Managing Creativity

Chindou

(Japanese art of inventing ingenious everyday gadgets) - N - novelty - w - workability - r - relevance - s - specificity

Barry Riceman

- 3 form of capital: 3 sources of success o Financial Capital § "What is in your pocket/bank account" -> easy to see, look at financials o Human Capital § "What you know" -> what you develop in your free time o Social Capital § "Who you know/ Where you stand" -> the number but also type of connections, where you spend your time; more peripheral or central

Leadership

- = ability to influence a group toward the achievement of a vision or set of goals

Goal Setting

- = break up large task into several smaller tasks + set goals for completion o improves performance - Specific difficult (but attainable) goals >>> easy/ambiguous goals - Goals should be SMART o Specific o Measurable o Attainable o Relevant o Time-bound

Job Crafting - recent approach to job enrichment

- = changes employees make to their own job description o expanding certain elements that are a better fit to their own personality o or reducing the scope of the job to achieve better work-life balance o all in the service of better meeting the employee's career and life goals

Functional Diversity

- = differences based on attributes that are relevant to job performance (e.g., education, skills, abilities, function) - Highly relates to team creativity o teams comprised of members from different and diverse functional backgrounds outperform homogeneous teams - However, researchers do not differentiate between different types of functional diversity o e.g. similar or different effects of education and expertise on creativity?

Behaviors and Beliefs

- BELIEFS o Every team member should be able to say: § I feel inspired and do meaningful work § I have ownership § I am growing (skills) § My team has my back (trust) § I don't have to get it right every time (permission to explore and fail) - Behaviors o When you observe a creative team: § They collaborate § They get tangible, make things, talk less and do more § They learn from failure § They stay curious

-> What are the keys to designing motivating jobs

- Combined together, the core job characteristics create a motivating potential score (MPS) o MPS indicates degree to which the job is capable of motivating people o A job's MPS can be raised by enriching the core characteristics Calculate Motivation Potential Score (MPS) - (Skill Variety + Task identity + Task Significance )/3 x Autonomy x feedback = MPS

Job redesign strategy

- Combining tasks o -> Skill variety o -> Task identity - Forming natural work units o -> Task identity o -> Task significance - Establishing client relationships o -> Skill variety o -> Autonomy o -> Feedback from the job - Vertically loading the job o -> Autonomy - Opening feedback channels o -> Feedback from the job

Social Processes and factors influencing team creativity

- Communication - Team conflict - Trust and Psychological safety - Team cohesion - Team efficacy

IDEO

- Company Philosophy o Create an impact through design: MAKE COMPANIES EVOLVE THROUGH HUMAN CENTERED-DESIGN o "We have to be ready to contantly adapt and redesign ourselves to meet the exciting challenges that face us" o A loosely-designed organization o Design research ethics: Respect, Responsibility, Honesty - Principles o Be optimistic o Collaborate o Take ownership o Embrace ambiguity o Talk less, do more o Learn from failure o Make others successful

How can relate goal setting to creativity?

- Competition between individuals and groups o = mutually exclusive goal attainment, success of one party requires the failure of another o Consequences § Individuals/groups less motivated to share information § the free exchange of ideas and perspectives is inhibited o Information Argument § Even when new information is made available, individuals/groups may be hesitant to accept information from competitors § doing so threatens the self/group and its competence often be perceived as being a "follower" and losing status o Engagement Argument § Cognitive and energy resources are likely to be absorbed by unnecessary activities e.g. monitoring performance of competitor - Time pressure o -> undermines individuals' creativity o less likely to seek out + use of different sources of information o potential to undermine people's engagement - Constraints o Important to get the job done!!

STUDY: Marion, Uhl-Bien et al. (2010) - examining CREATIVITY in a large banking firm

- Creative ideas tended to emerge in small (isolated) networks of interactive personnel!!! - Silos could actually serve to protect ideas until they were ready to present to management...

Cognitive, rational and semantic approaches - Affecting IG

- Creativity is a logical thought process primarily concerned with the use of verbal concepts and representations - Schematic Knowledge Structure o a principle-based knowledge that emerges from past experiences o retrieved by executing specific search processes o a slow and methodical thought process o It entails principles for organizing, or establishing relationships within or across categories and concepts - Associational Knowledge Structure o a relationship-based knowledge structure emerges from a series of connections made among likely events or experiencesfaster thought process but also accessed rather incidentally o It reflects regularities in experience based or probabilistic linkages § E.g. attending a party is associated with having fun - but also rather spontaneous one - Case-Based Structure o the formation of mental models based on past practices o serve as a precedent or schema that enables an individual to understand a complicated situation

Rituals

- Daily ritual o Spend the first 5 minutes of your day in silent reflection o How does this help you get ready for the day? - Family ritual o Start each meal by going around the table and sharing an inspirational story of the day o How does this simple act help shape the rest of the meal? - Work ritual o Remove all the chairs at your next team meeting o How does this simple shift impacts beliefs, energy or feelings?

