Think

The Mind is a creature of habit. As we learn and reinforce new concepts and behaviours, we lay down ever-stronger neural pathways in our brains, becoming hardwired in our thinking. When we approach a problem, we are always drawing on these hardened neural pathways, or habits, to guide our thinking about how to solve a problem. However, this creates a conundrum. As Einstein noted, "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them".

In an age of rapid business disruption, where the need for accelerated problem solving and agility creation is becoming standard practice, we need new ways of creative thinking to drive innovation practices that allow us to respond effectively in increasingly chaotic environments of change.

First, relax.

"When people are under too much stress, they panic; they revert to what used to work. Even in brain terms, when people are under stress, they think more quickly and more stereotypically because, in evolutionary terms, we're meant to do things that work automatically when we're threatened."

Unfocus

Sip slowly. Watch the kids play. See if there's any birds outside your window. Have a nap. Doodle. Break the circuit of habitual thinking.  

Retool

Tool 1. Cynefin framework for understanding the different approaches needed for Simple (Known Knowns), Complicated(Known Unknowns), Complex (Unknown unknowns) and Chaotic (Unknowables) cause and effect relationships; (more on these at Cognitive Edge with a useful Harvard Business School abstract at A leaders Framework for Decision Making

Tool 2. Staff empowered and inspired to innovate. Toyota is not the worlds most profitable carmaker by accident - a large part of it's success is attributed to an ability to capture the wisdom of every employee, with 540,000 improvement ideas received from Japanese employees just in 2005. Then they need a tool to contribute their great ideas through (next)

Tool 3. A whole of lifecycle product solution that allows you to transition from idea generation (ideation) and rating as part of a corporate innovation engine, through idea filtering to feature aggregation and solution build/test/deploy within a Project managed capability. Personally, I think the tools at Atlassian are pretty close to this one if they can extend to cover the front end of idea creation/capture, because there's certainly a space in the market.

Refocus

Creativity and process rigour can co-exist:

I don't believe creativity is a flash of insight; it's a process; it's something you work on. People seem to think process and rigour is at one end of the spectrum and creativity is at the other end, but that's rubbish. All the extremely creative people were disciplined and creative in their own way. Picasso painted every day.

article "Imagine if'.

'Becoming an intrapeneur is much less risky than becoming an entrepeneur because you are surrounded by people you can talk to about your idea throughout the process, and also your company is likely to have customers for your product or service'

For those working inside larger organisations, foster a sense of the intrapeneur - entrepeneurs working within the security of a larger business model.

Recommended reading:

1. FastThinking magazine:
   

• Why we should teach creativity- Buffalo State University international centre for creativity studies lists 10 solid reasons
• Kings in their cubicles -Setting up a business within the business may be the way to promote creativity and employee satisfaction, Issue 9, Summer 2007
  

1. Lean Institute: Learning to see and Webinar presentation of Value Stream Improvement for the Office
2. SixSigma First: Radical process improvement made possible by leaning your tool selection