freewheeling encourages participants to "shout out" their ideas
in any order. Each idea is listed on a whiteboard or a flipchart.
2. Round Robin gives everyone a turn to offer an idea. Anyone can
pass on any turn. This continues until there are no more ideas.
Once again, as ideas are offered, they are listed on a whiteboard
or a flipchart.
3. Post-it invites the participants to post their Post-it notes (each of
which carries one idea) on a board or on a wall.
Step 5: Discussion
Once the list has been completed, discuss it with the group to clarify
anything that isn't clear, and to decide what happens to the ideas that have
been generated.
Step 6: Beyond Brainstorming
When all the ideas are in, the brainstorm is over. At this point it can be
wrapped up, or the group can move to creating Affinity Diagrams or
applying Filters:
1. When creating Affinity Diagrams, you sort the list of ideas
created during the brainstorm into affinity sets into sets whose
members are identical, equivalent or similar - which can be given
a title or label. For example, all the suggestions for working
smarter rather than harder could be put into an affinity set called
SMARTER.
2. When applying Filters, you use criteria (like cost, time, fit, or
availability) to eliminate the affinity sets that will be stored in an
electronic database instead of being turned into plans that can be
implemented.
3. When Storing ideas that have been eliminated you are affirming
an important habit that many creative thinkers have the habit of
24
Managing Creativity
not dividing ideas into good ones and bad ones. Instead, you
divide them into two other groups:
ideas you know what to do with more or less immediately.
ideas you don't know what to do with AT THE MOMENT
but which you may know what to do with later.
In other words, these thinkers don't throw away an idea simply because at a
given moment they don't know what to do with it.
1. What do you find most problematic about brainstorming? Either
a) about what you've done in the past or
b) about what we've said about it here?
2. How, if at all, can you solve or manage these problems?
3. Which of the ideas in these notes, if any, are new to you?
4. Find an opportunity to trial the new ideas, at work, or in another
environment that interests you. Make some notes about what did
and didn't work. If you have a coach or a mentor, discuss these
notes with him or her. Repeat this process until you feel
comfortable about the way in which you run brainstorming
sessions.

This chapter is based on
Geoffrey Rawlinson, Creative Thinking and Brainstorming, Gower, 1996,
ISBN 0704505436
Rawlinson blends the theoretical and practical dimensions of brainstorming.
www.brainstorming.co.uk/contents.html. This web site provides free
training in traditional and advanced brainstorming techniques.
Chapter 4
Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats for Exploring an Idea
Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats is a good example of how thinking
tools are driven by brainstorming. It represent six ways of brainstorming an
idea, or six ways of thinking about an idea, or six kinds of question that can
be asked about it:
1 = Red Hat = intuitive thinking
How do I feel about it? What's my gut reaction? What's my hunch?
2 = White Hat = neutral and detached thinking
What are the facts? What do I need to know?
3 = Yellow Hat = logical thinking (positive)
What's the good news? What benefits do I see?
4 = Black Hat = logical thinking (negative)
What's the bad news? What factual, logistical, or ethical problems do I see?
5 = Green Hat = creative thinking
What are the possibilities? The alternatives?
6 = Blue Hat = procedural thinking
Which hat should I use? Where do I go from here? Is it time for a summary?
How do you use the Six Hats in a meeting?
Either literally or figuratively, the facilitator puts on his or her Blue
(procedural) Hat and does four things:
1. puts forward an idea.
2. nominates the first hat that must be used to think about it.
3. ensures that all the hats are used.
4. collects the ideas for sorting, analysis, and further processing.
As in brainstorming, the facilitator records everyone's ideas on six separate
boards or flip charts. Alternatively, the participants put their ideas on large
Post-its and attach them to boards or flip charts. This makes it easy to move
them around and see how they relate to each other.
Note that any participant can ask the facilitator for the Blue Hat; perhaps to
suggest that it's time to change hats; or to ask for an opportunity to return
to a hat that was used earlier. In other words, the facilitator starts the
meeting wearing the Blue Hat; but any participant may ask him or her to
relinquish it.
26
Managing Creativity
What else can you do with the Six Hats?

The hats can be used to analyse an article or book; to structure a
presentation; or to write an essay or report. Therefore, in general, the Six
Hats can be used to explore or to evaluate an idea or set of ideas.
Very importantly, the Six Hats also can be used to monitor your thinking to
ensure that your contribution to a conversation, or your thinking about a
problem, covers all the thinking modes.
An example of having a set order in which the Six Hats are used to
think about an idea say, to write a paper or a poem:
1 = White Hat = facts
what you want to think about?
2 = Red Hat = feelings
how do you feel about the idea?
3 = Yellow Hat = benefits
the good news
what do you like
about the idea?
4 = Black Hat = problems

the bad news
what don't you like about the
idea?
5 = Green Hat = new ideas

5a = Green Hat on
Yellow Hat
how can I increase
the good news?
how can I use
the good news?
5a = Green Hat on Black

Hat
how can I avoid the bad
news?
how can I manage [live
with] the bad news?
6 = Blue Hat = action
when and where and how
am I going to use these ideas?
note
if you don't use these ideas,
then you haven't achieved
ANYTHING
27
What are the benefits attached to using the Six Thinking Hats method?
1 - It produces "Parallel Thinking".
In this approach to thinking, instead of attacking each other's ideas,
participants share their ideas in parallel with each other.
2 - It "unbundles thinking".
Unlike brainstorming, in which the different thinking modes occur in a
random and haphazard way, the Six Thinking Hats method attends to each
of them in a coherent and orderly way.
3 - It separates ideas from their owners.
De Bono calls it "separating ego and performance", because it requires
every participant to think about an idea from every angle rather than from
only the ones they prefer.
4 - It increases awareness of the kind of thinking that's going on.
Because it's a simple way of referring to different modes of thinking, people
become aware that they are stuck in one mode or another:
I think I've done only black hat thinking about this.
We should try some green hat thinking here.
This awareness enables them to comment on their own thinking or on the
thinking of others. And, in the case of commenting on the thinking of
others, if they feel like it, they can ask for a switch in the kind of thinking
that is being done.

1. What are some of the problems that the Six Hats solve? Where are
you going to use this information? And how? Also, with whom
are you going to share it?
2. What are some of the problems it creates? How are you going to
address these problems? For example, with whom can you discuss
them?
3. Think about your thinking: For sure, like everyone else, you use
all Six Hats; but which one do you think you use most often?
Would your partner agree with your answer? Would your
children? Would the people you work with?
28
Managing Creativity
4. Use the Six Hats to evaluate the chapters in this book - chapter 1
on adaptors and innovators - chapter 2 on the four step creative
process chapter 3 on brainstorming this chapter (number four)
on the Six Hats.
5. Use the Six Hats to think through something (not necessarily a
problem) that matters to you, something like a significant
relationship or the work you would like to do for the next 5 years
or where you would like to live or spend your next holiday or .....
6. Because the best way to learn something is to teach it to someone
else, teach Six Hats to someone else (like your partner) or to a
group (like the members of your team at work or the members of a
study group that you belong to or .....)
Edward de Bono, Serious Creativity, pages 77-85, Harper Collins, 995,
ISBN 0006379583
Edward de Bono, Six Thinking Hats, second edition, Back Bay Books, 1999,
ISBN 0316178314
Six Hats Online:
www.debonogroup.com/six_thinking_hats.php
www.debonoforbusiness.com/asp/six_hats.asp
Chapter 5
Kurt Lewin's Force Field Analysis for Achieving a Goal
Kurt Lewin's Force-Field Analysis is a tool for helping you to think about
how to achieve a goal-either a personal one or an institutional one.
Like de Bono's Six Hats, it's driven by brainstorming by brainstorming the
forces that could help you to achieve a goal or hinder you from achieving it.
Step 1: Identify your goal as clearly as possible
There's a simple rule at work here: the fuzzier your goal the more difficult it
is to think about how it could be achieved. Why is this case? Well, the
fuzzier your goal, the more difficult it is to identify the forces that impact it
negatively (to hassle and hinder you) or positively (to help you).
Step 2: Brainstorm the forces that impact negatively or positively on

achieving your goal
These are the kinds of forces that are often identified sometimes as
negative ones sometimes as positive ones sometimes as ones that have
both negative and positive dimensions:
Traditions
Vested interests
Organizational structures
Relationships
Social or organizational trends
Attitudes of people
Regulations
Personal or group needs
Present or past practices
Institutional policies or norms
Values
Desires
Costs
People
Events
Step 3: List these forces in two columns

On a board (when working with a group) or in spreadsheet (when working
by yourself), list all the POSITIVE forces (the factors that may help you to
achieve your goal) and the entire NEGATIVE forces (the factors that will
hinder you from achieving your goal). Include intangible or emotional
factors. Ignoring these can undermine your awareness of what's moving for
you and what's moving against you.
30
Managing Creativity
Here's the first step in an example of what you have to do:

positive forces
information available
more quickly
improved accuracy and
consistency of
information
gives people more time
for more interesting
work
negative forces
Goal
upgrade the organization's
information gathering from a
paper one to an electronic one
cost of the
technology
most of the staff
dislike
electronic
processes
disruption during
the change
complicated to
implement
Step 4: Give each force a score between 1 and 5, where 1 is low or weak
and 5 is high or strong.
positive forces
information available more 5

quickly
4
consistency of information
gives people more time for 4
more interesting work
Goal
upgrade the
organization's
information
gathering from a
paper one to an
electronic
one
negative forces
4 cost of the technology

4 most of the staff dislike
electronic processes
2 disruption during the
change
2 complicated to implement
Step 5: Total the positive and the negative scores

Is the result roughly as expected? Do your heart and head agree? If not,
review the factors you listed. It's important to be honest both about the
forces and about there estimated strength!
31
positive forces

quickly
4
Goal
upgrade the
organization's
information
gathering from
a paper one to
an electronic
one
negative forces

electronic processes
change
12 total
total 13
Step 6: Build on what you've got

It may be possible to increase the positive score and decrease the negative
score by taking appropriate actions. For example, could additional training
or additional resources increase the likelihood of a successful outcome?
Review the weights that were attached to the forces in step 5 and decide
what could be done to address anything that could hinder you from
achieving your goal.
In words that de Bono gave us: if the items in the positive column are seen
as Yellow Hat (benefits) thinking, then they represent the good news about
what we would like to achieve. And so we can ask what we can do to
increase or improve the good news.
Similarly, if the items in the negative column are seen as Black Hat
(problems) thinking, then they represent the bad news about what we are
trying to achieve. And so we can ask what we can do to remove or decrease
the bad news. If all else fails, we can ask how we are going to accommodate
or live with an item of bad news!
positive forces

quickly
Goal
upgrade the
organization's
information
gathering from a
paper one to an
electronic
one
negative forces
32
Managing Creativity

4
total 13

electronic processes - so
involve staff in the
implementation of the
process
- so employ a "best
practices" implementer
change
9 total

1. What are some of the problems that a Force-Field Analysis
solves? Where are you going to use this information? And how?
Also, with whom are you going to share it?
2. What are some of the problems it creates? How are you going to
address these problems? For example, with whom can you
discuss them?
3. Use a Force-Field Analysis to think about a goal that matters to
you something like a job you would like to get or how to move
to where you would like to live or how to get the degree for
which you are studying or how to meet an important deadline or
.....
4. Because the best way to learn something is to teach it to
someone else, teach Force Field Analysis to someone else (like
your partner) or to a group (like the members of your team at
work or the members of a study group that you belong to or .....)

Ohio State University, Force-Field Analysis, www.extension.iastate.edu/
communities/tools/forcefield.html
Lyndsay Swinton, Kurt Lewin's Force Field Analysis: Decision Making
Made Easy
www.mftrou.com/Lewins-forcefieldanalysis.html
Chapter 6
Software for Creative Thinking
Question 1
What does software for creative thinking do?
Nothing. It's simply a tool. Like a paintbrush, it doesn't do anything until it
is used.
And, again like a paintbrush, what you produce depends on what you are
able to do with it. Just so, software for creative thinking isn't a substitute for
thinking: the better you are at thinking, the better you will use the software.
How does this kind of software work?
Each package has its own features; but, in general, all of them prompt you
to think in different ways and from different angles.
More specifically, a menu offers you a set of creative thinking techniques.
When you've chosen one of them, other menus guide you through the
process associated with that technique. By requiring you to work through
each step of the process it ensures that you don't miss any of them.
In other words, it reminds you of a set of creative thinking techniques. And,
when you have made a choice, it reminds you of all the steps that you have
to take to use the tool you've chosen.
Innovation Toolbox and Idea Generator illustrate these points.
Question 2
How does Innovation Toolbox work?
You start by having to describe what you want to think about: anything from
a very specific problem to a vague worry. The software then offers you
12 tools for thinking about that problem or worry:
Brainstorming
Manipulator
Random Word
Word & Phrase
Analogies
False Rule
Random Picture
Challenge Facts
Escapism
Wishful Thinking
Random Website
Search & Reapply
34
Managing Creativity
When you've chosen one of the 12 tools, Innovation Toolbox guides you
through the steps you should take to use it properly.
Obviously, you can take all these steps without Innovation Toolbox's
assistance. It simply helps you to remember to take all the steps that are
attached to the tool you've chosen to use. And it gives you a user friendly
format in which to take them, to forward what you've produced to a friend
or a colleague and to save your thoughts for thinking about on another
occasion.
Question 3
How does Idea Generator work?
It has three parts:
Part 1 requires you to define your problem and your goals, as well as to list
all the people involved or on whom it impacts.
Part 2 offers you seven creative thinking tools:
1. Similar Situations directs you to take lessons from similar
situations you have encountered in the past.
2. Metaphors for the Situation prompts you to search for parallels
between familiar activities and the situation you face. For
example, you can explore what planning a garden may be able to
teach you about planning to enrich an organization's climate for
creative thinking.
3. Other Perspectives asks you first to play the pessimist and then
the optimist and see your situation through the eyes of others,
real or imaginary. For example, you can ask yourself, What
would Hilary Clinton (or Bugs Bunny) do in a situation like this?
4. Focus on Your Goals One by One lets you treat each objective
as the only goal. This frees you from trying to solve too many
problems at the same time.
5. Reverse Your Goals prompts you to generate ideas by thinking
about what you want to avoid. For example, you can ask
yourself, What must I do to kill any opportunities I have to think
creatively where I work?
6. Focus on the People Involved asks you to analyse qualities in
other people, helpful or hostile, as a source of new ideas.
35
7. Make the Most of Your Ideas permits you to improve bad

ideas, dump ideas that make no sense, and group ideas together
in categories.
Part 3 helps you evaluate your ideas. You have to prioritize them according
to the importance you have given to your goals; do a cost/benefit analysis of
each idea and determine its effects on other people.
Once again, you can take all these steps without Idea Generator's assistance.
It simply helps you to remember to take all the steps that are attached to the
tool you've chosen to use. And, once again, it gives you a user friendly
format in which to take them, to forward what you've produced to a friend
or a colleague and to save your thoughts for thinking about on another
occasion.
Question 4
What other software for creative thinking could you try?
Charles Cave does his best to monitor and evaluate what's available. His list
is on the Creativity Web at
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~charles57/Creative/index2.html
look
under Software which is under Resource Centre