Diverge and Converge

- Diverge o Things to say or do (examples) o If costs were no issue, where would you take this? o What customers insights can we draw upon to inspire our thinking? As a team, make a list of solutions competitors are too scared to pursue - Converge o Things to say or do (examples) o Which of these options would delight our consumers most?For each of our top ideas, let's discuss feasibility, viability and desirability What would earn us most recognition in five years?

Intuit

- E.g. Intuit's support system for Intrapreneurs - Important: how to manage (evaluate) risk of failure? o Hackathons: teams of developers presents pet projects + compete to tackle specific challenges in exchange for prizes and recognition § = an ecosystem for intrapreneurs o Empowerment: let intrapreneurs make big decisions, keep learning and pivot to another hypothesized solution § = allow them to generate the data driving the decisions o Value return on intelligence: test of ideas help to fine tune the solution or indicate what not to do next time § = failure that leads to (collective) learning o Supporting stakeholders: individuals whose exclusive job is coaching and encouraging innovation § Organization's innovation catalysts are trained volunteers § spend 10% of their time guiding other employees in design principles

When can the promises be maintained?

- Enriched and enlarged core job characteristics > positive psychological states > positive work outcomes, but only when: o 1. Employee growth-need strength is high o 2. The employee has the requisite knowledge and skill o 3. Employee context satisfaction exists - Complex and Challenging Job o Information § Higher levels of personal autinimy and control § Freedom and discrection required to seek out new info o Engagement § Personal control, autonomy, skill variety, task significante etc. § Enhance positive affective states -> boost involvement o How job complexity adds to creativity § + creative personality § + support group § - age

Factors of creativity

- Environment - Product - Person o Personality o affect - Process o Idea generation o Idea evaluation

Motivation

- External (workplace) factors and internal (personal) characteristics that influence individuals' behavior (in and outside of work) - Motivation as a FORCE that o ENERGIZES YOU o DIRECTS THE EFFORT TOWARD THE ATTAINMENT OF SPECIFIC GOAL(S) SUSTAINS THE EFFORT EXPENDED UNTIL GOAL IS ACHIEVED o or it is decided that goal cannot be achieved

Communication

- External communication o communication with members outside the team and outside the organization o provides the team with additional information that is not otherwise available - Internal communication o communication with members inside the team o Open and collaborative internal communication seems to work well for creativity

Organization:

- Formal vs. Informal -> very different o You can map the network between people through network techniques o Most central people are not always the boss - Organizational Informal Networks o "If the formal organization is the skeleton of a company, the informal is the central nervous system..." o Krackhardt and Hanson's network study: § A formal interdepartmental strategic task force failed to work § Reason: Leader Tom Harris was central in the network of technical advice but peripheral in the trust network § CEO's solution: find someone central in the trust network - Bill Benson-- to share leadership with Harris

The work environment inventory - elements that lead to creativity

- Freedom regarding the means available to complete the task - Sufficient resources (including time) - Challenging work - Supervisor's encouragement and recognition of the employees' new ideas, efforts, success - Recognition and support by top leaders Other studies add: - Autonomy - Organizational structure - Managers' support: openness, flexibility, respect for opinions - Physical environment e.g. open spaces etc. - Training - Salaries and benefits

Why should we care about informal networks

- From formal/designed -> ...to informal/emergent - ...In order to o Uncover the «hidden» networks - how work really gets done in organizations o Identifying the individuals, teams, and units who play key roles in the informal network o Leveraging peer support, expertise and other resources embedded in the informal network o Identifying and accelerating information and knowledge flows among individuals and across functional and organizational boundaries o Improving the efficiency and effectiveness of existing formal communication channels - How? o Advice: Node size is a function of members organizational tenure o Utilize questionnaires to see who communicates with whom

Performance Management

- Generally o approaches for individuals engaging in CREATIVE work should DIFFER from those engaging in ROUTINE work for the organization! - How design performance management systems for creatives? (= appraisal) o Content § Directly measure creative ideas by using broad output expectations § Encourage risk taking by appraising effort toward objectives · do not punish failures § Measure learning orientation and knowledge development § Feedback should be technical, compensatory + provide information o Procedure § Use behavioral observation scales (BOS) to provide specific examples of broad output goals · Collect info on the behavior of the individual in the org § Separate administration of REWARDS (e.g., raises, promotions) from developmental planning § Provide training to managers (e.g., goal setting, feedback delivery) § Help individuals to conduct self-assessments

Geneplore by Ward et Al. 1999

- Heuristic model of cognitive functioning o Creativity is an iterative process § Idea generation § Idea evaluation o These two phases have to interact!

