What do creativity managers do?

Replace the word management with the word optimization.

That's what creativity managers do: they optimize the quality of the idea pool (creativity) and the implementation process (innovation).

There are many methods of optimization and the creativity leader must be aware of all of them, in other words, he or she must synthesize them for optimal effect.

Areas [within creativity] that need managing include motivation, organizational culture, organizational structure, incremental versus radical effects and processes, knowledge mix, group structures, goals, process and valuation.

Areas [within innovation] that need managing include idea selection, development / prototyping and the art of commercialization.

It is worth noting that 4000 good ideas result in 4 development programs, which in turn results in 1 winner.

Creativity Management techniques

There are many techniques for enhancing creativity output. For example, there are numerous methods of generating novel ideas, numerous methods of generating diverse ideas, numerous methods of generating large numbers of ideas and numerous methods of increasing the frequency of idea generation.

However, it is important to realize that techniques ? though there may be thousands of them - are only one element of the creativity management process.

Within the creativity management framework, they fall in the creative thinking versus critical thinking domain.

This is noteworthy as many creativity leaders tend to focus only on techniques whilst ignoring other significant optimization factors. For example, they may spend a whole session discussing De Bono's Thinking Hats.

All techniques fall into the area of creative thought, which is meant to be daring, uninhibited, free-spirited, imaginative, unpredictable, and revolutionary. The trick is to ignore content and maximize the size and richness of the idea pool.

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Kal Bishop, MBA