1. Your CEO has asked for five bullet points on the idea of using
software for creative thinking. What will you give her? Why are
these the five points you'll give her?
2. Use de Bono's Six Hats to explore the idea of using software for
creative thinking. How do you feel about it (Red Hat)? What are
the facts (White Hat)? What are the benefits (Yellow Hat)
attached to the idea? What are the problems (Black Hat) attached
to the idea? How can use increase the benefits and reduce the
problems (Green Hat) attached to the idea? What are you going
to do with the ideas you got (Blue Hat) by using the Six Hats to
explore the idea of using software for creative thinking?
3. Where you work or in any other environment that interests you
float the idea of using software for creative thinking. Put the
positive and negative responses you get in a Force Field
Analysis. Try to assess the strength of each point. Which are
36
Managing Creativity
stronger? The positive forces or the negative forces? What, if

anything, can you do to strengthen the positive forces and
weaken the negative ones?
Charles Cave, Can computers help you think?, www.members.optusnet.com.au/
charles57/Creative/Software/essay.htm
Innovation Toolbox @ www.infinn.com/toolbox.html
Idea Generator @ www.projectkickstart.com/html/ideafaq.htm
PART TWO
Managing Other People's Creativity
This part of the book is about managing other people's creativity, about
developing organizations that stimulate and encourage creative thinking. It
has a theoretical and a practical dimension. The theory presents three sets of
criteria for assessing the extent to which an organization's culture
encourages creativity. The practical dimension explores two ways of
designing organizations in which creative thinking is encouraged. One of
them is rooted in the idea of managing an organization's present and future
simultaneously. The other was created by us and employs the idea of
coaching for creativity. Like the first model, it has been tested in
management environments and found to work.
Chapter 7
When does an organization's culture encourage
creative thinking?
The challenge
to isolate specific dimensions of culture
that if improved
will demonstrate a direct correlation to enhanced creativity
John Kutch
7.1 Alan Robinson and Sam Stern's answer

alignment
serendipity
self-initiated activity
diverse stimuli
unofficial activity
with-in company communication
7.2 Teresa Amabile's answer

Six factors or forces that encourage creativity:
organizational
encouragement
sufficient resources
supervisory encouragement
challenging work
work group support

freedom
Two factors or forces that discourage creativity:

organizational impediments
workload pressure
7.3 The Situational Outlook Questionnaire's answer
Trust and Openness

Risk-taking
Idea Time
Motivation
Playfulness and Humour Few Interpersonal Conflicts
Exploration
Debates about the Issues Freedom
Resources
Idea Support
Challenge and Involvement
40
Managing Creativity
7.1 Alan Robinson and Sam Stern's criteria for a culture

that encourages creative thinking
Alan Robinson is a professor in the Business School at the University of
Massachusetts. Sam Stern is a professor in the Education Faculty at Oregon
State University. They believe that an organization's culture encourages
creative thinking when these six factors or forces are present:
alignment
serendipity
self-initiated activity
diverse stimuli
unofficial activity
with-in company communication
Their book argues for these six criteria. It can be reduced to four questions
and the answers to them.
Question 1
How do they define corporate creativity?
A company is creative when its employees do something new and
potentially useful without being directly shown or taught.
(Robinson & Stern, 1997, page 11)
Question 2
What are the results of corporate creativity?
The results of creativity in companies are improvements (changes to what is
already being done) and innovations (activities that are entirely new).
Question 3
What is their negative message about corporate creativity?
Creativity methods such as brainstorming actually limit people's creativity
by removing them from their workplace, which is the source of most work
related creative acts.
(Robinson & Stern, 1997, pages 49-52)
Question 4
What is their recipe for creating a work environment that encourages
creative thinking?
Point 4.1
Embrace the "No Preconceptions Principle"
It is impossible to predict who will be creative, what they will do, and when
and how they will do it.
(Robinson & Stern, 1997, pages 19-20)
41
Point 4.2
Reflect on the significance of Paul Torrance's research
Early in the Korean War the United States Air Force hired Paul Torrance to
develop a training program that would prepare its pilots and crews to
survive extreme conditions of deprivation and danger, including intense
cold or heat; lack of food, water or shelter; and being downed at sea, in the
jungle, or even behind enemy lines. Torrance reviewed the research
literature and studied existing training programs. He also interviewed
hundreds of Air Force personnel who had survived such experiences in
World War II. In the end, what he found surprised him: one of the things
that had proven most critical for survival was something that no training
program taught. It was the ability to think creatively. Existing courses
offered plenty of information about how to deal with a variety of hostile
conditions, discussed actual cases of how people had survived and even
escaped from POW camps, and often included realistic simulation exercises.
But Torrance found that no matter how much training people had received,
when faced with the real thing, almost invariably they had to cope with
unexpected situations. Those who survived had combined elements of their
training and life experiences to create a completely new survival technique.
A technique they hadn't been taught.
In writing about the importance of creativity to survival, Torrance came to
this conclusion:
Creativity and invention are adaptive forces which have perhaps
been given too little attention in connection with problems of
survival and survival training. Successful survivors describe many
creative and imaginative behaviors which not only solved immediate
problems for them but apparently gave them renewed energy for
continued adaptation.
(Robinson & Stern, 1997, pages 11 and 12)
Point 4.3
Embrace the casino analogy
"Managing" creativity is about raising probabilities; and in this respect it is
like operating a casino. Although casinos do not know how individual
gamblers will fare at any given table, they know that if enough customers
play for long enough against the house odds, the casino will make a very
predictable and stable profit. In the short term, it is a matter of probability,
but in the long term, profits are a matter of certainty.
42
Managing Creativity
In much the same way, companies cannot predict where specific creative
acts will come from or what they will be; but they can do things that will
increase the frequency with which creative thinking occurs.
Point 4.4
Increase the probability that creative thinking will occur
For corporate creativity, the work environment is the dominant factor. A bad
system will beat a good person every time. Therefore, focus on six factors or
forces that encourage creative thinking in a work environment:
Alignment self initiated activity unofficial activity serendipity diverse
stimuli within company communication.
(Robinson & Stern, 1997, pages 12-16, 39 and chapters 6 to 11)
1. Compare Kirton's distinction between Adaptors and Innovators
(chapter 1) and Robinson & Stern's definition of corporate
creativity. What's different? What's similar?
2. How would you rank Robinson & Stern's six factors or forces on
the first page of chapter 7? Why is this how you would rank
them?
3. On a 5 point scale (where 5 is a "must have" for corporate
creativity and 1 is a "nice to have"), how would you weight each
of the factors or forces? Why is this how you would weight
them?
4. Think about the organization you work for, or about one that
interests you. How many of Robinson & Stern's six factors or
forces are present? What does this tell you about its potential or
actual level of creativity?
5. If you could ask Robinson or Stern only ONE question, what
would you ask them? And why is this the question you would
ask? And how do you think they would answer it?
Alan Robinson and Sam Stern, Corporate Creativity: How Innovation and
Improvement Actually Happen, Business & Professional Publishing,
1997, ISBN 1875680462
43
7.2 Teresa Amabile's criteria for a culture that encourages creative

thinking
Teresa Amabile is a professor at the Harvard Business School. She believes
an organization's culture encourages or discourages creative thinking when
various factors or forces are present:
Six factors or forces that encourage creativity:
organizational
encouragement
sufficient resources
supervisory encouragement
challenging work
work group support

freedom
Two factors or forces that discourage creativity:

organizational impediments
workload pressure
Her ideas are expressed in KEYS, as well as in an article on how to kill
creativity.
Section One
Questions about KEYS
Question 1
What is KEYS?
It's a tool for assessing the climate for creativity that exists in a work group,
division or organization. It was created by Teresa Amabile and is
administered by the Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro, USA.
Question 2
What does KEYS assess?
Six environmental factors or forces that encourage creativity:
1. Organizational encouragement comes from top management
supporting creativity, risk taking and an open atmosphere for idea
exchange, as well as recognizing for creative work.
2. Supervisory encouragement comes from managers who give
support to subordinates, communicate effectively, and set clear
expectations and goals.
44
Managing Creativity
3. Work group support comes from skills diversity, teamwork,

mutual trust and support and commitment to work.
4. Sufficient resources are things like access to appropriate
facilities, equipment, funds and information.
5. Challenging work is work where the importance and the difficult
nature of the task define the challenge.
6. Freedom is freedom to decide how to accomplish tasks, and a
sense of control over work and ideas.
Two environmental factors or forces that discourage creativity:
1. Organizational impediments come from destructive criticism,
truism, rigidity and resistance to change.
2. Workload pressure comes from unrealistic expectations,
insufficient time and distractions.
Question 3
What research findings support KEYS?
Amabile (1988) identified factors or forces that promote corporate creativity
by studying a group of 120 people working in R&D departments.
Her research tells us that domain relevant skills, creativity relevant skills,
and intrinsic task motivation are the keys to corporate creativity. Each of the
three components is necessary for creativity to occur. Conceptualized as
circles, creativity will be greatest where the circles overlap.
From a personal perspective, creativity is stimulated by self-motivation, a
risk orientation, diverse experience, expertise in the area in which one
works, and social skills; but lack of motivation, lack of domain relevant
skills, inflexibility, external motivation, and lack of social skills inhibit
creativity.
While individual factors and initiative are important to creativity, social
environments also make a difference.
Environments that exhibit freedom, good project management, sufficient
resources, supervisory encouragement, recognition, sufficient time, some
challenge, and some pressure stimulated creativity. On the other hand,
creativity is inhibited by too much constraint, organizational disinterest,
poor project management, constant evaluation, insufficient resources, a
45
corporate climate marked by a lack of cooperation across divisions and

levels and overemphasis on the status quo, as well as on competition.
Many of these factors are influenced by management. It usually determines
the organizational characteristics, sets the tone for the corporate climate, and
determines whether or not the organization is interested in innovation. It
also controls things like project management, evaluation, resources, and
whether or not there is an emphasis on the status quo, on constraint and on
competition.
The people who were studied felt that organizations require "a mechanism
for considering new ideas, a corporate climate marked by cooperation and
collaboration across levels and divisions, and an atmosphere where
innovation is prized and failure is not fatal" (Amabile, 1988, p. 147).
Section two
How to kill creativity
Amabile (1998) believes that many managerial practices kill creativity by
crushing intrinsic motivation - the strong internal desire to do something
based on interests and passions.
Obviously, managers dont kill creativity on purpose; but they often
undermine it by the way in which they pursue productivity, efficiency, and
control.
So, can these business imperatives coexist with creativity?
Amabile believes they can; but only if managers understand that creativity
has three parts:
1. expertise;
2. the ability to think flexibly and imaginatively;
3. and intrinsic motivation.
Managers can influence the first two, but doing so is costly and slow. It is
far more effective to increase employees' intrinsic motivation by pulling five
levers:
1. the amount of challenge they give employees;
2. the degree of freedom they grant around process;
3. the way they design work groups;
4. the level of encouragement they give;
5. the nature of organizational support.
46
Managing Creativity
For example, intrinsic motivation is high when employees feel challenged

but not overwhelmed by their work. Managers, therefore, have to match
people to the right assignments. Freedom also increases intrinsic motivation
and therefore creativity when managers let people decide how to achieve
goals that have to be achieved.
So, yes managers can make a difference when it comes to employee
creativity. The best way to do so is to pull as many of these five levers as
possible.

1. Go to the first page of chapter 7 and compare Robinson & Stern's
six factors or forces and Amabile's six factors or forces that
encourage creativity. What's different? What's similar?
2. How would you rank Amabile's six factors or forces that
encourage creativity? Why is this how you would rank them?
3. On a 5 point scale (where 5 = a "must have" for corporate
creativity and 1 = a "nice to have"), how would you weight each
of them? Why is this how you would weight them?
interests you. How many of Amabile's six factors or forces that
encourage creativity are present? What does this tell you about
its potential or actual level of creativity?
5. If you could ask Amabile only ONE question, what would you
ask her? And why is this the question you would ask?
Teresa Amabile, A Model of Creativity and Innovation in Organizations,
Research in Organizational Behavior, 1988, 10, pp. 123-167
Teresa Amabile, How to Kill Creativity, Harvard Business Review,
September-October, 1998, pp. 77-87
47
7.3 The Situational Outlook Questionnaire's criteria for a culture

that encourages creative thinking
The Situational Outlook Questionnaire believes that an organization's
culture encourages creative thinking when these nine factors or forces are
present:
Trust and Openness

Risk-taking
Idea Time
Motivation
Playfulness and Humour
Exploration
Debates about the Issues
Resources
Idea Support
Few Interpersonal Conflicts

Freedom
What is the Situational Outlook Questionnaire - the SOQ?

It's a tool for assessing the climate for creativity that exists in a work group,
division, or organization.
Part One is a 50 item paper-and-pencil self-report measure. Respondents use
a scale to indicate the extent to which each statement describes their work
situation.
Part Two employs three open ended, short answer questions that invite
respondents to elaborate on their perceptions of the factors which hinder or
support their creativity:
1. What is working well?
2. What needs to be improved?
3. What suggestions do you have for improving it?
What does it assess?
Nine work dimensions that fall into three areas: Motivation, Exploration and
Resources. Like so
Trust and Openness

Risk-taking
Idea Time
Motivation
Playfulness and Humour
Exploration
Resources
Idea Support

Freedom
48
Managing Creativity
Motivation
1 = Trust and Openness
Do people feel safe when speaking their minds and offering different points
of view?
2 = Playfulness and Humour
How relaxed is the workplace? Is it OK to have some fun?
3 = Few Interpersonal Conflicts
How often are people involved in interpersonal conflict?
Exploration
4 = Risk-taking
Is it OK to fail?
5 = Debates about the Issues
Do people engage in lively debates about the issues facing the organization?
6 = Freedom
How free are people to decide how to do their job?
Resources
7 = Idea Time
Do people have time to think things through before having to act?
8 = Idea Support
Are there resources to try new ideas?
9 = Challenge and Involvement
To what extent are members of the organization involved in its daily
operations and long-term goals?
Who created and validated the SOQ?
Goran Ekvall and Scott Isaksen. Ekvall was a research psychologist with the
Swedish Council on Work Life Issues in Stockholm, Sweden. Isaksen is the
President of the Creative Problem Solving Group in Buffalo, USA.
1. Go to the first page of chapter 7 and compare the factors and
forces that encourage creative thinking. The six that Robinson &
Stern have given us the six that Amabile has given us the nine
that the SOQ has given us. What's different? What's similar?
49
2. If you had to assess an organization's climate for creativity,

which of the three lists would you choose? Why would that be
your choice?
3. Alternatively, could you be tempted to create your own list? A
list that's based on the three lists you have? Why would it include
what it does? Why would it exclude what it does?
4. Go to the SOQ's nine factors or forces on the first page of
chapter 7. How would you rank them? Why is this how you
would rank them?
5. On a 5 point scale (where 5 = a "must have" for corporate
creativity and 1 = a "nice to have"), how would you weight each
of the factors or forces? Why is this how you would weight
them?
interests you. How many of the SOQ's nine factors or forces are
present? What does this tell you about its potential or actual level
of creativity?
This chapter is based on what's available at two web sites:
www.soqOnline.net/
www.cpsb.com/assessments/soq
Chapter 8
How may organizational design encourage creative thinking?
Ken Blanchard and Terry Waghorn B&W have created a structural
model to answer this question.
James Moulder has created a cascading model.
Both models assume that everyone in an organization is required to think
creatively about their work. This isn't "a nice to have" an optional extra
that you can choose to do if you feel like it. Instead, it's "a must have" it's
something that's in everyone's job description and part of everyone's
performance appraisal.
51
8.1 Blanchard and Waghorn's Structural Model

What are the two problems that Blanchard & Waghorn want to solve?
1. How can a company constantly improve what it's doing today,
yet at the same time, constantly be looking for tomorrow's
opportunities? In other words, how can it focus on the present
and on the future at the same time and in equal measure?
2. How can a company leverage the fact that its employees are
either Adaptors or Innovators? Either people who prefer 'to make
improvements in existing ways of doing things', or people who
prefer 'to do things differently'? (Kirton, 1994, pp. 14-19)
What is their proposed solution?
Throughout the organization, create two sets of teams. One set is charged
with finding and implementing improvement ideas for the present. The other
is charged with finding and implementing innovation ideas for the future.
The members of these teams are not strategists; they are the people the
company employs. They work in these teams in addition to their regular
jobs.
Broadly speaking, what does the proposed structure look like?
52
Managing Creativity
What do Present Teams do?