Idea Phases

- Idea generation o -> need Weak ties = Bokerage structure (sparse network) - Idea elaboration o -> need stronger ties (dense network) - Idea championing o -> need direct and borrowed structure (influencers in the org) - Idea Implementation o -> need structural closure within creator's ego network + outside ties embedded in dense network

How to fix NetD ideas problem?

- Increase the incentive for successful commercialization - Have Riceman's collaborators work with one another - Vary collaborative structure as needed strategically - Add a shadow inventor

Conceptual Framework to evaluate creativity

- Information o Enhanced access and exposure to new information § 1) provides new ideas directly § 2) energizes combinatory processes that underlie the production of creative ideas - Engagement o Creativity is enhanced when individuals are fully engaged in their work § 1) employees should be attentive § 2) emotionally connected § 3) totally focused on their full work role performance

The promises of job (re)design

- Job characteristics model o When the core characteristics are highly enriched, three critical psychological states are positively influenced § Experienced meaningfulness of work § Experienced responsibility for work outcomes § Knowledge of actual results of work activities § Positive psychological states create positive work outcomes

Types of evaluations

- Judgmental evaluations o = likely to be perceived by focal person as threatening / intimidating § Reacts defensively to it o Issues § dismiss any ideas that might be forthcoming § focus employees' attention on managing evaluation itself vs focusing on work - Developmental Evaluations o open to new perspectives and approaches from the evaluator § such information is perceived as a genuine attempt to enhance his/her creativity § experience them as supportive and informational - Experiment: o individuals who expected their artwork to be critically evaluated by experts produced less creative work than individuals in no evaluation conditions

Evaluation (Appraisal)

- Judgmental evaluations o Others critically assessing creativity of individual's work + comparing to standard § may work for jobs where outcomes = predictable, easily quantified, and within performer's control o BUT they should be revised to suit the demands of innovative work - Developmental evaluations o non-judgmental, intended to provide the focal individual with guidance in developing creativity skills o employees regard expectations as providing general information about appropriate behavior + open exchange of ideas § > more likely to feel motivated to work - Performance appraisal content should encourage RISK TAKING o "don't just reward success, reward intelligent effort" o developing new products and services is a high-risk venture >> individuals' time invested, to some degree, in failure § Appraisals focus solely on success may lessen likelihood of risk taking

Case-based Structure

- Knowledge is derived from o Long-term memories of events o Past performance o Life experience - They can easily be recalled through a process called amplification o in connection with an emotion o by a connection with another memory - Experience coupled with its accompanying emotion creates an imprint o a silent system of codes, which condition thoughts and determine future actions § Storytelling § Meaning making through collage work § Meditation o Self-fulfilling prophecy or stereotypes we built in our minds works similarly § Stereotypes: simplifications of reality

Association Knowledge Structure

- Mednick's (1962) associative theory o a more creative person draws novel associations from a flat hierarchy of sources o a less creative person would in effect draw their associations from a peaked, more concentrated hierarchy of sources - Synesthesia (similar to association system) o neurological condition, linking and associating different things o Seven or eight times more common in artists, poets and novelists § good at generating metaphors & linking seemingly unrelated constructs - Receptivity o Absorption of information and ideas from a variety of sources o Identification of original ways of linking these, and resolving work-related challenges § multicultural experiences, travel to other countries, subscribe to varied magazines

How can you manage and optimize your social capital?

- Networking = process of managing and expanding one's personal networks - What do you need to do to become one? o Take stock of (map) your existing network o Evaluate its strength and weaknesses o What new ties will add the most value in expanding/strengthening network? o How can you go about building them?

Metrics to assess network properties

- Nodes (e.g. people) o demographic characteristics o personality and skills o resources o etc. - Ties/liks (connections between nodes) o content: type of connection between actors (e.g. communication, friendship) o symmetry/direction: whether ties are reciprocated (liking often is, but respect?) o strength & multiplexity: frequency and /or depth & scope of the relationship (e.g. combined reporting and friendship tie) - Network Structure o Density: number of ties out of the number possible (is more always better?) § Some may be redundant o Structural holes: places where ties are missing, and therefore opportunities forbrokers to gain power or social capital § at the extreme becoming "bowties" - many people dependent on a single link o Centrality: number of types of connection of an actor (e.g. degree centrality, eigenvector centrality)

Work Environment

- Organizational climate: Shared perception of the work environment - Organizational culture: Beliefs, norms, feelings shared by organizational members - -> most crucial for creativity in organizations

Demographic Diversity

- Research on relationship btw demographic diversity and creativity -> mixed findings - A meta-analysis indicated non-significant effects for the relationship between demographic diversity and team creativity (study replicated, results mixed) o Don't assume that putting together demographic diversity increases creativity

