The Creative Researcher

D AV E JA R M A N H E A D O F E N T E R P R I S E E D U C AT I O N

Todays session
Creativity & Innovation

defined 10 habits for Creativity & Innovation Tools & Techniques

What is creativity?
Not artistic ability. The difference between developing a concept and executing it well Original thought vs. proficiency/artistry Its the ability to generate ideas and to use existing ideas

in new ways Its an attitude, an openness to ideas and their implications

Innovation
Innovation is applied creativity an idea enacted

Forms of Innovation: New products & services New processes (new ways of accessing existing products & services) New market positions (new audiences for existing products) New value models (new ways of deriving value from products)
Innovations are: Evolutionary incremental developments Or Revolutionary really alternative developments Rarely eureka moments tend to be slow-burn

The drivers of creativity & innovation

Need The identification of problems or hurdles encourages people to solve them Possibility Another breakthrough provides a stepping-stone (the adjacent possible) Someone asks what if? Connections often

between disparate ideas Time and space to explore Availability of the spare parts required to create something new A willingness and ability to move beyond comfortable frames of reference Networks of connections and resources Engineered Serendipity

The Innovation Engine Tina Seelig

Habit #1
Write your ideas down: Keep a notebook Write and sketch as much as you can Ideas, inspirations, connections, thoughts, actions... Revisit it to spot connections, ideas, and patterns emerging from your thinking The more you have to pick from the better the edited highlights!

Just start scribbling your first draft is not your last draft.
Guy Garvey (Elbow)

Habit #2
Focus on quantity not

quality:

Suspend critical thought (for a while) Challenge yourself to generate as many possibilities as you can The obvious answers are unlikely to be the innovative ones Allow the silly THEN go back and have a look and evaluate

It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to always be right by having no ideas at all.
Edward De Bono

Creativity exercises #1 & #2

Individual exercise 1 minute to identify as many different ways of using the object as you can

Group exercise 2 minutes to identify as many different ways of using the object as you can

Habit #3
Kick ideas around with

other people:

We all bring different experiences and associations to the table Ideas rarely appear fullyformed we need iterations to tease out the issues The first form of the idea is rarely the best final one Co-invent with others and there are more of you to champion it

Why What Who How

Take your own research area and explore its connectivity: Why is this research important? What does the research aim to achieve? Who are the stakeholders for this research? How is the research being conducted? By what methodology? Pair up and challenge your initial thoughts; Why else might this research have significance? What else might be achieved through this research? Who are the fringe stakeholders for this research? How else might you have researched this subject?

Habit #4
Think of stepping-stones:

The innovative answer is rarely obvious so we need alternative paths to access it Random or silly ideas can provide access to hard-toreach innovations Previous innovations provide the steps to reach new locations

The PMI (+O)

Developed by Edward De Bono (adapted by me).
P is for Plus M is for Minus I is for Interesting! (O is for Opportunities)

Exercise PMI (O) this idea:

All researchers have to spend 3 months working in a related industry as part of their studies

Habit #5
Use metaphors to open up

creativity:

Ideas are like trees you need to plant them in the right place and give them plenty of light Innovation is like exploring it has to take place in uncharted territory Innovations are the assembling of the spare parts available

Research is like

Habit #6
Ask better questions

think about how your question frames the parameters of your answer:

What is a shoebox for? What could you use a shoebox for? How many uses can you think of for a shoebox? Can you think of 100 uses for a shoebox?

The Better Mousetrap

How do I build a better mousetrap? Or.. How do I get rid of the mice?

Osborn-Parnes Creative Problem Solving

Developed in the 1950s highlights: That there are stages to a creative process The importance of first divergent and then convergent thinking

Objective Finding

Fact Finding

Problem Finding

Idea Finding

Solution Finding

Acceptance Finding

Tools for Divergent thinking

Re-expression:

With alternative words or through metaphor From anothers perspective as if ... Has anyone tackled a similar problem in another company/industry? Is there something in one setting that could be really valuable in another? Working with an analogous problem and solution for your specific problem and its solution SCAMPER Doing nothing, having half/double the resources, making it fun...

Related worlds

Revolution

Ultimately if its not slightly ridiculous it has already been

done so be ridiculous (for a while)

SCAMPER
Substitute can the ingredients be changed?

Combine what could be combined for effect?

Adapt what different contexts could this be applied in? Modify (Magnify/Minify/Multiply) scaling up or down

the idea? Put to other uses to what other uses could these principles be put? Eliminate what could I omit and what impact would that have? Less is more Reverse what if I look at the opposite?

Habit #7
Change your habits!

Find new people to involve Go to new places Do new things Feed your brain something different

Habit #8
Ideas are feared!

Be ready for resistance Change and upheavals are resisted:

People and organisations get emotionally invested in the current model We all feel anxiety about new and untried processes

However good the idea!

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
George Bernard Shaw

Habit #9
Encourage others to buy

into your ideas:

Leading is easier when the troops are willing How would others benefit from your idea? Seek their contributions and investment

You will need others to

champion your idea in places that you cannot they need to have a stake in your ideas success

Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because they want to do it.
Dwight Eisenhower

Habit #10
Practice your creativity

the more you use it the better you get at it!

The more I practice the

luckier I get! (Gary Player US Golfer) Your creativity is like a tap: if you dont use it, it gets clogged up. (Fyfe Dangerfield Guillemots)

Creativity Exercise #3
50 things challenge

In groups: I want 50 new ideas for encouraging researchers to collaborate with people outside their research group Quantity not quality! What ways might other people suggest?

Research Directors, your Parents, school-kids, government?

Evaluating ideas Clustering Testing against criteria

Good books
Sticky Wisdom - ?Whatif!

The Art of Innovation Tom Kelley

Edward De Bonos Thinking Course Edward De Bono Where good ideas come from Steven Johnson

Problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them.
Albert Einstein

Good Luck!
Dave.Jarman@bristol.ac.uk @DaveJarm