In general, they try to figure out how the company's present products,
services and processes can be improved. More specifically, they ask and try
to answer this kind of question:
1. Who are our customers and why do they buy from us?
2. How are the needs of our customers changing and how can we
use those changes to our advantage?
3. How can we strengthen our relationships with our key
customers, suppliers and business partners?
4. If our customers could redesign our company, how would they
do it?
5. Who are our competitors, and why do customers choose them
over us?
6. How is the industry or business environment changing and how
can we use those changes to our advantage?
Obviously, this list isn't complete; but asking and answering questions of
this kind will start to generate ideas and suggestions for improving the
company.
What do Future Teams do?
In general, they try to figure out how the company will compete in the
future, which is defined as somewhere between eighteen and thirty-six
months from now. More specifically, they ask and try to answer this kind of
question:
1. What will our industry look like two years from now?
2. What should the company look like to be competitive two years
from now?
3. Will we be serving the same customers in the future that we are
serving today? If not, how will they be different?
4. Through which channels will we reach tomorrow's customers?
5. What will be the basis of competition? Will it be continuous
innovation, for example? Or mass customization?
6. How do we ensure the industry evolves to our advantage?
7. What strategic capabilities or alliances must we build to ensure,
not only survival, but market domination?
Once again, this list isn't complete; but asking and answering questions of
this kind will start to generate ideas and suggestions for changing the
company.
53
What do the two Design Teams do?

The Present Teams send their ideas to a Design Team; and so do the Future
Teams.
In each case, the Design Team does two things:
1. it evaluates and coordinates ideas it receives - sometimes it asks
a team to do some more work on an idea - sometimes it asks two
or more teams to turn similar ideas into a single idea - sometimes
it explains to a team why one of its ideas can't be implemented.
2. it decides which ideas can be implemented immediately and
which have to go to the Steering Committee for a decision.
What does the Steering Committee do?
The Steering Committee balances the present and future focus of the
organization by supporting the two organization wide Design Teams.
Both need its support to get people involved in the change process and to
remove obstacles that inevitably hinder all change programs.
Other needs will be more specific. For example, the Present Design Team
needs to know what can and what cannot be changed. But the Future Design
Team doesn't need boundaries; it needs freedom to imagine the future and to
think the unthinkable.
Whatever the needs of the design teams, the Steering Committee must
support both fully and equally to ensure a complete balance between the
company's present and future needs.
Which creative thinking tools work for the two kinds of team?
Miller (1993, p. 152) puts creative thinking tools into four boxes:
for creative
MODIFYING
for creative
VISIONING
Force Field Analysis

Attribute Listing
SCAMPER
Wish List
Future Annual Report
Visualization
for creative
EXPERIMENTING
for creative
EXPLORING
Matrix Analysis
Morphological Analysis
Nature of the Business
Guided Imagery| Analogy

Forced Association | Alternative Scenarios
Dreaming | Drawing
54
Managing Creativity
Because the tools for modifying and experimenting focus on improvement

type creativity, they are more likely to be used by the Present Teams. On the
other hand, the tools for visioning and exploring focus on innovation type
creativity; and so they are more likely to be used by the Future Teams.
Having said that, obviously, if they want to, any team may use any of the
tools.
Can divisions and teams use Blanchard & Waghorn's ideas?
Yes. B&W's book is about two concepts:
1. managing the present and the future.
2. leveraging both adaptive and innovative creative thinking.
And so they can be used by any group of people who want to do those two
things.
1. What would Kirton's Adaptors say about Blanchard & Waghorn's
model for enriching the climate for creative thinking? And what
would his Innovators say?
2. Compare Robinson & Stern's six forces or factors for
encouraging creative thinking and Blanchard & Waghorn's
model. Which of the six forces or factors does it capture? Which
does it miss?
3. Compare Amabile's forces or factors for encouraging creative
thinking and Blanchard & Waghorn's model. Which of the six
forces or factors does it capture? Which does it miss?
4. Compare the SOQ's nine forces or factors for encouraging
creative thinking and Blanchard &Waghorn's model. Which of
the nine forces or factors does it capture? Which does it miss?
Ken Blanchard and Terry Waghorn, Mission Possible: How to Manage the
Present While Building the Future, McGraw-Hill, 1997, ISBN
0070059403
Problem Solving, Routledge, 1994, ISBN 0415116627, pages 8-11.
William Miller, Flash of Brilliance: Inspiring Creativity Where You Work,
Perseus Books, 1999, ISBN 0738200182
55
8.2 Moulder's Cascading Model

James Moulder's cascading model was born in the University of Cape
Town's Public Relations Department. It was refined in the University of
Natal's Philosophy Department. It has been tested successfully in various for
profit and not for profit organizations.
A summary of its basic ideas, an essay that Moulder wrote and a Q&A
session tell us how this model works.
Section One
The Basic Ideas About Cascading Creative Thinking
1 - it has three dimensions:
y a (monthly) meeting
y the four step creative process
y tools for creative thinking
2 - it rests on two assumptions
Everyone has the ability to think about how they can change or
improve the work they have to do.
If they are given time to use this ability, they can learn how to
think creatively about their work; that is, they can change or
3 - it's driven by two of Robinson & Stern's ideas
the casino analogy = how does one increase the probability that
creative thinking will occur?
the no preconceptions principle = it's impossible to predict when
creative thinking will occur
4 - it employs four insights from SOQ, from Amabile and from
Robinson & Stern
focus
or
freedom
or
idea time
self initiated activity
idea support
or
supervisory
encouragement
alignment
Robinson &
Stern
Amabile and SOQ

Robinson & Stern
SOQ
Amabile
SOQ
56
Managing Creativity
5 it requires managers to manage people's imagination; that is, it

employs Amabile's insight that managers either stimulate or kill the
creativity of the people who report to them, but it doesn't follow her
into the world of managerial whining, where the CEO or the culture are
blamed for poor performance.
Section Two
An essay on cascading creative thinking
My essay first identifies two facts that can be used to create, implement, and
maintain a plan for enriching the climate for creativity in workplaces that
interest me. It then explains my position in the motivation debate. Finally,
two examples are used to clarify how the plan works and how to evaluate
the return on this kind of investment.
Two facts
The theory behind cascading creative thinking rests on two facts about
creativity:
1. Everyone has the ability to think about how they can improve or
change their work.
2. If they are given time, and training in creative thinking
techniques, everyone can improve this ability.
Although I believe these two facts are indisputably true, if you think they
aren't, you can verify them indirectly or directly.
The indirect way to verify them is to read any article or book on creativity in
the workplace. None of them deny these statements; in fact, explicitly or
implicitly, they all affirm them.
The direct way to verify these two facts is to talk to anyone about their
work. If, in this conversation, they are asked how they can improve or
change their work, they will tell you. Similarly, they will tell you that, if
they were given some time to think about their work, as well as some
training in creative thinking techniques, they would be able to improve their
ability to think about how to improve or change their work.
57
Acting on the facts

If these facts are accepted, then ONE way to enrich a corporate climate for
creativity is to do four things:
1. Give people an opportunity to discuss and understand these two
facts.
2. Give them some training in creative thinking techniques.
3. Give them an hour a month to use and refine these techniques as
they talk to the person they report to about how they can improve
or change the work they do.
4. Give them permission to implement any idea which they and the
person they report to want to implement.
My plan implements points 1 and 2 in six two-hour workshops. The first
one introduces them to the two facts and gives them time to discuss and
understand them. The second gives them an opportunity to discuss and
understand the four step creative process. The remaining workshops
introduce them to three creative thinking techniques (brainstorming, de
Bono's Six Hats and Lewin's Force-Field Analysis), as well as to the Idea
Generator, which is a software package for stimulating creative thinking.
The monthly meetings in my plan implement points 3 and 4. In these
meetings, people use the creative thinking techniques while talking to the
person they report to about how they can improve or change the work they
do. They also get permission to implement any idea which they and the
person they report to want to implement.
The motivation debate
Because my plan makes creative thinking part of what people do, I don't
have to decide whether or not I am going to reward them for being creative.
In other words, people who aren't IMPROVING or INNOVATING their
work aren't doing something they were employed to do.
Evaluating the results
In my plan, evaluating the results is confined to calculating the return on the
money that goes into implementing and maintaining it. Therefore, instead of
trying to evaluate the ideas people produce, my plan evaluates the impact
their ideas have on clearly and easily measurable numbers and ratios which
are attached to where they work. Obviously, I can't say what these numbers
and ratios are until I am talking about a specific PR department, or a specific
academic department in the humanities. In other words, in the fields that
interest me, there isn't a general recipe for calculating the ROI in a creativity
58
Managing Creativity
enrichment plan of the kind I have described. But the two examples that
follow show that it can be done.
Example One = The University of Cape Town's Public Relations
Department (1981-1985)
The University had a cascading reporting system that worked like this: once
a month I reported to the Registrar who, in American terminology, was the
Vice-President for Administration; four people reported to me each month;
and each of them had about five people who reported to them.
In round figures, the opportunity cost of my monthly meeting with the
Registrar was $65 dollars; the total opportunity cost of the four meetings in
which people reported to me was $220; and the total of the PR Department's
attempt to enrich its climate for creativity was about $1200 a month, or less
than $15000 a year.
The return on this investment was measured in four quantifiable ways:
1. an increase in the number and size of donations to the University.
2. an increase in the square centimetres of print media stories about
the University.
3. an increase in the number of quality student applications.
4. improvements in the University's rating in national and
international surveys.
In each of the five years I was associated with this program, in the two areas
that could be given a monetary value (increased donations and increased
print media stories) the return on the annual investment of $15000 ran into
hundreds of percent.
I believe the program was successful, not because of the individuals who
drove it, but because of its structure. In other words, any PR department that
adopts this structured way of enriching its climate for creativity will achieve
similar IMPROVEMENTS and INNOVATIONS.
Example Two = The University of Natal's Philosophy Department
(1986 - 1994)
The University didn't have a cascading reporting system; but, because I was
Head of the Department, I had the authority to introduce the idea. After the
implementation phase, I met with the secretary once a month for an hour;
but, because most academics hate meetings, I met with them only twice a
59
year for two hours. The agenda was straightforward and always the same.
How can we improve our teaching in the coming semester? How can we
improve our research in the coming semester?
The annual opportunity cost of this investment was about $1200. Across
nine years, the monetary return came in two ways.
In the first year, the Department reduced its administrative costs from about
$5000 to about $4000; in the other eight, it accepted and met the challenge
of not spending more than $5000 on administration. The name of its game
was to beat inflation with IMPROVEMENTS and INNOVATIONS.
Similarly, the monetary return in the academic area was sustained rather
than spectacular. From no subsidy on publications for the five years before
the program was introduced to each academic attracting an annual subsidy
because of having at least one publication. The most spectacular
improvement was from someone who went from no publications in 20 years
to 12 publications during the nine years she participated in the program.
In addition, the program achieved two other quantifiable results: an increase
in postgraduate students; and an improvement in student evaluations of
teaching.
Once again, I believe the program was successful, not because of the
individuals who drove it, but because of its structure. In other words, any
academic department in the humanities that adopts this structured way of
enriching its climate for creativity will achieve similar IMPROVEMENTS
and INNOVATIONS.
Section Three
Q&A on the idea of cascading creative thinking
Q: What is creativity?
A: I don't have a general definition; but, in the context of trying to promote
creative thinking in a workplace, I work with the following equations:
creativity = creative thinking about the work one has to do
creative thinking = improvement-type and innovation-type
creative thinking
60
Managing Creativity
improvement-type creative thinking = thinking about how one can

do one's work better
innovation-type creative thinking = thinking about how one can
do one's work differently
Therefore
trying to promote creative thinking in a workplace = trying to
promote thinking about either or both of two things: how one can
do one's work better or how one can do one's work differently
Q: Have you placed any restrictions or conditions on your project?
A: Yes. When one is thinking about how one can do one's work better or
how one can do one's work differently, one must restrict oneself to ideas
that satisfy two conditions: firstly, they fall within the scope of one's
authority or within the scope of one's supervisor's authority; and, secondly,
they can be funded from the budget that is under one's own control or under
one's supervisor's control.
Q: Why have you placed these restrictions on your project to promote
thinking about how one can do one's work better or differently?
A: To push people into exploring and testing the scope of their authority and
their supervisor's authority; and to push people into thinking about how to
use the money under their control and their supervisor's control. And I want
to push people in these two directions, because, if people go down these
roads, they will have to focus on the intersection of their influence and their
control instead of being frustrated by the fact that their ideas for doing
things better or differently can't be implemented.
Q: Won't these restrictions kill creativity?
A: I don't think so.
Q: Why don't you think you are killing creativity?
A: Because of what I have learnt about creativity from artists. Their works
of art were created from the materials they had, not from the materials they
would have liked to have had. Similarly, I want people to think about how
they can do their work more creatively with resources they have rather than
with resources they would like to have.
61
Q: OK, so if that's your understanding of how to promote

improvement-type and innovation-type thinking about one's work, let's
talk about the ideas that are floating around in James Moulder's
thinking about creativity. Which of those ideas are reflected in your
proposal to cascade creative thinking?
A: It's a long list.
From the section on theories about creative thinking, I've bought
Kirton's ideas about adaptation and innovation; the ideas about
the preparation and incubation stages of the creative thinking
process; and de Bono's belief that, although some do it better than
others, everyone can learn how to think about doing their work
better or differently.
From the section on tools for creative thinking, I've bought de
Bono's Six Hats and Lewin's Force Field Analysis.
From the literature behind chapter 7 and chapter 8.1, I've bought
four sets of ideas:
1. from Robinson & Stern the Torrance Principle ("if you must,
you can"); the Casino Analogy (if the equipment is biased in
your favour, then, in the long run, you must win); the NoPreconceptions Principle (because anyone can think creatively
about their work, everyone should be encouraged and assisted
to do so); and alignment (which I call focus and which is
related to the restrictions I have placed on the kind of creative
thinking I'm looking for).
2. from Amabile - supervisory encouragement stimulates creative
thinking about one's work.
3. from the SOQ - if people are required to think creatively about
their work, they must be given time to do so.
4. from Blanchard & Waghorn - thinking creatively about one's
work involves thinking about present improvements and future
innovations, which, in my book, is equivalent to Kirton's ideas
about adaptation and innovation.
Q: What about intrinsic motivation? Why have you ignored what
Amabile, Robinson & Stern and everyone else sees as a primary cause
of workplace creativity?
A: Mainly, because I don't understand the concept of having an intrinsic
motive to work. But also because, in a cascading system, thinking about
how you can do your work better or differently is part of your job
description; it's part of what you have to do.
62
Managing Creativity
Q: Is there a short statement or a diagram that captures your ideas

about creativity in the workplace?
A: Yes. My understanding of creative thinking about one's work is
represented by the following equation and diagram:
creative thinking = one's sphere of influence + one's sphere of
concern + one's job related expertise + one's ability to use creative
thinking tools
one's sphere of influence
one's job related

expertise
CREATIVE
THINKING
one's ability to use

creative thinking
tools
one's sphere of concern
Q: Finally, what, if anything, is the primary reason for creating the

cascading system?
A: Yes, there is a primary reason. Many organizations are cautious and
conservative; and so is the cascading system. In other words, cascading
creative thinking enables cautious and conservative organizations to create
climates that encourage improvement-type and innovation-type thinking
about the work that they are trying to do.
1. Is it as easy as this? If it isn't, what's the problem? If it is, why are
so few companies doing it?
2. What would Kirton's Adaptors think of this way of enriching the
climate for creative thinking? And his Innovators?
3. Compare Robinson & Stern's six factors or forces for
encouraging creative thinking and a cascading creative thinking
system: Which of them does it capture? Which does it miss?
63
4. Compare Amabile's six factors or forces for encouraging creative

thinking and a cascading creative thinking system: Which of
them does it capture? Which does it miss?
5. Compare the SOQ's nine factors or forces for encouraging
creative thinking and a cascading creative thinking system:
Which of them does it capture? Which does it miss?