Schematic Knowledge structure

- STUDY: Hey and colleagues (2008) o Examined the use of metaphor and analogy in the design process § In the early phases (when organize all thoughts regarding problem), designers tended to use metaphors to frame and organize challenges · Designers applied metaphors to understand and explain user's reactions to a product's attributes § Later phases: use Analogies to generate concepts § Analogies, on the other hand, were applied to chart attributes of a product's structure and then contrasted against a desired structure o The charting benefits of metaphors and analogies helped create thematic principles that were used as a starting point for concept development

Core job characteristics

- Skill variety o Degree to which job requires variety of different activities and employs different skills - Task identity o Degree to which job requires completion of "whole" and identifiable work o Work involves doing a job from beginning to end with a visible outcome - Task significance o Degree to which the job is important and involves a meaningful contribution to the organization or society - Autonomy o Degree to which job gives employee freedom, independence, and discretion in scheduling work and determining procedures used in carrying it out - Job feedback o Degree to which carrying out work provides direct and clear information to regarding how well the job has been done

Why Riceman so creative?

- Smart + hard-working - Brokers other inventors (connects people) — co-inventors don't work together o Information flows through his central position o Sole integrator and first inventor to combine new ideas -> help him combine ideas o Brokerage enables creative insight but constrains the subsequent transfer and development of that insight - Creates, doesn't debug - Combines ideas from different fields - Takes risk — high variance inventor, breakthroughs and failures o Not bound by convention — he challenged the non-compete agreement

PIXAR - how does Pixar foster creativity

- Social processes: communication (1) o Pixar's teams § composed of members with very different sources of expertise and knowledge § collaborate closely with one another on most aspects of the filmmaking enterprise · e.g. artists directly consult engineers to request new types of visual effects · engineers communicate ideas for new visual effects directly to producers § Direct communication between people with different functional backgrounds § "Of great importance is the way people at all levels support one another. Everyone is fully invested in helping everyone else turn out the best work. People really do feel that it's all for one and one for all". § Creative brain trust -> to make sure directors get all the feedback and support they need · Daily review process (dailies) § Team members developed understanding of how other members' knowledge and skills can help them accomplish their own tasks § Decision-making based on collective knowledge

Idea generation skills - explainatory models

- Structure of Intellect (SOI) theory - Guilford (1977) o Intellectual abilities are depicted as § a type of operation (e.g., divergent, convergent thinking, memory) triggered by a kind of content (e.g., visual, auditory) for processing or organizing information into meaningful products - Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking - Torrance (1966) o Designed the widely used measures of divergent thinking (IG) o fluency, flexibility, originality, elaboration § elaboration: process of enhancing ideas by providing more detail · Additional detail and clarity improves interest in, and understanding of, the topic

Team Cohesion and Efficacy

- Team cohesion o degree to which the members of a group desire to remain in the group o how resistant the group is to disrupting influences - The relationship of team cohesion and creativity is not always positive o it's good when you have § tasks that require coordination and communication § intrinsic motivations of the team members o otherwise, might think to groupthink - Team efficacy o shared belief in a group's collective capability to organize and execute courses of action required to produce given levels of goal attainment ameliorates some of the negative effects of team composition

Leading alongside your team

- The role of the leader is that of a coach - The coach is on the field, offering guidance. Qualities to practice for the leader: be present, stay engaged, remain at eye level - The coach knows when to intervene and when just leave the team play - The role of the leader is that of guiding the team through experimentation - Experimentation is the process of developing a hypothesis, testing the hypothesis, and incorporating what you have learned to design better versions of your solution - It is about design thinking

Idea evaluation

- The stage in which you ensure that the novelty of the idea is balanced against usefulness o The creative idea can hold a tangible/intangible value for the creator o The interplay between idea generation and evaluation (Cropley, 2006) - BLIND INSERTION = when novelty is implemented without evaluation, leading to either, or o >> reckless variability = the idea is not effective o >> blindly lucky creativity = the idea is effective -> over confidence

PA-NA's (Watson & Clark)

- Trait-based (stable) vs. State (generated by specific situations) Positive affect, negative affect

Trust & Psychological Safety

- Trust: o member's belief that the team is competent and can accomplish its task and will not harm the individual influence the interpretation of behavior of other team members o disagreements are more likely to be interpreted in a negative way - Psychological safety o shared belief that it is safe for individuals within the team to take interpersonal risks & offer ideas o encourage employees to take initiative, make suggestionsvoice behaviors § employee idea generation § discussion of new ideas more likely to develop a defensive orientation less likely to display creativity

Team Composition

- Variables: o demographics o job-relevant characteristics § education or relevant knowledge, skills and abilities o personality characteristics - Two measurement approaches o aggregation or averaging a variable across team members o the degree of diversity of team members with respect to the variables of interest § Beneficial due to the diverse knowledge and experiences of members - Types of Diversity o Separation - Differences in values, beliefs, or attitudes o Variety - Differences in kind, source, or category of relevant knowledge or experience o Disparity - Differences in proportion of socially valued assets or resources held

Job redesign

- What are the keys to designing motivating jobs? o Reduce specialization and simplification - How reach this? o Job rotation § Moving employees from job to job at regular intervals · Job design remains the same - only rotate around jobs · Personnel who perform task = systematically changed · Uses as a training device to improve a worker's flexibility o Job enrichment § Allowing workers more control over how they perform tasks · Increase variety of responsibilities, increased decision making · AKA vertical job expansion (or "v-loading") · Focus is upon introducing autonomy and self regulation o Increases satisfaction and performance o Job enlargement § Expanding the tasks performed by employees to add more variety · Involves increase in variety of an employee's activities without increasing decision making authority · AKA horizontal job expansion (or"h-loading") · Job enlargement improves worker satisfaction and the quality of production · It does not appear to affect the quantity of production

How do we manage the performance of the creatives

- What is the purpose of 'performance management' in organizations? o align employee behaviors with the overarching goals of the organization o enhance the quality and legal defensibility of personnel decisions, such as pay raises, promotions, dismissals, and access to training programs

Design Thinking

- a process for creative problem solving. o It starts with people and their needs - a creativity challenge - Characteristics: o Human-centered: It begins from deep emphaty and understanding of needs of people o Collaborative: it benefits from views of multiple perspectives o Optimistic: it is the belief that we all can create change, no matter how big is the problem o Experimental: it gives the permission to fail and to learn from mistakes

How to keep creative comp adv in the org: Knowledge Workers

- ability of organizations to survive will come to depend on their "comparative advantage" in making the knowledge worker more productive o ability to attract and hold the best of the knowledge workers = 1st precondition - countries and industries emerged as leaders have led in raising the productivity of the manual worker -> systematically and most successfully raised knowledge-worker productivity o the U.S. first, Japan and Germany second....

Creating Knowledge worker incentives / reward system

- creative performance = combination of creative ability and motivation o Creative performance = f (CREAtive ability, motivation) o = 'can do' vs. 'will do' ---- neither one alone is enough - Individual Differences represent the "Can Do" o Intelligence, affective state, personality traits, experience, etc. - What we will talk about today is the WILL DO

Eureka Myth

- creative process requires a time of incubation o ideas and relevant knowledge linger in the subconscious - Sometimes the ideas connect suddenly, but more often the right connection takes some work after incubation

Idea generation and evaluation

- do not fully embody the entire creative process o rather present two phases of a complex cognitive process o Researchers however tried to describe the discrete stages

Team Membership Change

- eams are dynamic entities o gain new members as a result of hiring, organizational restructuring, or the natural progression of the project o lose members due to retirement, layoffs, or the natural progression of the project - Membership change is beneficial for creativity o new members provide access to new information, ideas, and perspectives § teams experiencing membership change were more fluent and flexible (laboratory study) o Team tenure moderates this relationship § Teams of longer tenure benefited less from membership change (field study) § less open discussion

Team Conflict

- impact of team conflict on creativity depends o task-based: cognitive conflict related to the task o relationship-based: socio-emotional conflict from interpersonal disagreement - Teams benefit more from task-based as opposed to relationship-based conflict o -> avoid groupthink (feeling like mainstream idea is the better one) o different views are discussed o differences in approaches can be resolved o multiple points of view can be incorporated - YET, there is an inverted U relationship between task conflict and creativity o Too much task conflict leads to relationship conflicts o Relationship conflict is detrimental almost under any circumstances

Social network perspective

- individuals' unique positions within the web of relationships are related to benefits (from access to flows and being affiliated to others): o Performance o Status o Power o Innovation o Getting a job

Designing Jobs (Find the meaning quotient)

- job characteristics model - one possible conceptual framework to job design - Steps o A. Job characteristics § Skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, feedback o B. -> Psychological states § Experienced meaningfulness, experienced responsibility, knowledge of actual results o C. -> Outcomes § High intrinsic motivation, high quality work performance, high satisfaction with the work, low absenteeism and turnover o (from A to C) Moderators § Growth need strength § Knowledge and skill § "context" satisfaction

Social Capital: definition

- most treatments coincide with the general definition of social capital as o 1. = sum of resources, actual or virtual, that accrue to an individual or a group by virtue of possessing a durable network of relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition § o 2. = goodwill available to individuals or groups, source lies in structure and content of the actor's social relations. Its effects flow from the information, influence, and solidarity it makes available to the actor - Depends on your ability to activate all relationships and network of information

Why are social networks important?