This chapter is based on Moulder's experience, as well as on his reflections
on the texts that created chapters 1 to 8.1 of this book.
Problem Solving, Routledge, 1994, ISBN 0415116627
Jennifer Fleming, Creativity for Web Developers: Understanding the
process
of
innovation,
www.ahref.com/guides/design/199806/
0608jefprintable.html
Paul Plsek, Models for the Creative Process, www.directedcreativity.com/
ISBN 0704505436
Brainstorming @ www.brainstorming.co.uk/contents.html
Edward de Bono, pages 77-85, Serious Creativity, HarperCollins, 1995,
ISBN 0006379583
Edward de Bono, Six Thinking Hats, second edition, Back Bay Books, 1999,
ISBN 0316178314
Kurt Lewin, Force Field Analysis, at www.extension.iastate.edu/
at www.mftrou.com/Lewinsforcefieldanalysis.html
Idea Generator at www.projectkickstart.com/products/idea_generator.cfm
1997, ISBN 1875680462
Research in Organizational Behavior, 1988, 10, 123167
September October, 1998, 77-87
64
Managing Creativity
The Situational Outlook Questionnaire

at www.soqOnline.net/
at www.cpsb.com/assessments/soq
Present While Building the Future, McGrawHill, 1997, ISBN
0070059403
Perseus Books, 1999, ISBN 0738200182
An appendix by the Center for Creative Leadership

The Innovation Assessment Process
What is the Innovation Assessment Process?
The IAP is a five step process for enriching an organization's climate for
creative hiking.
What are the five steps?
1. Use the KEYS questionnaire to assess the factors that stimulate
or inhibit the creativity of a work group, division, or
organization.
2. Receive the feedback. It identifies specific characteristics of the
climate that stimulate or inhibit creativity. It provides
information about how these factors are perceived. And it
compares these findings with other organizations in the KEYS
database.
3. Design a plan to improve the climate by changing policies,
practices and behaviours that are inhibiting creativity.
4. Implement the plan.
5. Track progress; for example, by remeasuring the climate after
about two years to quantify the extent to which things have
changed.
What are three prerequisites for success?
1. Top leadership is committed to improving the climate for
creativity.
2. It is willing to listen to unfavourable news about their policies,
practices and behaviour.
3. It is committed to taking appropriate action to improve the
climate.
Who assists organizations with the IAP?
KEYS administrators who have been accredited by the Center for Creative
Leadership in Greensboro, USA.
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Managing Creativity

1. What do you like most about the IAP? Is it possible to use this
idea even if your organization isn't interested in going down the
IAP path?
2. What do you dislike most about the IAP? Is it possible to deal
with your dislike? For example, by modifying the idea you
dislike?
3. How many of the five IAP steps could you apply to yourself? To
your plans to enrich your own creativity?

This appendix is based on:
The Center for Creative Leadership's Home Page
www.ccl.org
The Center for Creative Leadership in Europe
www.ccl.org/leadership/capabilities/europe/index.aspx
A Case Study = Cargill Incorporated
www.ccl.org/leadership/pdf/assessments/cargillcs.pdf
Conclusion
This journey into creative thinking has explored 9 paths:
1. Some creative thinkers (Adaptors) like to improve what they've
got. Other creative thinkers (Innovators) like to replace what
they've got with something else.
2. There's a four step process that assists creative thinking
preparation incubation illumination verification. But
incubation is where the power lies.
3. Brainstorming drives all the other creative thinking tools.
4. Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats is an excellent tool for
exploring an idea.
5. Kurt Lewin's Force-Field Analysis is an excellent tool for
achieving a goal.
6. There are software packages for assisting one to think creatively.
7. There are three sets of criteria for deciding whether an
organization's culture encourages or discourages creative
thinking. Robinson & Stern's set. Teresa Amabile's set. And the
SOQ's set. See the table below for the criteria in each set.
8. There are two models which assume that thinking creatively is a
significant part of one's job description. The one operates with the
idea of everyone in an organization belonging to a Present Team
(to think about present improvements) or to a Future Team (to
think about future changes). The other model operates with the
idea of a monthly meeting in which employees have time to think
about how they can do their work better or differently.
9. The Center for Creative Leadership's Innovation Assessment
Process. It assesses an organization's capacity for encouraging
creative thinking as the first step towards suggesting how this
capacity may be enriched.
68
Managing Creativity
Three sets of criteria
alignment
serendipity
organizational
encouragement
sufficient
resources
1 = Robinson & Stern

self initiated
unofficial
activity
activity
diverse
with-in company
stimuli
communication.
2 = Teresa Amabile
factors or forces that
encourage creative thinking
supervisory
encouragement
challenging
work
factors or forces that
discourage creative thinking
organizational
impediments
work group
support
freedom
workload
pressure
3 = the SOQ
Motivation
Trust
and
Openness
Risk-taking
Idea
Time
Playfulness
and
Humour
Exploration
Debates
about the
Issues
Resources
Idea
Support
Few
Interpersonal
Conflicts
Freedom
Challenge
and
Involvement
Postscript
Managing Creativity in Higher Education Institutions
The ideas in our book are for anyone and everyone. Also for any and every
organization. But we have a special affection for higher education
institutions and, in particular, for universities. And so this postscript is about
how the ideas in our book could be used in these environments.
In these environments, the largest unit is the institution. The smallest one is
the individual, who is either a member of the faculty or a student. A
department is place where they connect with institutional issues, some of
which can be dealt with only at a faculty level. Like so:
level 4
institution
the rector
and
vice-rectors
level 3
faculties
deans
and
deputy-deans
level 2
departments
HODs
level 1
individuals
faculty
students
Observation One
The first observation is that both part one and part two of the book applies to
the people who function at level 2, 3 and 4. To the HODs, the deans and
deputy-deans, the rector and the vice-rector. These people have a twofold
challenge:
How do they enrich their ability to think creatively?
70
Managing Creativity
How do they create and maintain an organizational culture that

encourages creative thinking?
This, of course, raises a fundamental issue. Leaving aside questions about
enriching their own ability to think creatively, to what extent are they
passionate about creating a culture that encourages creative thinking in their
sphere of influence?
For the rector, this sphere is as wide as the institution. For the vice-rectors
it's a specific institution-wide slice like research or administration.
Similarly, a dean's sphere of influence is faculty wide, with the influence of
a deputy-dean extending across the faculty, but not across all its functions.
Finally, at this level of analysis there are the HODs who are both
administrators and academics.
A lot of what happens at these three levels and, in particular, at the faculty
and institutional level happens in committees. So, a good place to start is
with people who chair committees. Which of the ideas in our book could
they use to see that the culture of these committees encourages rather than
discourages creative thinking?
Obviously, each person who chairs a committee is the best person to answer
this question for a particular committee. But it could be that one of these
people likes the sound of the SOQ. If this is the choice, then time would be
found for the members of the committee to ask themselves about the extent
to which the culture, the climate or atmosphere of their meetings are in
line with the nine factors or forces listed by the SOQ.
Trust &Openness
Risk-taking
Idea Time
Motivation
Playfulness & Humour
Exploration
Resources
Idea Support

Freedom
Challenge & Involvement
This, of course, is only an example. The person who chairs this imaginary
committee may prefer Robinson and Stern's criteria. Or Amabile's. Or a set
of criteria we haven't discussed. The point is simply that at level 2 and 3 and
4, worrying about the extent to which creative thinking is encouraged or
discouraged is largely a matter of the extent to which it's encouraged or
discouraged in the work of committees.
Postscript
71
Observation Two
Our second observation is more like a request. A request to join us in
finding ways to use Blanchard & Waghorn's structure for managing the
present and the future of a higher education institution simultaneously and
creatively.
We've got one success story from the IPMI Business School in Jakarta. A
class of about 30 students divided themselves into a number of Present
Teams and a number of Future Teams. We didn't have either a Steering
Committee or Design Teams. Instead we used an iterative process. A
Present Team, for example, having presented its ideas for present
improvements to the School, handed its disc to the next Present Team who
built on what had been produced. And so on. For about 10 iterations. And
also for the Future Teams.
At the end of this process, which took about three weeks, we turned the
ideas that were on the discs into a memo. When the students had made some
corrections and additions it was given to the School's Board of
Management. The members of the Board were astonished. They had been
trying to produce a report of that kind for about 18 months, but they had had
no success. Over the next year, most of what the students had proposed was
implemented by the Board.
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Managing Creativity
The best thing about this experience was that the creative thinking came
from the bottom up. From the primary stakeholders. From the students. An
interesting question remained. If the Board had been asked for its
permission to produce a report of this kind and in this way, would it have
been given? Nobody knows. But the idea has been tried and it's been proved
to be a good one. Get the students in the institution or in the faculty or in the
department to think simultaneously and creatively about present
improvements and future changes to their education.
Observation Three
Still in the administrative dimension. Lewin's Force-Field Analysis is an
excellent tool for achieving the goals that Present Teams and Future Teams
have set for a department, or a faculty or an institution. Here's a reminder of
the forces that are at work. Forces that could help or hinder the achievement
of a goal.
Traditions
Vested interests
Organizational structures
Relationships
Social or organizational trends
Attitudes of people
Regulations
Personal or group needs
Present or past practices
Institutional policies or norms
Values
Desires
Costs
People
Events
Observation Four
Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats is an excellent tool for creative
thinking by students and those who teach them. It's a template that works for
creating lectures and presentations. For guiding a tutorial or seminar
discussion. For writing an essay or an academic paper. Even for writing a
book.
Postscript
73
Because teaching people to use the Six Hats is one of the best ways to
understand how to use it, this is where academics could begin. With a
session on the Six Hats, perhaps using some of the excellent presentations
available on youtube.com some of them by de Bono himself.
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Managing Creativity
The next step is to require students to use the tool. The quickest way is to
announce that only presentations and other assignments in a Six Hats format
can attract a High Distinction. Almost immediately the game is on. The
thinking improves. The students and those who teach them are empowered.
Towards a conclusion
If creative thinking is the name of higher education's game, then these
straightforward theories and tools are the way to go. The way to enriching
the thinking that's required at every level and by every individual in a higher
education institution.
PART THREE
A Guide to the Literature behind the Book
This part of the book is about the literature that helped create part one and
part two. It's about the ideas that shaped our own ideas, the ideas that helped
us figure out how to manage our own and other people's creativity, our own
and other people's imagination. In this part you will find summaries of the
books and articles that inspired each chapter of the book, as well as
questions for discussion and further study.
Please remember that we have also created a blog for our book:
http://mrs007a.blogspot.com/. On the blog you can find the hot links to the
materials used and recommended in the book as well as more links and
materials that could not find their way in the printed form. You will also be
welcome to send us your comments and suggestions related to the various
issues presented in the book.
Chapter 1
Adaptors and Innovators
The Adaption-Innovation theory was developed by Michael Kirton,
British psychologist and expert in occupational research in the 1970s. The
theory starts from the premises that all people are creative and solve
problems on a daily basis.
It makes a clear distinction between level (how much creative are we? how
high is our problem solving capacity?) and style (in what manner are we
creative/ in what manner do we solve problems?) of creativity, problem
solving and decision making and it only focuses on style.
According to Kirton, the preferred problem solving/creativity style is
genetically determined, unchangeable, and readily apparent in young
children, can be reliably tested in teenagers and does not change with age or
experience.
The A-I Theory states that people are different in regards to the cognitive
style in which they are creative, solve problems and make decisions. These
style differences are spread on a normally distributed continuum, ranging
from high adaption to high innovation.
Figure 1.1 Adaption- Innovation Continuum1
Samuel, Phil, Improving teamwork with Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory,

Breakthrough Management Group on 16.09.2007
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Managing Creativity
Kirton developed a psychometric2 tool, the Kirton Adaption-Innovation

Inventory, which is considered highly reliable for measuring in what
manner people tend to solve problems, make decisions and express
themselves creatively, thus placing them along the continuum. The
inventory consists of 32 questions/statements. Each item is scored by the
subject on a scale from 1 to 5. The scores can range from 32 to 160 with a
mid-point of 96. A person with an adaptive style will score between 60 and
90. Someone with an innovative style will score in the 110-140 range.
Initially, the inventory consisted only of the subscale factors adaption and
innovation. According to Mudd (1996)3, these were considered obvious and
not officially established. As Mudd explains in time the inventory was
categorized into three subscale factors: efficiency (categorizes an
individuals preference for efficiency, precision, and reliability), rule/group
conformity (operates according to rules and regulations), and originality
(refers to the preference for production of original ideas).
A large variety of studies and empirical research have been done using the
Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory. In their paper, A Comparison of
Adaption-Innovation Styles between Information Systems Majors and
Computer Science Majors E. Sim and G Wright4 present the KAI scores
for some of those studies. The KAI mean is the average score of the
inventory and n represents the number of test subjects:
Psychometrics is the field of study concerned with the theory and technique of
measurement of knowledge, abilities, attitudes, cognition and personality traits.
Mudd, S, Kirtons A-I theory: Evidence bearing on the style/level and factor composition
issues, 1996
Sim, E., Wright, G A Comparison of Adaption-Innovation Styles Between Information
System Majors and Computer Science Majors, Journal of Information systems
Education, vol. 13 (1)
A Guide To The Literature Behind The Book
79
Now that we have seen how the Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory

works lets analyze the characteristics of the two categories, adaptors and
innovators as described by Kirton himself. The simplest of classifications
says that adaptors prefer doing things better, accepting and working
within the problem definition while innovators see the definition as part of
the problem so they are keen on doing things differently.
Figure 2.1 Idea generation by Adaptors and Innovators

Source: http://bpo.itri.org.tw
Kirton explains that when it comes to preferences:

Adaptors prefer more structure, are sensitive to people and groups, target
ideas and master details, are more consistent and tend to be more prudent
when it comes to risk taking.
Innovators prefer less structure, are prepared to make groups
uncomfortable, proliferate ideas, are less constrained by the past, challenge
assumptions and have a daring attitude towards risk taking.
When it comes to ideas generation:
Adaptors produce few ideas. However, those ideas are manageable and
relevant and safe for immediate news. They expect high success rate.
Innovators generate a large quantity of ideas some of them seen as exciting,
blue sky, new dawn. This approach is complemented by the fact that
innovators tolerate a high failure rate.
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Managing Creativity
Analyzing the problem solving methodology of the two groups, Kirton

explains that:
Adaptors are likely to be precise, reliable, use a methodical approach focus
on being thorough and paying attention to details. They welcome change as
an improver and seek solutions to problems in ways that were tried and
tested, accepting and working with the problem definition.
Innovators however, think tangentially and approach tasks from
unsuspected angles. They welcome change as a mould breaker and
manipulate a problem querying its basic assumption, seeing the definition as
part of the problem.
As Kirton points out, differences between the two categories appear when it
comes to the management of the structure used in problem solving:
Adaptors tend to maintain continuity, stability and group cohesion, while
being prudent with authority. Given their preference towards using rules in
solving the problem they challenge them rarely and usually need consensual
support to do so.
Innovators are likely to be a catalyst to settled groups and consensual
views. In accordance with their tendency to alter rules in order to solve
problems they challenge rules, customs and consensual views.
Better solutions to problems for a business more likely to be offered by
adaptors are: decrease of production cost, increase of the efficiency of
operations or the institution of standard operation procedures.
Different solutions for business problems that will be offered by
innovators include: finding unexpected markets, developing new technology
or changing to a new system rather than fixing the old one.
Kirton clearly explains that neither of the categories can be considered more
or less creative, or being better at problems solving or decision making and
that particular situations call for different approaches for which adaption or
innovation my be more appropriate. In many cases however, a team
composed of both adaptors and innovators is the most effective as long as
they manage working together and respecting each others differences.
One of the main requirements for adaptors and innovators to be able to work
together effectively is dealing with the cognitive gap. The cognitive gap
represents the distance between ones preferred style and the behavior
needed in a certain interactions such as: between two people with different
style preferences, or between two groups or between a person and his team.
Sometimes cognitive gap appears between an individuals preferred style
and what a certain task requires.
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Coping behaviour is a learned technique that can be highly effective in

situations when behaviour needs to be in a style that is not matching ones
preferred style. Coping behaviour is behaviour outside ones preferred style
and is measured by distance from preferred style as well as by how long it
has to be maintained.
As Kirton explains, each time two persons share a problem, they both
acquire two problems: Problem A- the task, Problem B- managing eachothers diversity. In order for a team to be both efficient and effective it
must focus more collective energy on the problem at hand (Problem A) than
on problems raised in collaborating (Problem B).
As previously stated, a diversity of problem solvers is required in solving
complex problems. However, they are only effective if they collaborate.
Kirton presents some of the characteristics of adaptors and innovators in
situations requiring cooperation:
Being sensitive to people, Adaptors supply stability, order and continuity as
well as maintain group cohesion and cooperation. They minimize risk for
innovative projects and provide foundation for efficient change. Because
they tend to see how a current system is enabling, adaptors may stay with a
paradigm too long.
Innovators on the other hand can be insensitive to people. They supply
break with accepted theory as well as provide the dynamics for radical
change. Often they can stir the group up to reconsider consensus related
issues. Considering a current system as being limiting, innovators may
abandon a paradigm rapidly.
Kirton also presents how each category is perceived by the other.
Adaptors see innovators as: unsound, impractical, abrasive, risky. They
consider innovators to be generators of turbulence, confusion and
dissonance as well as challenging rules and customs.
Innovators perceive adaptors as: picky, narrow, pedestrian, overlycautious and conforming. They see adaptors as timid in ideation, compliant
with authority and stuck within their system. Other perceptions innovators
have regarding adaptors is that they are taking an in-group view and are
intolerant of ambiguity.
Differences of 20 points of more on the KAI scale can affect a teams ability
to work together as they can lead to communication and trust issue.
Too little diversity leads to failure while too much causes problem solving
to become inelastic and inefficient. As Kirton explains, this Paradox of
Structure is at the same time enabling and limiting. However, effective
management of diversity is essential to managing change and proper
development of problem-solving teams can make diversity be an asset and
not a limitation.
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Managing Creativity
Bibliography
Hipple, J., Hardy, D., Wilson, S.A. & Michalski, J., Can Corporate
Innovation Champions Survive? Chemical Innovation, November 2001,
Vol.31 (11), 14-22.
Hyrsk K., Kangasharjuy, A., Adaptors and Innovators in Non-Urban
Environment, Babson College 1998
Kirton, M., Adaption-innovation: In the Context of Diversity and Change,
Taylor & Francis Routledge, 2003
Kirton, M., editor, Adaptors and Innovators: Styles of Creativity and
Problem Solving, Routledge, 1994
Mudd, S., Kirtons A-I theory: Evidence bearing on the style/ level and
factor composition issues, The British Journal of Psychology, 87, 1996,
pp. 241-254.
Samuel, P., Improving teamwork with Kirton Adaption-Innovation
Inventory, Breakthrough Management Group, 2007
Sim, E, Wright, G. A Comparison of Adaption-Innovation Styles Between
Information Systems Majors And Computer Science Majors, Journal of
Information Systems Education, Vol 13(1)
Stum, J., Kirtons Adaption-Innovation Theory: Managing Cognitive
Styles in Times of Diversity and Change Emerging Leadership
Journeys, Vol. 2 Iss. 1, 2009, pp. 66-78.
http://www.kaicentre.com
Chapter 2
The four step creative process
While historically, creativity was considered to be a spark of the moment
studies in the 20th century from leading mathematicians, scientists and
psychologist showed that there is a series of steps that are pivotal in the
creative process.
This unit will analyze the Four Step creative Process using some of the
perspectives presented by authors Jennifer Fleming and Paul Plsek.
In his working paper Models for the Creative Process Paul Plesk presents
a review of the literature of creative thinking models since 1908.
The first model presented is Graham Wallas 4 step Model for the Process
of Creativity:
1. Preparation (preparatory work on a problem that focuses the
individual's mind on the problem and explores the problem's
dimensions),
2. Incubation (where the problem is internalized into the
unconscious mind and nothing appears externally to be
happening),
3. Illumination or insight (where the creative idea bursts forth
from its preconscious processing into conscious awareness); and
4. Verification (where the idea is consciously verified, elaborated,
and then applied).
Initially the model, as presented in the 1926 work The art of thought
consisted of 5 stages1 but in later literature Intimation (the creative person
gets a "feeling" that a solution is on its way), was considered a sub stage.
Plsek argues that the inclusion of incubation followed by illumination may
be the explanation of why so many people see creative thinking as a
subconscious mental process that cannot be directed. However the first and
last phases of Wallas' model, preparation and verification suggest that
creative and analytical thinking are complementary.
The next model presented in the paper is Barons four phase psychic
creation model:
1. Conception (in a prepared mind)
2. Gestation (time, intricately coordinated)
1
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Graham_Wallas
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Managing Creativity
3. Parturation (suffering to be born, emergence to light)

4. Bringing up the baby (further period of development)
This model is similar to Wallas model as it implies the same theory that
creative thinking is a subconscious process beyond the control of the
creator.
While the previous two models portray creativity as a mysterious process
the majority of the following models showcase creativity as a conscious
level of balancing analysis and imagination. One of these models is
presented in J. Rossmans The Psychology of the inventor work from
1931. Rossmans creativity model expands Wallas original four steps to
seven:
1. Observation of a need or difficulty
2. Analysis of the need
3. A survey of all available information
4. A formulation of all objective solutions
5. A critical analysis of these solutions for their advantages and
disadvantages
6. The birth of the new idea -- the invention
7. Experimentation to test out the most promising solution, and
the selection and perfection of the final embodiment.
More recent models such as the one proposed by Isaksen and Trefflinger
(1985) and Parnes (1992) outline six steps in their creative problem
solving (CPS) model.
1. Objective finding
2. Fact finding
3. Problem finding
4. Idea finding
5. Solution finding
6. Acceptance finding
Creative thinking is necessary for steps 3 and 4, while the first two and the
last two steps of the model employ analytical thinking.
A similarly balanced model was proposed by Koberg and Bagnal - The
Universal Traveler Model:
Accept the situation (as a challenge)
Analyze (to discover the "world of the problem")
Define (the main issues and goals)
Ideate (to generate options)
Select (to choose among options)
85
Implement (to give physical form to the idea)

Evaluate (to review and plan again)
One can notice that ideation which employs creative thinking is preceded
and followed by analytical and practical thinking.
The synergy between creative and analytical thinking can be found in
models for specific applications such as the Model for Creative Strategic
Planning proposed by Bandrovski.
Analysis standard planning
insight development
Creativity creative leaps
strategic connections
Judgment concept building
critical judgment
Planning
action planning
creative contingency planning
Action
flexible implementation
monitoring results
However, not all models place the generation of new ideas between actions
which require analytical thinking. Fritz Process for Creation places the
creative act in the beginning following it with analytical actions:
Conception
Vision
Current reality
Take action
Adjust, learn, evaluate, adjust
Building momentum
Completion
Living with your creation
An overview of the common elements of the models for creative thinking
presented above shows that the creation process balances imagination and
innovation with purposeful analysis. The skills in practical, concrete and
analytical thinking should not be discarded as they are to be engaged in the
creative process. However, they must be supplemented with new thinking
skills that support the generation of novel, innovative ideas.
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Managing Creativity
The last part of Paul E. Plseks paper presents a synthesis model for the
creative process as shown in figure 2.1.
Figure 2.1: The Directed Creativity Circle 2
The model combines concepts behind various models proposed over the last
80+ years. The model is divided in four quadrants: preparation,
imagination, development and action each of them including a series of
actions employed in the creation process.
Plsek defines directed creativity as purposeful mental movements made to
avoid the pitfalls associated with ones cognitive mechanisms at each step of
the process of searching for novel and useful ideas.
The second part of this unit will focus on business world examples of the
employment of the steps of creative thinking, from the perspective of
Jennifer Flemings paper Creativity for Web Developers: Understanding
the process of innovation.
As its title reveals, Flemings paper looks at creativity from web developers
perspective. Since the beginning of the paper the two main ideas portrayed are:
1. Creativity is a continuous process and cannot be scheduled.
2. Team collaboration the involvement of designers,
technologists, writers, marketers and managers- must play an
important part in the creative process.
The papers aim is to be a five step guide for creativity in the web
development world.
The first step in finding creative solutions is identifying the problems. The
author offers 2 examples of clients in similar situations but with different
demands. One would like Java as well as the possibility for customers to
submit information via web forms while the other is looking for new ways
2
Paul E. Plsek, Working Paper: Models for the creative process, 1996
87
to extend their commerce model onto the web without compromising their
in-store sales. The author explains that the 2nd clients request is more
closely tied to its goals and needs while the first offers no possibilities for
innovative approaches.
The paper argues that surveying the audience (users) and finding the
similarities in their answers is an effective solution for identifying the
problems if the problems are unclear.
The 2nd step in the creational process involves understanding the
parameters. Despite the fact that the perception of the majority of people is
that creativity requires total freedom, understanding the guidelines,
limitations and the clients definition for a successful outcome can help one
generate solutions that are both innovative as well as useful.
The example from the software world that is presented in J. Flemings paper
is an accountant wanting a solution that would fit the software hes already
using that may not be included among important criteria for success.
However, if the companys resources do not allow it to purchase new
accounting software the use of the one currently employed by the
accountant needs to be incorporated in the solution.
After the identification of the problems and the understanding of the
parameters the issue of finding sources of inspiration rises. Fleming
suggests that less conventional activities are a source for inspiration.
Running, playing, cat naps, listening to classical music or poetry can put
ones brain wave state into that much desired alpha state.
Another approach suggested for is the Fake ID technique which translates
into thinking with someone elses head and the business example
presented is the required actions for creating an e-zine for teenage girls. In
order to do so one must place himself/herself in the world of a teenage girl
and answer questions related to the task such as: What do they like to do?
What do they tend to read or talk about? Where do they shop? What's cool
and what's not? In order to answer such questions and be able to generate
such questions one may have to do a series of things common to this
particular segment.
The author suggests that this is a stage where one must keep an open mind
and absorb the experiences without any judgmental attitude.
After these first three steps, generating ideas comes into play.
Brainstorming plays an important part in this stage and, as suggested by
Alex Osborn3 the focus should be on the quantity rather than the quality of
the ideas.
3
Alex Faickney Osborn (1888-1966) was an advertising executive and the author of the
creativity technique named brainstorming.
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Managing Creativity
Fleming presents a series of useful information on brainstorming together

with several ground rules for ensuring the success of these idea generating
sessions. Brainstorming is described as a collective activity and a larger
number of perspectives is encouraged.
The Galapagos meeting (named after the Galapagos Islands where there are
no predators) where anyone can suggest anything and no one is allowed to
criticize can prove useful during this stage. They can be followed a week
after by Lifeboat meetings where ideas are cut down.
The collaborative expansion of ideas can be facilitated by the SCAMPER
system devised by theorist Robert Eberle. Scamper is an acronym for
Substitute - Replace one concept or component with another.
Combine - Group ideas together to form new ones.
Adapt Alter an existing idea to suit your purposes.
Magnify/Minimize/Modify - Shrink or expand an idea or service
to create a new one.
Put to other uses - Brainstorm a different purpose than originally
intended.
Eliminate - Delete a concept or component.
Reverse/Rearrange - Look at things upside down and backwards,
or change the order.
The evaluation of solutions comes next. It is here where the decision is
made what ideas are to be kept and what are to be placed in the waste
basket. One must go back to the original criteria and goals and use them to
evaluate each idea. If an idea doesn't meet the criteria that are specified at
the beginning of the project, it has to be eliminated. If it does meet the
criteria implementation issues have to be considered as well as weighing it
against competing ideas.
Running of focus groups or the interviews of users can be employed for
deciding which idea shows more promise than the others.
Fleming finishes her article by concluding that creativity is an ongoing
process and planning for it will ensure innovation.
Bibliography
process
of
innovation,
www.ahref.com/guides/design/199806/
0608jefprintable.html
Chapter 3
Brainstorming
In his paper Creative Thinking and Brainstorming, G. Rawlinson defines
Brainstorming as "a tool for getting a large number of ideas from a group of
people in a short time". Brainstorming can prove to be a great tool for:
Expanding creative thinking
Identifying issues or opportunities
Identifying possible causes of a problem
Identifying data collection requirements
Identifying possible solutions to a problem
Seeing different points of view
Therefore, the main focus of brainstorming is not good or even new ideas,
but a large number of ideas; quantity over quality.
Two logic diagrams, in the Wikipedia article on Brainstorming present an
applicable variant for flow of actions necessary for preparing and
conducting a brainstorming session.
Figure 3.1 Process of preparing for a brainstorming session

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Activity_preperation.svg
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Managing Creativity
Figure 3.1 Process of conducting a brainstorm session