- networks affect... o decision making o job mobility, promotions o Business opportunities, sales o Innovation o organization change, o restructuring etc. - by providing... o information & coordination o skills & assets o informal power - ...which depend on... o relationship quality & trust o node endowments (what they bring to you) & diversity o number of ties & brokerage (structure)

CASE: Malos (1998)

- reviewed court cases where performance appraisals were the source of discrimination claims - Litigation in cases of o 1 Negligence = failure to exercise the care of reasonably prudent person § most common result of performance appraisal § e.g. system inhibits quality of evaluation o 2 Defamation = communication of false statement, harming reputation o 3 Misrepresentation = disclosure of untrue, favorable performance information that put others at risk Further suggest: o rely upon objective rather than subjective performance indicators! o reward quantity over quality § easier to measure, less ambiguous § e.g., number of products vs. strategic advantage of products o rate work that was within the control of the employee who is rated (ratee)

Social Network definition - Podolny (2001)

-> term pipes to refer to the "flow" aspect of networks See what is flowing in-between channels (content e.g. friendship) networks can serve as prisms, conveying mental images of status, for example, to observers look more about the position of individuals and what it conveys about status and power final assumption of most social network research -> network provides opportunities and constraints that affect the outcomes of individuals and groups

Networks - Actors can be connected on the basis of:

1. similarities (same location, membership in the same group, or similar attributes such as gender) 2. social relations (kinship, roles, affective relations such as friendship, or cognitive relations such as "knows about a certain topic") 3. interactions (talks with, gives advice to); or 4. flows (information, e.g. more formal relationships; Borgatti et al., 2009)

Emotional Intelligence

= " ability to monitor one's own and others' feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one's thinking and actions"

Creativity

= manifestation of ideas that are both novel and useful

WORK ENVIRONMENT FOR CREATIVITY ( best practices)

Ability to recover from failures Selecting the right people and managing creative talent Accepting risk and uncertainty Encouraging trusting and respectful relationships Leaders who are able to turn the vision into clear directives Giving people clear information and objectives, but the freedom to decide how to reach them Each people having creative ownership of even the smallest task Analyzing mistakes: balance between positive and negative things

Affect Grid Scale

Arousal vs. Pleasantness o Arousal - level of activation o Pleasantness - specific type of affect, emotions, etc - Scale o High arousal, pleasant feelings - excitement o Low arousal, pleasant feelings - relaxation o High arousal, negative feelings - stress o Low arousal, negative feelings - depression

Social Network: definition and basic assumptions

Example map Network as a set of nodes (or vertex) and the set of ties (or arc) representing some relationship or absence of relationship between the nodes nodes or vertices represent actors (i.e., individuals, groups, organizations) thickness of the links represents strength of the relationship colours show sub-groups Between-ness and Centrality Focal actor in a network is called ego the other actors with whom ego has direct relationships are called alters To have a network -> need a minimum of two links (or ties or arcs or edges) connecting three actors establishes notions as indirect links and paths donna is connected to Joe, and Don is connected to Joe -> donna is indirectly connected to Don

Why is NetD having problems commercializing its ideas?

Lack of motivation for R&D to transfer (weak) Not all ideas work NIH (weak) Lack of manufacturing competence (weak) Riceman Wu worked on both projects — why was her effectiveness in transfer so different?

Social processes: fear and failure

Mistakes are consequences of doing something new Embracing failure is part of learning A fearless culture allows people to explore new ideas Zero failures is counterproductive Iterative trial and error: any outcome is good, because it yelds new information Make failure less expensive! Directors can spend years in the development stage -> not in the production Check for signs that a movie is stuck

Emotional Intelligence - Management Implications

Selection § Managers high in EI seem to be better managers o Decision Making § Negative mood persons made more accurate decisions but...depressed people make poorer decisions than happy people § Positive mood people are more likely to use heuristics or "rules of thumb" and less likely to explore all possible options, etc. Creativity § Positive mood people are more creative than negative mood people more flexible and open in their thinking § But, positive moods may allow people to relax & not engage in critical thinking

Social processes: Braintrust

Studio executives typically give extensive notes to the directors -> conflicts art/commerce Braintrust is made up of people experts on storytelling All Pixar employees are asked to send notes Try to create environment where people want to hear each other's notes no authority: the director does not have to follow the directions Pixar does not want that the Braintrust solve the director's problems -> the solution won't be as good as the one the director has remove power dynamics: to set up an healthy feedback system -> focus on the problem, not the person

Affect Grid Scale - STUDY: Meta-analysis of the mood-creativity

The creative task employed are coded as being serious or involving performance standards vs. being silly and fun or involving enjoyment standards o Fun, joyful tasks § Participants in a happy mood were more creative than those in a negative mood § Requires flexibility o Performance-related, serious tasks § Participants in a negative mood tended to be more creative § Requires persistence

To raise knowledge-worker productivity

They should be responsible for their productivity have to manage themselves, have to have autonomy Continuing innovation has to be part of the work Continuous learning and continuous teaching Productivity is not - primarily - a matter of the quantity of output Quality is at least as important knowledge worker must be seen and treated as an asset, not a cost requires that knowledge workers want to work for your organization more than other opportunities

Affect Grid Scale - STUDY: Testing these assumptions

Through self-generated imagery: writing a story about a time a certain emotion was experienced o Condition 1 - 4 § One of the four areas o Results § People in activating moods (1 and 2) generated more ideas and were of greater originality, and solved more insight problems § 3 - (de-activating positive) enhanced cognitive flexibility due to the positive § 4 - (de-activating negative) enhanced cognitive persistence due to the negative

Idea Generation (IG), what affects it?

more than just divergent thinking o Cognitive, Rational, and Semantic approaches o Personality and Environmental approaches o Motivational approaches o Psychoanalytic or Psychodynamic approaches (clinical psych) o Personal Exploration approaches (e.g., mindfulness)

Creative Problem Solving (CPS) - Osborn (1953) -> idea evaluation

o Assessing the Situation - determine that the situation requires creative thinking o Clarification - define the nature of the challenge to be addressed o Transformation (where innovation happens) - begin to generate novel ideas that are selected and refined into workable solutions o Implementation - develop plans to ensure the successful introduction and adoption of the newly devised creative solution

- Leadership theories 2: Leader Behavior Approach

o Effective leaders adopt some specific behaviors § identify behaviors of successful leaders § teach to people these behaviors o Traditional Leadership styles (Lewin) § Autocratic, partecipative, Laissez-faire § More and more influence of collaborators in decisional processes § Effectiveness depends on context § Parecipative / laissez faire -> job satisfaction is higher o Leadership styles § = behavioral models through which leaders can effectively influence others... to be creative § Theoretical work in leadership and creativity · focused on the role of leadership in the generation of complex dynamics (i.e., creativity, adaptability, and learning)

Affect Grid scale - Relationship btw. affect and creativity

o For both flexibility and cognitive persistence, the individual needs to be cognitively activated -> rise to higher level of arousal / activation o Being activated leads to task engagement and motivation, to consider the issue at hand o Moderately high levels of cognitive arousal are associated with the release of certain neurotransmitters, which improves a lot of cognitive functions

- Design Process / creativity challenge

o Ideation § Collect as many ideas as possible o Rapid prototyping o User feedback o Iteration o Implementation o Observation >> Ideation

major phases of real-life problem solving - Mintzberg and colleagues (1976)

o Identification - developing an understanding of the problem at hand o Development - creating potential solutions to the problem -> idea generation o Selection - making decisions among the solutions -> idea generation

Motivation Types

o Intrinsic Motivation § due to internal factors § self-desire to seek out new things and new challenges, to analyze one's capacity, to observe and to gain knowledge § driven by an interest or enjoyment in the task itself o Extrinsic Motivation § Due to external factors § Driven by rewards § Performance of activity in order to get a desired outcome

- Leadership theory 1: Personality/trait approach (what makes a leader effective)

o Leaders are effective or ineffective due to their personality traits o Traits are physical/psychological characteristics assumed to differentiate leader from followers § Height, gender, charisma, extroversion, ability to persuade and to generate trust and respect, intelligence, energy, knowledge of the activities, speech fluency, insight, social skills

- Manager vs. leader

o Leaders inspire and create vision, managers create plans and oversee operations o Not all leaders are managers, not all managers are leaders o Successful organizations have strong leadership and strong management

- Managing knowledge workers

o Most companies claim that they support entrepreneurial behavior... § ...and yet 70% of successful entrepreneurs developed their big idea while working at an established company, before leaving to commercialize it on their own o Q: «Do managers in your company encourage entrepreneurial ideas?» § A: 80% of employees say no o Why? § Standard design of large companies block entrepreneurship · focus is on running businesses and managing continuity § maintain predictability and repeatability, simplifying planning and making it easier to control group of people from the top (efficiency)

Design thinking phases

o Observation: Understanding the problem or the opportunity § Empathy: approach users with the goal of understanding their needs, how technology can help them and make their life easier o Ideation (idea generation): coming up with new ideas that address critical challenges. Alternation of divergent and convergent thinking. It is the mental process of going wild. Team composition, team members characteristics and social processes are essential at this stage of brainstorming. o Prototyping: transforming the idea into concrete products, that are tested, iterated, and refined

Affect Grid Scale - Cognitive Flexibility persistence (negative and positive type of affect?)