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Activity_conducting.svg
However, according to G. Rawlinson there are five important steps

necessary for a successful brainstorming session:
1. Preparation
During this step, the organizer of the brainstorming session should perform
the following actions:
Specification of a time limit for the brainstorming session
Selection of a person in charge of recording the ideas
Offer participants means to record their ideas (pen and paper,
Post-its)
91
Explain the purpose of the meeting. No criticism of other ideas

should be done (Galapagos meeting).
Source: http://ooine.com/index.php/2009/06/23/brainstorming-is-an-inefficient-methodof-generating-ideas/
2. Topic
The topic of the brainstorming session should be presented for the
participants on a white board. If an object is the focus of the brainstorm it
should be displayed for the participants.
3. Private brainstorming
All participants should be allowed at least 10 minutes to brainstorm
privately and write their ideas down on paper or Post-its. After that they can
share them, either in turn or anonymously. The advantage offered by this is
that it encourages participation by more self-conscious people who might
otherwise feel intimidated.
4. Group brainstorming
There are a series of techniques employed in group brainstorming:
Freewheeling this is where participants are encouraged to
express their ideas in any order. Each idea is listed on a flipchart.
One of the main disadvantages of this type of brainstorming is
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Managing Creativity
that quieter, timid members might not participate unless actively

drawn in the process
In Round Robin everyone gets a turn to offer an idea. People
contribute ideas, feeling free to pass if they have no idea to
share in that round. The session is over when everyone passes
(has no more ideas). This ensures everyone participates. Ideas
are listed on a whiteboard as they are offered.
Mind Mapping offers a more graphic approach to writing
responses, than simply listing ideas on a board or flipchart. One
or two people are used as scribes for the group. The process
begins by creating a large writing space, at least 1.2 m by 1.2 m,
on a wall. The topic statement is written in circle in the centre of
this space. Then responses are gathered and written as lines
branching out from the centre circle.
Post-it method calls for the participants to post their Post-it
notes, on a board or on a wall.
Post-it method
Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jakecaptive/49915119/sizes/m/in/photostream/
5 Discussion
Once the list of ideas is completed, it is discussed with the group for
clarification and the decision regarding the destination of ideas generation.
93
6. Beyond Brainstorming
When all the ideas are recorded, the brainstorming session is over. At this
point it can be finalized, or the group can move to creating Affinity
Diagrams or applying Filters:
An affinity diagram (also called the KJ method, after its developer
Kawakita Jiro -a Japanese anthropologist) helps to synthesize large amounts
of data by finding relationships between ideas. The information is then
gradually structured from the bottom up into meaningful groups.
Figure 3.3 Affinity diagram

Source: http://www.mindtools.com/media/Diagrams/Affinity1.jpg
Affinity diagrams can be used to:

Extract common themes from a large amount of information.
Discover previously unnoticed connections between various ideas
or information.
Brainstorm root causes and solutions to a problem.
When filters are applied, criteria (like cost, time, fit, or availability) groups
of ideas resulted from the use of affinity diagrams that dont get to be turned
into projects for implementation get saved into electronic databases.
Lifeboat meetings are also an excellent solution in the idea selection
process. They are usually held one week after Galapagos meetings. During
the lifeboat meeting ideas are cut down and the decision is made on which
projects survive.
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Managing Creativity
Bibliography
Geoffrey Rawlinson, Creative Thinking and Brainstorming, Gower, 1996
Affinity diagrams
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_86.htm
Creativity and Innovation, CareerTrack Publications, USA, 1995
Top 5 Brainstorming techniques
http://www.wsa-intl.com/263-top-5-brainstorming-techniques/
Wikipedia article on brainstorming
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainstorming
http://www.brainstorming.co.uk/contents.html
Chapter 4
Edward de Bono's 'Six Thinking Hats for exploring an idea
Edward de Bono's 'Six Thinking Hats is a thinking tool for individual
thinking and group discussions. The principle behind it is parallel thinking,
which ensures that all the people in a meeting are focused on and thinking
about the same subject at the same time. Together, the 'Six Thinking Hats
system and parallel thinking, provide a means for groups to think together
more effectively, as well as a means to plan the thinking processes in a
thorough and consistent manner.
Edward de Bono (born in Malta in 1933) is considered by many to be the
leading authority in the world in the field of creative thinking as well as in
the direct teaching of thinking as a skill. He has authored 62 books which
have been translated into 37 languages and has been invited to lecture in 54
countries. He is considered to be the originator of lateral thinking which
treats creativity as the behaviour of information in a self-organizing
information system - such as the neural networks in the brain.
In the Six Thinking Hats system thinking is divided into six categories
with each category identified by its own thinking hat. By becoming presensitized to each of the hats one can easily focus and re-direct thoughts,
conversation, meetings or reports.
The white hat calls for neutrality and objectiveness, as it involves the
presentation of objectives, facts and numbers in a manner similar to the one
of a computer. Often, data is presented in an argumentation and may lack
objectiveness. It is then that a selector is needed to call for facts only. The
white hat manner of thinking calls for the thinker to clearly separate in his
mind the facts from extrapolation or from interpretation.
When one wears the white hat, the statements he issues must be presented
with a neutral objectivity and not be used to support a point of view. The
white hat excludes valuable elements like feelings, intuition, judgments
based on experience, impressions and opinions. This is the purpose of
wearing the white hat: to have a way to only ask for information.
With this thinking hat, one focuses on the data available. The available
information is analyzed, and what is useful is extracted from it. The
knowledge gaps are to be found and filled in or in into account.
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Managing Creativity
The white hat
Source: http://blog.iqmatrix.com/mind-map/edward-de-bono-6-thinking-hats-mind-map
Some of the questions that can be asked from a white hats perspective are:
What is the information on hand?
What information is missing?
What additional information is required?
How is this information going to be obtained?
According to de Bono there is a double system of information divided into
two classes. The first class contains facts that are proven and verified while
the second class is composed of statements considered to be true but havent
been verified totally. The value of a statement can range from always true
to never true living room for classifications such as in general or
sometimes. When the white hat is being used the class of the information
should also be presented in order to indicate its degree of credibility.
When white hat thinking is being requested during a meeting, proposals and
arguments are being put aside and the focus is directly on information and
for that time being everybody should try to see what information is
available.
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The red hat
The red hat deals with feelings, intuition, hunches and emotions. It is
almost the opposite of the white hat which is neutral and objective. The
colour red symbolizes the heart, passion and emotions.
The red hat allows people to express their emotions and intuitions without
having to justify them. Feelings can come into discussions without the need
to be disguised into logic. Intuition may prove to be highly valuable in the
assessment of a situation when it is based on experience.
Despite the traditional views that emotions confuse the thinking process, de
Bono argues that all correct decisions must be emotional in the last instance.
If one uses the white hat to draw a map, the values and emotions will
determine the selected route.
The red hat can reveal two large types of feelings: first of all the common
emotions such as fear, suspicion, jealousy or love. Secondly, it can unveil
complex judgments based on intuitions, sensations or aesthetic preferences
or other non-justifiable reasons that are perceivable. The red hat makes these
emotions visible allowing their consequences to be observed as well as the
removal of feelings that disrupt the thinking process as soon as they arise
from the surface.
Some of the questions asked form a Red Hats perspective are:
What is my initial reaction to a suggestion?
How do I feel about a decision I might make?
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Managing Creativity
Do I believe I am making the right choice?

Does anything inside me tell me there is a better option?
The purpose of the red hat is not to provide a way to announce ones
emotions, but more like a mirror that reflects the complexity of
those emotions.
The black hat
The black hat concentrates on the dangers and flaws of each approach and
emphasizes the worst case scenarios. Black symbolizes pessimism,
negativity and gloominess.
The black hat thinking is used for critical judgment, pointing out why
something cannot be done or will not be profitable. The black hat is very
valuable as it prevents mistakes or illegal actions which can prove very
costly. It is the most used and probably the most useful of the hats.
The hat is important because it highlights the weak points in a plan or
course of action, allowing their elimination, the change of the approach, or
the preparation of contingency plans to counter problems that arise.
However, its overuse can turn out to be a problem as early negativity can
destroy creativity.
The questions asked from a Black Hats perspective can be:
What is a serious flaw of this recommendation?
What is a major drawback to this way of thinking?
What are the odds of failure?
99
What could be potential worst-case scenarios?

Are necessary recovery resources in place?
This black hat way of thinking is always logical. Despite being negative it is
not emotional. The emotional-negative role corresponds to the red hat (that
also covers the emotional-positive role). The user of the black hat does not
present any argumentation and should never consider doing so. It is an
objective attempt to put the negative elements in the map. The reasons
behind the black hat thinking must have a value of their own and be usable
by anyone.
The positive judgment is for the yellow hat. When new ideas surface the
yellow hat always has to be used before the black one.
The yellow hat
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Managing Creativity
The yellow hat brings an optimistic approach and a logical positive

perspective on things. The yellow colour symbolizes the suns brightness,
luminosity and optimism.
The yellow hats attitude is a constructive one and is the exact opposite of the
blacks. It looks for feasibility and logically based benefits. The yellow hat
brings an optimistic viewpoint that helps one find all the benefits of the
decision and the value in it, as well as spot the opportunities that arise from it.
The yellow hat thinking requires a deliberate effort as the black hat is more
natural. The benefits of the yellow hat may not be immediately obvious but
every creative idea deserves a yellow hat approach.
Possible questions to be answered from a yellow hats perspective can be:
What is the best way to approach the issue?
What is a reasonable and realistic way to make things work?
What are the positive outcomes of each idea?
What are the long-term benefits of each action?
Yellow hat thinking investigates and explores in search of value and
benefit. Afterwards it tries to find logical support for this value and benefit.
Concrete proposals and suggestions arise from it. The effectiveness is the
objective of the constructive yellow hat thinking which can also be
speculative and seeking opportunities. The yellow hat also allows visions
and dreams but does not manage the mere positive euphoria (red hat) or the
direct creation of new ideas (green hat).
The green hat
101
The green hat is used to develop creative solutions to a problem. The

problem is regarded in a new, open and unrestricted way, in order to
generate creative and unusual ideas. The green colour symbolizes
vegetation, fertility and rich growth.
The green hat allows the issuing of possibilities and hypotheses. It helps
with the generation of new ideas or additional alternatives. It offers the
possibility to ask for a creative effort directly. It also makes time and space
available for creative thinking.
One cannot force itself or others to have a new idea, but can ask himself or
others to dedicate time towards generating new ideas. The green hat is the
formal way to do it.
Lateral thinking is employed when using the green hat. Lateral thinking
consists of a series of techniques and tools that are put together in a
systematic manner to change the guidelines in an asymmetric system
composed.
Provocation works by moving thinking out of the established patterns that
were used to solve problems. Humans normally think by recognizing
patterns and reacting to them. These reactions come from past experiences
and logical extensions to those experiences. Often we do not think outside
these patterns. While we may know the answer as part of a different type of
problem, the structure of their brains makes it difficult for us to link this in.
Provocation, originally developed by Edward de Bono, is one of the tools
used to make links between these patterns.
Movement is a mental operation that we can use as an alternative to
judgment. It allows us to develop a provocative idea into one that
is workable and realistic.
The questions that can be asked from a green hats perspective are:
What alternative solutions are possible?
Could a recommendation be done in another way?
What is an unusually unique way of looking at the issue?
What would constitute outside-the-box thinking in this case?
What if?
The search for alternatives is a fundamental aspect of the green hat. It
requires going beyond the well-known, obvious and the satisfactory thing.
In green hat thinking, the movement technique replaces traditional
judgment. The thinker tries to advance from an idea and reach out for
a new one.
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Managing Creativity
The blue hat
The blue hat is employed for process control and chooses the hat being
used. The blue colour symbolizes panoramic control since the sky towers
over everything. Blue also suggests spacing, tranquillity and self-control.
The blue hat sets the agenda for thinking, suggests the next step as well as
asks for summaries conclusions and decisions. It is usually used by the
chairperson but other participants can also advance suggestions. The blue
had is used for organizing the thinking process and making it more
productive.
The person using the blue hat defines the subjects that should be the focus
of thinking. He defines the problems and elaborates the questions. Blue hat
thinking makes sure the rules are observed. It takes the role of an umpire
enforcing and applying discipline. The blue hat wearer choreographs
thinking.
Questions asked from a blue hats perspective are:
What is the best way to define the actual problem?
What are the goals?
What are the desired outcomes of the solution-seeking process?
What is the most effective way of moving forward?
What is the optimal way out of the current circumstances?
Even though one person usually assumes the role of blue hat wearer this role
is open for anyone who wants to make proposals and suggestions that imply
blue hat thinking. The blue hat can call for the use of the other hats pending
on the situation.
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Edward de Bonos Six Thinking Hats technique represents a multidimensional tool that drastically improves the efficiency and effectiveness
of ones thinking methods. The method has two main focuses. First of all it
simplifies thinking by separating logic, emotions, information, hope and
creativity. The second one is two allow a variation of thought encouraging
parallel thinking as well as full spectrum thinking.
Bibliography
de Bono, E, Serious Creativity, HarperCollins, 1995
de Bono, E, Six Thinking Hats, second edition, Back Bay Books, 1999
de Bono for Business web site The de Bono Group
http://www.debonogroup.com/index.php
Edward de Bonos authorized web site http://www.edwdebono.com/
Official web site of The de Bono Group
http://www.debonogroup.com/six_thinking_hats.php
Six Thinking Hats article on Mind Tools
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTED_07.htm
The flow design pattern of the Six Thinking Hats technique
http://www.idspace-project.org/index.php?option=com_content&
view=article&id=66&Itemid=53
6 Thinking Hats for Solving Lifes Problems http://blog.iqmatrix.com/mindmap/edward-de-bono-6-thinking-hats-mind-map
Chapter 5
Kurt Lewins force field analysis for achieving a goal
Developed by social psychologist Kurt Lewin in 1947, force field analysis
is a method for listing, discussing and evaluating various forces that work in
favour or against a proposed change. Born in 1890 in Germany Kurt Lewin
was a Professor of Philosophy and Psychology at Berlin University until he
fled to the United States in 1932 to escape the Nazis. He is often recognized
as the "founder of social psychology" and was one of the first researchers
that studied group dynamics and organizational development.
Figure 5.1 Forces resisting change