o Positive moods in general seem to stimulate creativity, but this positive relation has not always been obtained o Effects of negative mood are inconsistent as well o -> have to distinguish between activating vs. de-activating effects of moods § Activating moods: feeling happy vs. anger § De-activating moods: feeling relaxed vs. feeling down - Effects o Activating moods lead to higher creativity than deactivating moods, but how depends on their hedonic tone o When feeling positive, the individual feels safe to explore the environment and is more likely to use broad and inclusive cognitive categories § Feeling positively engenders cognitive flexibility o When feeling negative, the individual becomes inward focused, more analytical, and processes information more bottom-up § Feeling negatively enables cognitive persistence

Ties between actors usually motivated by three sets of issues:

o Relationship QUALITY (tie focus): § shared interests, shared understanding, scope of interaction, trust o RESOURCE endowments (node focus): § Diversity in capabilities / skills, image / reputation, material resources o network STRUCTURE (structure focus): § proximity, centrality, reach, etc.

Emotional Intelligence Dimensions (5)

o Self-awareness - being aware of what you're feeling o Self-management - the ability to manage your own emotions and impulses o Self-motivation - the ability to persist in the face of setbacks and failures o Empathy - the ability to sense how others are feeling o Social Skills - the ability to handle the emotions of others

Geneplore by Ward et Al. 1999 - Idea evaluation

o assessing the reasonableness and quality of ideas in order to develop workable solutions o an effort to make novel thinking practical, useful or relevant

Geneplore by Ward et Al. 1999 - Idea generation

o production of original mental images and thoughts that respond to important challenges o a search for novelty

Personality/trait approach, Problem

o research failed to find a common set of specific traits § not imply that there are no macro-traits found in most leaders § Research suggests the importance of: · Ability to solve problems, work hard and express judgements · Achievement · Status and Power · Participation and commitment · Responsability: persistency, reliability, aggressiveness, ability to take the initiative, desire to excel § personal characteristics of leader who sustains creativity? · General intelligence · Emotional intelligence (successful interactions) · Creative problem solving skills · Innovative cognitive style · Personal motivation to lead others to innovate · Ability to read the environment and identify problems

o Enabling leadership

§ 1 Disrupt existing patterns through embracing uncertainty and creating controversy § 2 Encourage novelty by allowing experiments and supporting collective action § 3 Provide sense-making and sense-giving through the artful use of language and symbols § 4 Stabilize the system by integrating local constraints

- Relationship btw rewards and creativity

§ Benefits · form of extrinsic motivation · signal of good performance o signal to low-performers that their performance must improve · encourage employee to continue exhibiting the desired behaviors § issues · That which is rewarded tends to be repeated · Working primarily in response to something apart from the work itself (e.g., award, recognition) o narrows down the potential of the behavior -> people might focus only on rewarded behavior often have a negative influence on intrinsic motivation

o Leader behaviors for creativity

§ Control and monitor employee work + permit of participation an involvement conductive to creative discovery § Ensure structure that enables employees to create § Support: idea support, work support, social support ("supervisory encouragement") § Provide feedback on new ideas (developmental feedback) § Demonstrate empathy and consideration, that elicit trust § Facilitate communication and collaborations § Act as role models and their actions express value and expectations § Transmit sense of confidence and efficacy for creative work § Enhance creative confidence

o Enabling Leadership; characteristics

§ Enable interaction · provide comfortable work spaces where agents can interact · bridge communication channels · a strong positive effect for open interactive structures § Enable interdependency · foster interdependent relationships o actions of one agent dependent on actions of another · interdependency creates pressure on agents in a network · Excessive interdependency across a network can overwhelm it § Enable conflict · Task-based conflict (med levels) good for creat! § Enable Heterogenity · functional diversity enables creativity § Enable Psychological safety § Enable Uncertainty · Complexity thrives on uncertainty § Enable Championing · advocate the emergent dynamic nature of work · help to move it through administrative channels · recruit support from others

o How to frame a challenge/opportunity? Asking the right questions

§ Good questions are: · Ambitious yet actionable · They shift perceptions · They invite people to participate · Broad to be inspiring · Not directive § Tips: · Don't put a solution in the question (broad enough to be inspiring but not too directive) · Questions should be generative and inspiring · Include who you are designing it for · Get specific about what part of the journey you are designing it for · Draw inspirations from inside your organization/ the context

Insights about Motivation

§ INTRINSIC MOT frequently associated with INCREASED CREATIVE PERFORMANCE § ONLY after INTRINSIC MOTIVATION has been established or attempted should EXTRINSIC REWARDS be used to stimulate creativity § CREATIVE PERFORMANCE is maximized when creativity goals are coupled with difficult productivity goals § Managers may also be tempted to include incentives for EFFORT in reward systems