Source: http://www.performanceimprovementtoolkit.com
105
Kurt Lewins force field analysis model evaluates the impact of all forces
influencing changes, forces that can be divided into two groups: driving and
restraining forces. As their name shows driving forces are the ones that
encourage change. Examples of forces that promote change in an
organizational environment are: increased efficiency, faster access to
information or the demand of customers. Restraining forces are described by
Lewin as acting in opposition to driving forces and leading to resistance to
change rather than representing consistent forces in themselves. Examples
of forces that may impede a company from implementing change are lack of
training or incentives, reluctance of staff towards using a new software
program.
When the total intensity of the two types of forces is equal, change is in a
state of equilibrium meaning there is no moment towards change or away
from it. However, the addition of one single element, or the change in the
intensity of an existing one would steer the decision towards one direction
or another.
Force Field Analysis can be used to develop an action plan to implement
change, by determining if a proposed change can get the necessary support,
identifying the obstacles to successful solutions and suggest actions to
reduce the strength of those obstacles. An important aspect of force field
analysis is that it focuses on identifying and lowering barriers between ones
current status and the desired change. This lowers the total amount of
energy needed to achieve change and therefore makes change easier.
Implementation of a force field analysis
Identifying and understanding the current state as well as the desired goal
state relative to the proposed change are two key factors necessary in order
for a change to take place.
In her article Kurt Lewin's Force Field Analysis: Decision Making Made
Easy Lyndsay Swinton, an experienced people manager and team leader as
well as a personal development and coaching expert, presents a five step
model for the implementation of a force field analysis:
The 1st Step suggested is the listing of all the factors for (pros) and factors
against (cons) a decision. The inclusion of intangible or emotional factors is
also suggested as ignoring these can undermine the decision.
In Step 2 each factor is given a score between 1 and 5 with one being the
weakest intensity and opposing arrows for each factor are drawn with the
size being represented by the score.
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Managing Creativity
Figure 5.2 Force field diagram
During Step 3 the total is made for the for and against scores. If the result is
not the expected one Swinton suggests the brief review of the factors listed
in order to answer questions such as: Are there any missing? Are less
important factors overshadowing the more important factors? Are the scores
realistic, and spread across the full range? Another suggestion is the
changing of the factors and scores and the checking of scores afterwards.
The final step, Step 4, involves the verification if taking appropriate action
may increase the For score and decrease the Against score as well as the
review of the factors in order to decide what actions could be taken to
address or enhance any challenges. Afterwards, step 3 and Step 3 are
repeated, assuming that the necessary actions take place.
Applications of Force Field analysis
The applications can be found in various industries. Three main applications
for this tool arise: change management, productivity improvement and
decision making.
Change management is actually the primary application for the force field
analysis. Kurt Lewin actually created a three stage theory regarding change
management commonly known as Unfreeze, Change, Freeze.
The first stage, unfreeze, involves the preparation for change, from
realizing its necessity to assessing pros and cons for it. It is during this stage
that Force Field Analysis can prove a useful tool for understanding the
situation and developing strategies.
107
According to Lewin, change is not an event, but rather a process. He called

that process a transition. Transition (change) is the inner movement or
journey one makes in reaction to a change. This second stage occurs as the
changes that are needed are being made.
It is here that human behaviour essentially comes into play, as people are
learning about the changes and may need time and help to deal with them.
Lewins equation, introduced in his paper Principles of Topological
Psychology, is a heuristic method for predicting human behaviour and
states that behaviour is a function of person and environment: B= f(P,E).
The final stage is freezing (also referred to as refreezing). This stage is
about stability once the changes have been made. People accept the changes
as they become the new norm.
Force field analysis is a powerful tool to be used by managers in the
applications presented above (change management, productivity
improvement and decision making) but it is not restrained to them. By
understanding the principles of force field analysis, managers can customize
this technique for use in a large variety of situations and use force field
analysis to effectively manage change in their organizations.
Bibliography
Force Field Analysis http://www.extension.iastate.edu/communities/tools/
forcefield.html
Force field analysis. Assessing the case for change http://www.strategiesfor-managing-change.com/force-field-analysis.html
Kurt Lewin. Change Management Model http://www.change-managementcoach.com/kurt_lewin.html
Kurt Lewin, encyclopedia http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/
Kurt+Lewin
Lewin, K, Principles of topological psychology, Mcgraw-Hill Book
Company, Inc, New York and London, 1936
Stephen Warrilow, Kurt Lewin - May the Force Field Analysis Be With
You!, http://ezinearticles.com
Swinton, L, Kurt Lewin's Force Field Analysis: Decision Making Made
Easy, www.mftrou.com
Using force field analysis to facilitate change,
http://www.thefreelibrary.com
Chapter 6
Software for Creative Thinking
Computers can be a helpful tool in the generation of ideas, writing business
plans, think of new uses for resources or finding new ways of doing things.
They will not help the creative thinking directly, but they will improve
certain aspects of the creation process allowing for less time to be spent on
those aspects.
Some of the stages of the creative thinking where software can be included
are generation, recording, manipulation and implementation of ideas.
Thinking techniques can be encapsulated into a program with the main
advantages being the compact storage and the ease of access.
Computers are highly efficient at storing and retrieving information and can
prove highly effective in manipulating it- storing, selecting or picking
random items from lists.
Anybody can benefit from idea generating software. Some of its uses are:
generation of ideas for writing stories, articles or scripts, advertising
campaigns, names of products or projects.
The next part of this section will present a classification and a description of
various types of creativity thinking software with examples for each
category.
1. Text based outliners
Text based outliners are computer programs that allow one the organization
of text into discrete sections that are related in a tree structure or hierarchy.
Text can be collapsed into a node, or expanded and edited.
The most used word processors such as Microsoft Word have an outline
mode built in. Microsoft PowerPoint also contains an outline mode that is
designed to create presentation slides or handouts.
2. Visual outliners
Visual outliners are software programs that attempt to automate the process
of drawing graphical outlines, mind maps, and concept maps. Such
programs can prove useful for presentations and publication.
Examples of such software solutions containing visual outliners are Mind
Mapper and Inspiration. We shall briefly present Mind Mapper Software to
exemplify the benefits of using such a software.
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Mind Mapper is a Windows-based visual mapping software that allows

users to create mind maps, concept maps, flow charts, organizational charts,
process maps, Gantt charts and Ishikawa diagrams.
A mind map is a visualization tool which helps with more proficient
thinking and learning. It is a graphic diagram used to represent ones
thoughts and ideas, tasks, or other items linked to a central key idea or
theme. It is used to generate, visualize, structure and classify ideas. The
newest version of this software is Mind Mapper 2009.
Figure 6.1 Applications of Mind Mapper

Source: http://www.mindmapper.com/runiboard/run.asp?board
=MMScreenshot&id=42&page=1&page_size=9&group_size=10
3. Idea processors
An idea processor is used for organizing ideas, brainstorming, concept
mapping, mind mapping, analysis, flowcharting, and creative writing. A
multi-level user workspace is manipulated using a wide variety of linguistic,
analytical, graphical and compositional idea generation tools.
The Axon Idea Processor is a commercial Windows-based program that helps
users visualize and process interrelated thoughts and ideas. It aids users to
create, communicate, explore, plan, draw, compose, design and learn.
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Managing Creativity
As a sketchpad for visualizing and organizing ideas, the Idea Processor

exploits visual attributes such as colour, shape, size, scale, position, depth,
shadow, links, and icons. Visual cues help the user to facilitate recall,
association, and discovery. Diagrams assist modelling and solving complex
problems. Visualization tools reinforce short term memory and stimulate
creativity.
Figure 6.2 Representation of the human brain realized

with Axon Idea Processor
Source: http://axon-research.com/axon/meatmachine-full.jpg
4. Questioning programs
Questioning programs take a relatively small amount of input from the user,
and then use sets of questions, keywords, or exercises to provoke new ideas.
Two examples of such programs are: IdeaFisher Pro and Creative Whack
Pack.
IdeaFisher Pro is powerful brainstorming software that can help the
generation of new ideas with a minimum of training. It can be used for
everything from developing new product ideas and fine-tuning a companys
corporate strategy to writing a speech or looking for creative solutions to a
problem.
Its power comes from two main components: The QBank and the IdeaBank.
The QBank is a database of several thousand categorized questions, which
111
can be used to help with the focus and the definition of a problem more
clearly, and to improve or enhance the existing ideas. The second major
component is the IdeaBank, a database of more than 65,000 words, phrases
and concepts. They are grouped into topical categories, and further
subdivided into major categories to form a hierarchical structure. The words
and phrases in this immense database are also linked by more than 775,000
direct associations, giving the QBank a structure that mirrors the associative
power of the brain.
The Creative Whack Pack is a computer representation of 64 cards. It
consists of 64 cards, each featuring a different strategy. They assume
various roles from highlighting places to find new information to providing
techniques to generate new ideas or offering decision-making advice.
5. Story development software
Story development software is represented by programs aimed specifically
at fiction writers. The software guides writers through the process gradually.
They are prodded to make tiny, but powerful, decisions about plot, structure,
character and theme.
Examples of story development software include Dramatica Pro and
Storrybase 2.0.
Dramatica Pro is a software program for story development than can help
the writer plan a story plot completely.
Figure 6.3 Screenshot from Dramatica Pro

Source: http://www.screenplay.com/images/products/dpro/feat_01big.gif
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Managing Creativity
The program can help the author of a story:

Structure the plot by answering Dramatica's questions about
his/hers characters and plot. This narrows down the possible ways
of telling a story to the one that best expresses the writers vision.
Illustrate the story by writing specific examples of characters,
story goal, plot points, theme, and conflict. The story's scenes can
then be compared to examples of history's greatest writers.
Create Scenes by weaving together all the parts of the story,
determine how elements of character, plot, and theme will be
revealed to the audience and [lace the examples into specific Acts,
Scenes, or Chapters.
6. Idea implementation software
As its name shows, idea implementation software helps the user implement
ideas.
Pending on the size of the project, management packages such as Microsoft
Project can be used as well as task management packages like In Control.
Microsoft Project is a software program for project management designed to
assist decision makers in the development of plans, resources assignment to
tasks, progress tracking, budgets management and workloads analysis. The
application creates critical path schedules, critical chain and event chain
methodology. Schedules can be resource levelled, and chains are visualized
in a Gantt chart.
Figure 6.4 Gant chart realized in Microsoft Project 2000

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Screengrab__Microsoft_Project_9.0.2000.0224_-_%28simple_Gantt_chart%29_.png
113
7. Idea prompting software/reference tools

This type of computer software uses the computers ability to store large
amounts of information and to retrieve it quickly.
Examples of such tools include:
On-line
dictionaries
such
as
Websters
dictionary
(http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org), which also has a
built in thesaurus.
On-line thesauruses, which offer synonyms and antonyms such as
the one at http://thesaurus.com.
Word processing packages with the most famous being Microsoft
Word.
8. Idea stimulators
Idea stimulators are applications designed to help one come up with ideas
and keep coming up with them. They are programmed to display quotations
or affirmations at random and can be useful for triggering ideas, as well as
pictures and lists of various items, including male and female names.
An excellent example of computer software that simulates ideas is Axon
Idea Processor presented in section 3 Idea stimulators.
9. Communications and the Internet
The global dimension of communications, including the Internet provides
great means to bring people together for communicating and sharing ideas.
The Web 2.0 approach has made access and sharing of information and
ideas much more accessible
Some of the ways communications can be used for helping creative thinking
include:
Forums and chat rooms dedicated to the discussion of ideas and
techniques for creative thinking
Online Chat rooms or video and audio conferences can be set up
for the discussion of ideas for creative thinking.
E-mail and Instant Messengers allow the worldwide
communication of ideas.
Newsgroups or podcasts can help gather ideas and techniques
Search engines such as Google can prove to be very helpful
when used properly in helping people find information that can
help create ideas.
10. Games
Games can prove a productive method from taking a break from the current
task. According to research discussed at the 2008 Convention of the
American Psychological Association, certain types of video games can
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Managing Creativity
improve the gamers dexterity as well as their ability to problem-solve.

Certain scenarios in strategy games require creative solutions from players
in order to win.
There is a variety of strategy games including classical ones such as chess,
checkers or go as well as more visually complex strategy games such as the
popular Starcraft or Warcraft. These new video-games require the player to
think on a multi level as he has to develop his economy as well as his
military, micromanage units, pay attention to opportunities and threats,
anticipate the opponents move as well as find ways to surprise him and
create an overall game strategy. Very often a creative solution will bring
him closer to wining.
11. Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the science and engineering of making intelligent
machines and highly intelligent computer programs. The field of Artificial
Intelligence is attempting to make computers emulate the human brain. By
emulating the human brain computers would be able to offer creative
solutions.
Some of the disciplines included inside AI are:
Knowledge Representation is an area of artificial intelligence
with the fundamental purpose being to represent knowledge in a
manner that facilitates drawing conclusions from it
Cognitive Modelling is an area of computer science that deals
with the simulation of human problem solving and mental task
processes in a computerized model.
Semantic Networks are networks which represent semantic
relations among concepts. This is often used as a form of
knowledge representation.
Fuzzy Logic is a form of multi-valued logic derived from fuzzy
set theory (Fuzzy sets are sets whose elements have degrees of
membership) to deal with reasoning that is approximate rather
than precise.
Neural Networks are composed of interconnecting artificial
neurons (programming constructs that imitate the properties of
biological neurons). Artificial neural networks can be used to
gain an understanding of biological neural networks as well as
for solving artificial intelligence problems without necessarily
creating a model of a real biological system.
Some of the programming languages specialized for artificial
intelligence are: LISP, Smalltalk and Prolog.
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Computers can prove an important tool for creative thinking but, without a
tremendous development of artificial intelligence they will never be able to
generate ideas. The conclusion is that computers can help one think
creatively, but the actual idea generation remains a human prerogative.
Bibliography
Cave, C, Can computers help you think?
www.members.optusnet.com.au/charles57/Creative/Software/essay.htm
Software for Creativity & Idea Generation - an overview of what's
available
www.members.optusnet.com.au/charles57/Creative/Software/swindex.htm
www.infinn.com/toolbox.html
www.projectkickstart.com/products/idea_generator.cfm
Mind Mapper
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map
http://www.mindmapperusa.com/
http://www.mindmapper.com/pro/pro_2009std.asp
Axon Idea processor
http://web.singnet.com.sg/~axon2000/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axon_Idea_Processor
Idea fisher Pro and Creative Whack Pack
http://www.innovationtools.com/Tools/SoftwareDetails.asp?a=93
http://www.creativewhack.com/product.php?productid=64
Dramatica and Story Base
http://www.dramatica.com
http://www.screenplay.com/p-13-dramatica-pro.aspx
http://www.storybase.net/software/software.html
Microsoft project
http://www.microsoft.com/project/en/us/default.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Project
Communications and the Internet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wik i/Web_2.0
Artificial Intelligence
McCarthy, J, What is Artificial Intelligence?, 2007, Stanford University,
http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/whatisai/node1.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_intelligence
http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci1002209,00.html
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Managing Creativity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neural_network
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuzzy_logic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_network
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_programming_languages_for_artifi
cial_intelligence
Chapter 7
When does an organization's culture encourage creative
thinking?
7.1 Alan Robinson and Sam Stern's criteria
In their 1997 paper Corporate Creativity: How Innovation and
Improvement Actually Happen Alan Robinson, Professor in the Business
School at the University of Massachusetts, and Sam Stern, professor in the
Education Faculty at Oregon State University, present six elements of
corporate creativity, which are the key to increasing corporate creativity:
1. Alignment
As the two authors explain, alignment is the degree to which the interests
and actions of every employee support the organization's key goals.
While companies can function with relatively poor alignment, they cannot
be consistently creative unless they are strongly aligned. From the point of
view of corporate creativity, the effects of alignment are visible only when a
company is either extraordinarily well aligned or misaligned. However,
alignment is a double-edged sword as it can also limit a company's
creativity.
2. Self-initiated activity
Self-initiated activity allows employees to choose a problem they are
interested in and feel able to solve, for any reason, meaning that their
intrinsic motivation is way higher than would be the case if the project had
been planned or picked for them by someone else. As the two authors stress,
the majority of creative acts in companies are self-initiated, which explains
why they are unanticipated by management.
Alan Robinson and Sam Stern present five characteristics of an effective
system for responding to employee ideas, needs to promote self-initiated
activity:
1. Reach everyone.
2. Be easy to use.
3. Have strong follow-through.
4. Document ideas.
5. Be based on intrinsic motivation.
3. Unofficial activity
Unofficial activity is activity that occurs in the absence of direct
official support, and with the intent of doing something new and useful.
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Managing Creativity
Unofficial activity offers ideas a safe haven where they have the chance to
develop until they are strong enough to overcome resistance. Giving a
project official status raises all kinds of barriers to creativity which every
planned project encounters throughout its life.
4. Serendipity
A serendipitous discovery is one made by fortunate accident in the presence
of sagacity (keenness of insight). Fortunate accidents (the first half of the
serendipity equation) can be promoted through strategies that provoke and
exploit accidents. Sagacity - the quality of being discerning, sound in
judgment, and farsighted - (the second half of the equation) can be promoted
by expanding the company's human potential beyond its immediate needs.
5. Diverse stimuli
A stimulus can offer fresh insight into something a person already plans to
do, or it may bump that person into something different. However, it is
impossible to predict how an individual will react to a particular stimulus,
and what provokes one person may not even be noticed by another. An
organization should provide opportunities for its employees to tell others
about the stimuli they have received and the possibilities these stimuli
suggest to them.
Robinson and Stern provide four strategies companies can use to promote
diverse stimuli:
1. Identify stimuli and provide them to employees.
2. Rotate employees into every job they are capable of doing
3. Arrange for employees to interact with those outside the company
who are likely to be the source of stimuli.
4. Create opportunities for employees to bring into the organization
stimuli they get on their own.
6. Within-company communication
As planned activities take place in every organization communication
channels are necessary for these activities. However, it is the unanticipated
exchanges between employees who normally do not communicate with each
other which often enable projects that have not been planned to selforganize and move forward. Unanticipated within-company communication
seems to happen naturally at smaller companies, and less naturally at larger
ones.
According to Alan Robinson and Sam Stern there are three ways a company
can promote within-company communication:
1. Provide opportunities for employees who do not normally
interact with each other to meet.
119
2. Ensure that every employee has a sufficient understanding of the

organization's activities to be able to tap its resources and
expertise.
3. Create a new organizational priority: all employees should know
the importance of being responsive to requests for information or
help from other employees.
It is risk takers that are no more likely to be involved in a creative
act than the rest. Most of the people involved in creative acts in companies
are more cautious than reckless. The work environment is the dominant
factor for corporate creativity. The results of creativity in companies are
improvements (changes to what is already done) and innovations (entirely
new activities for the company).
7.2 Teresa Amabile's criteria for organizational creativity
A professor in Harvard Business School, Teresa Amabile believes an
organization's culture can encourage or discourage creative thinking
pending on six factors: challenge, freedom, resources, work-group
features, supervisory encouragement and organizational support. Her
research is supported by a quantitative survey instrument called KEYS. The
survey is taken by employees at any level of an organization, and consists of
78 questions used to assess various workplace conditions, such as the level
of support for creativity from top-level managers or the organization's
approach to evaluation.
Amabile considers that creativity consists of three components
Expertise involves technical, procedural and intellectual
knowledge
Creative-thinking skills determine the level of flexibility and
imagination involved in the manner people approach problems.
Motivation can be of different types. Intrinsic motivation (inner
passion to solve the problem) can be most immediately
influenced by the work environment and leads to solutions far
more creative than do external rewards, such as money.
In her paper How to Kill Creativity, she offers certain guidelines for
managers to improve in the six factors influencing corporate creativity as
well as points out some of the most common mistakes managers should
avoid.
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Managing Creativity
Figure 7.1 Components of creativity

Source: Teresa Amabile, How to Kill Creativity, Harvard Business Review,
September-October, 1998, p. 78
Challenge. Of all the actions managers can take to stimulate

creativity matching people with the right assignments is the most important.
Managers can attach people with tasks that apply to their expertise and skills
in creative thinking as well as fire intrinsic motivation. Perfect matches
stretch employees' abilities. The amount of stretch, however, is crucial as
with too little they feel bored while with too much they will feel
overwhelmed and threatened by loss of control.
One of the most common ways managers suppress creativity is by not trying
to obtain the information needed to make good connections between people
and tasks. The most eligible employee is given to the most eligible - that is,
the most urgent and open- assignment. Often, the results are unsatisfactory
for everybody involved.
Freedom. In the matter of granting freedom, the key to creativity is
to give people autonomy in the manner of solving a task but not necessarily
the ends. Clearly specified strategic goals often enhance people's creativity.
There are two common ways executives mismanage freedom. First,
managers tend to change goals frequently or fail to define them clearly.
Employees may have freedom around the process, but if they don't know the
objective, such freedom is useless. Second, some managers fall short by
granting autonomy in name only. They claim that employees are
"empowered" to explore the maze as they search for solutions but, in fact,
the process is controlled.
121
Resources. Time and money are the two main resources that
influence creativity. Managers need to allocate these resources carefully.
Similar to matching people with the right assignments, deciding how much
time and money to offer to a team or project is a complicated decision that
can either support or kill creativity.
Organizations will routinely kill creativity with fake deadlines, which create
distrust, or impossibly tight ones which cause burnout. In both cases people
feel over-controlled and unfulfilled which consistently damages motivation.
Managers that do not allocate time for exploration or do not schedule in
incubation periods are standing in the way of the creative process.
Also, many managers don't realize a restriction of resources can dampen
creativity and therefore often make the mistake of keeping resources tight,
which pushes people to direct their creativity into finding additional
resources instead of in developing new products or services.
Work-Group Features. Careful attention must be paid to the
composition of teams that come up with creative ideas. A manager must
create mutually supportive groups with a diversity of perspectives and
backgrounds. When teams consist of people with various intellectual
foundations and approaches to work - different expertise and creative
thinking styles - ideas often mix and ignite in exciting and useful ways.
One common way managers kill creativity is by assembling homogeneous
teams. The lure to do so is great as homogeneous teams often reach
"solutions" more quickly and with less friction along the way. But
homogeneous teams do little to improve expertise and creative thinking.
Everyone comes to the table with a similar mind-set. They leave with the
same.
Supervisory Encouragement. A simple step managers can take to
foster creativity is to not forget to praise creative efforts of their employees
regardless if they result in successful or less successful results.
One way managers kill creativity is by failing to acknowledge innovative
efforts or by meeting them with scepticism. New ideas are met not with
open minds but with time-consuming layers of evaluation - or even with
harsh criticism.
Organizational Support. Creativity is enhanced when the entire
organization supports it. This is the prerogative of organizations leaders,
who must implement appropriate systems or procedures and emphasize
values that make it clear that creative efforts are a top priority.
122
Managing Creativity
Because rewards in money may make people feel as if they are being
controlled, such a tactic will probably not work. However, not providing
sufficient recognition and rewards for creativity can spawn negative feelings
within an organization as people can feel used, or underappreciated, for their
creative efforts. Politicking undermines expertise as politics get in the way
of open communication, obstructing the flow of information from one point
to another.
7.3 The Situational Outlook Questionnaire's criteria
The Situational Outlook Questionnaire (SOQ) is an assessment tool for
measuring the climate for creativity, innovation, and change created by
organizations, teams, and leaders. The multi-method measure, based on the
early works of Dr. Gran Ekvall- a world renowned Swedish climate
researcher- uses both quantitative and qualitative data to present powerful
results.
In part one, the respondents answer 53 questions using a scale to asses nine
dimensions:
Challenge/Involvement - the degree to which people are
involved in daily operations, long-term goals, and visions
Freedom - the degree of independence shown by the people in the
organization
Trust/Openness the emotional safety in relationships
Idea-Time - the amount of time people can, and do, use for
elaborating new ideas
Playfulness/Humour - the spontaneity and ease displayed within
the workplace
Conflict - the presence of personal and emotional tensions (a
negative dimension in contrast to the debate dimension)
Idea-Support - the way new ideas are treated
Debate - the occurrences and disagreement between viewpoints,
ideas, experiences, and knowledge
Risk-Taking -the tolerance of uncertainty and ambiguity
The next table exemplifies differences on the nine climate dimensions in
innovative, average and standard organizations. The scale ranges from 0300 with significant differences being around 25 points. People in
innovative companies perceive more of each dimension except for
Conflict since it is a negative dimension.
123
Table 7.3.1 Perception of dimensions in organizations

Innovative
Organizations
Average
Organizations
Stagnated
Organizations
Challenge/Involvement
238
190
163
Freedom
210
174
153
Trust/Openness
178
160
128
Idea-Time
148
111
97
Playfulness/Humor
230
169
140
Conflict
78
88
140
Idea-Support
183
164
108
Debate
158
128
105
Risk-Taking
195
112
53
SOQ Climate Dimensions
Source: http://soqonline.net/soq/more_soq
For the 2nd part, the SOQ asks three open-ended questions so that
participants can provide more specific detail about:
Whats most helpful and supportive to their creativity?
Whats hindering their creativity?
What specific recommendations or concrete actions would
improve the climate for creativity and innovation?
Bibliography
Alan Robinson and Sam Stern's criteria
1997
Teresa Amabile's criteria
Research in Organizational Behavior, 1988, 10, pp. 123-167
September-October, 1998, pp. 77-87
The Situational Outlook Questionnaire's criteria
www.soqOnline.net/
www.cpsb.com/assessments/soq
Chapter 8
How may organizational design encourage creative thinking?
8.1 Blanchard and Waghorn's Structural Model
Ken Blanchard and Terry Waghorn have created a structural model to see
how organizational design encourages creative thinking. The model assumes
that everyone in an organization is required to think creatively about their
work.
Blanchards and Waghorns (B&W) structural model is designed to help a
company focus on the present and the future at the same time, giving the
same importance to both. Another aspect involved in their model is the
leveraging by a company of the fact that it has employees that are either
adaptors or innovators.
B&WS solution involves the creation of two sets of teams formed of
employees with regular jobs, one in charge of finding and implementing
improvement ideas for the present while the other with the purpose of
finding and implementing innovation ideas for the future.
a suitable number of
the Team for
A Steering Committee
Present Teams
Designing the
supports
Present which
and coordinates
manages
the work of two Design
Teams
a suitable number of
the Team for
Future Teams
Designing the
Future which
manages
Present Teams try to see how the company's present products, services and
processes can be improved and, by asking and answering specific questions,
generate ideas and suggestions for improving the company.
Future Teams try to figure out how the company will compete in the future
(defined as a period between eighteen and thirty-six months from the
present period) and, by asking and answering specific questions, generate
ideas and suggestions for changing the company.
125
Both present and future teams send their ideas to a design team.
The design team:
evaluates and coordinates the received ideas
decides which ideas can be implemented immediately and which
have to go to the Steering Committee for a decision
The Steering Committee balances the present and future focus of the
organization by supporting the two organization wide Design Teams.
William Miller (19999), places the creative thinking tools, that can be
employed by the future and present teams, into four categories (boxes):
For creative modifying
o Force- Field Analysis
o Attribute Listing
o SCAMPER
for creative visioning
o Wish List
o Future Annual Report
o Visualization
for creative experimenting
o Matrix Analysis
o Morphological Analysis
o Nature of the Business
for creative exploring
o Guided Imagery | Analogy
o Forced Association | Alternative Scenarios
o Dreaming | Drawing
8.2 Moulder's Cascading Model
While B&W have created a structural model to investigate how
organizational design encourages creative thinking, James Moulder has
created a cascading model. This model also assumes that everyone in an
organization is required to think creatively about their work.
James Moulder was educated at Rhodes University in South Africa and
Linacre College in the University of Oxford. He has taught various business
related subjects in Australia, China, England, Indonesia, New Zealand,
Romania, South Africa and Spain.
126
Managing Creativity
The cascading model is presented in the first part of the book and is based
on the literature that is behind the rest of the book. This section will present
a brief description of the model.
According to Moulder the basic ideas about cascading creative thinking are:
it has three dimensions
o a (monthly) meeting
o the four step creative process
o tools for creative thinking
it rests on two assumptions
o Everyone has the ability to think about how they can change
or improve the work they have to do.
o If they are given time to use this ability, they can learn how
to think creatively about their work; they can change or
it's driven by two of Robinson & Stern's ideas
o the casino analogy = how does one increase the probability
that creative thinking will occur?
o the no preconceptions principle = it's impossible to predict
when creative thinking will occur
it employs four insights from SOQ, from Amabile and from
Robinson & Stern
o focus or alignment (Robinson & Stern)
o freedom or self-initiated activity (Amabile and SOQ;
Robinson & Stern)
o idea support or supervisory encouragement (SOQ; Amabile)
o idea time (SOQ)
it requires managers to manage people's imagination - it
employs Amabile's insight that managers either stimulate or kill
the creativity of the people who report to them, but it doesn't
follow her into the world of managerial whining, where the CEO
or the culture are blamed for poor performance.
Bibliography
Problem Solving Routledge, 1994
process of innovation, www.ahref.com/guides/design/199806/0608
jefprintable.html
127

Brainstorming @ www.brainstorming.co.uk/contents.html
Edward de Bono, Serious Creativity, HarperCollins, 1995, 77-85
Edward de Bono, Six Thinking Hats, second edition, Back Bay Books, 1999
Kurt Lewin's Force-Field Analysis, at www.extension.iastate.edu/
at www.mftrou.com/Lewinsforcefieldanalysis.html
Idea Generator at www.projectkickstart.com/products/idea_generator.cfm
Alan Robinson and Sam Stern, Corporate Creativity: How Innovation
and Improvement Actually Happen, Business & Professional
Publishing, 1997
Research in Organizational Behavior, 1988, 123-167
September-October, 1998, 77-87
The Situational Outlook Questionnaire, at www.soqOnline.net/
at www.cpsb.com/assessments/soq
Present While Building the Future, McGraw-Hill, 1997
Perseus Books, 1999

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Managing Creativity:

ones own and other peoples

ACADEMIA DE STUDII ECONOMICE DIN BUCURETI

Copyright 2010, Editura ASE

Descrierea CIP a Bibliotecii Naionale a Romniei

About the authors

James Moulder was educated at Rhodes University in South Africa and

Iulian Lixandru is a graduate of the Bucharest Academy of Economic

Adaptors and Innovators .......................................................................... 15

Adaptors and Innovators .......................................................................... 77

Adaptors and Innovators .......................................................................... 15

Adaptors and Innovators .......................................................................... 77

Mariana Nicolae and James Moulder

Managing One's Own Creativity

[] - to attach more value to

Questions for Reflection and Discussion

Managing One's Own Creativity

Questions for Reflection and Discussion

References and Acknowledgements

Managing One's Own Creativity

Step 3: Private brainstorming

Step 4: Group brainstorming

References and Acknowledgements

What else can you do with the Six Hats?

4 = Black Hat = problems

5 = Green Hat = new ideas

5a = Green Hat on Black

Managing One's Own Creativity

Questions for Reflection and Discussion

Step 2: Brainstorm the forces that impact negatively or positively on

Step 3: List these forces in two columns

Here's the first step in an example of what you have to do:

information available more 5

4 cost of the technology

Step 5: Total the positive and the negative scores

Managing One's Own Creativity

information available more 5

4 cost of the technology

Step 6: Build on what you've got

information available more 5

4 cost of the technology

improved accuracy and

2 most of the staff dislike

Questions for Reflection and Discussion

References and Acknowledgements

Managing One's Own Creativity

7. Make the Most of Your Ideas permits you to improve bad

Questions for Reflection and Discussion

stronger? The positive forces or the negative forces? What, if

7.1 Alan Robinson and Sam Stern's answer

7.2 Teresa Amabile's answer

work group support

Two factors or forces that discourage creativity:

7.3 The Situational Outlook Questionnaire's answer

Trust and Openness

7.1 Alan Robinson and Sam Stern's criteria for a culture

Managing Other People's Creativity

Managing Other People's Creativity

7.2 Teresa Amabile's criteria for a culture that encourages creative

work group support

Two factors or forces that discourage creativity:

3. Work group support comes from skills diversity, teamwork,