More Blocks

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More Blocks

• Jerry Banks
• Creativity and Innovation

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Charles Kettering

• The only time that you cant afford to fail is
  the last time that you try.

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Chester Barnard

• To try and fail is at least to learn to fail to
  try is to suffer the inestimable loss of what
  might have been.

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Emotional Blocks

• Fear of taking a risk
• Only one right answer
• There are many right answers
• What is the worst that can happen?

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Emotional Blocks

• Fear of disorder
• It is necessary to desire order
• But we must tolerate disorder
• No 1-paragraph story problems in reality

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Emotional Blocks

• Data problems, Case 1
• Client says that they have everything
• We need raw data, client has averages
• Data problems, Case 2
• Data inaccuracies
• Fork truck drivers record activities
• July 2
• Concerns about validity

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Emotional Blocks

• Inability to incubate
• Its OK to put off assignments
• Editing what I have just written is useless

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When do creative ideas emerge?
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When do creative ideas emerge?

• 10. While performing manual labor
• 9. While listening to a sermon
• 8. Middle of the night (awakening)
• 7. While exercising
• 6. During leisure reading

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When do creative ideas emerge?

• 5. During a boring meeting
• 4. While falling asleep or waking up
• 3. While commuting to work
• 2. While showering or shaving

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When do creative ideas emerge?

• 1. While sitting on the toilet!

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Embassy suites fosters creativity to lure
travelers (WSJ, 11/12/02)

• The company conducted a study prior to its 20th
  anniversary to determine where people got their
  best ideas
• In the shower
• While exercising
• Soaking in the tub
• Nobody said, In a hotel room

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Embassy suites fosters creativity to lure
travelers (WSJ, 11/12/02)

• Embassy Suites is testing a new type of hotel
  room aimed at juicing up the creativity of
  business travelers (and bolstering the chains
  profitability)

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Embassy suites fosters creativity to lure
travelers (WSJ, 11/12/02)

• Creativity Suites
• The showers have grease boards for jotting down
  brilliant ideas
• A box of crayons
• Exercise tapes
• Sofas can be rearranged into thought-provoking
  positions

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Embassy suites fosters creativity to lure
travelers (WSJ, 11/12/02)

• Creativity Suites
• Intended to appeal to travelers who are on
  business for several days and may hold small
  meetings in their hotels
• Sought after by the hotel industry
• They stay longer
• They often spend a lot ordering food and other
  services that are very profitable while they
  transact business

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Bunk!

• Companies that set out in some formal,
  structured way to get ideas I think thats bunk.
  Youve got to make sure that its done in a
  free-form environment, where people have
  self-confidenceIdeas come at unsuspecting times,
  at unusual places.
• Lawrence A. Bossidy, (former CEO of Honeywell) in
  Execution The Discipline of Getting Things Done,
  2002

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Emotional Blocks

• Judging rather than generating
• That wont work
• We tried that before
• Generate now, evaluate later
• Effect of judgement
• Build on ideas of others

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Which is essential to your business? USA Today,
1/22/04

• Telephone
• High-speed internet
• E-mail
• Coffee machine
• Fax
• Copier

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Which is essential to your business?USA Today,
1/22/04

• Telephone
• High-speed internet
• E-mail
• Coffee machine
• Fax
• Copier

• 55
• 16
• 13
• 8
• 5
• 3

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The Stat, BW, 3/1/04

• 30 of adults say that the cell phone is the
  invention that they hate the most, but cant live
  without
• 25 say the alarm clock
• 23 say the television

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Emotional blocks

• Insufficient challenge
• Example from consulting
• Problem needs to be complex
• Deadline
• Financial reward

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Emotional blocks

• Excessive zeal
• Another example from consulting
• Ron planned for weeks
• Joe started modeling immediately
• Somewhere between the two

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Pablo Picasso

• Ah, good taste!
• What a dreadful thing!
• Taste is the enemy of creativity.

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Cultural Blocks

• Taboos
• Ping-pong ball exercise

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Ping pong ball exercise
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Ping-pong Ball Exercise
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Cultural Blocks

• Fantasy is only for crazy people
• Fantasy is a diversion, a waste of time
• Time for and time not for
• Example, dim lights and toggle heater
• Leading to a Frogmobile
• But, this could lead to a new way of locomotion

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Cultural Blocks

• Playfulness is only for children
• Saying no dozens of times/day
• Children lose their creativity
• Adults need to retrieve their playfulness

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Cultural Blocks

• Tradition is to be maintained
• Many hide behind this cloak
• If its not broken, why fix it?
• Opposites have the view
• Change for sake of change
• Biggest problem is the first group
• Second group also causes problems
• At the evaluation stage they lose objectivity,
  lack rationale

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E. Paul Torrance

• It takes courage to be creative just as soon as
  you have a new idea, youre in the minority of
  one.

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Environmental Blocks

• Response of colleagues
• Negative criticism is a damper
• Supportive environment is desirable
• Must be non-competitive
• Dont steal ideas

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Mary Wells Lawrence, a founder of the ad agency
Wells, Rich Greene

• Most creative people are shy, oddly. They have
  to trust that you wont laugh at them. It takes
  a lot of work. They have to really believe that
  you respect them, that you will love them for
  their ideasthat you will love them. They have
  to have the guts to do that, and they only have
  the guts if you trust them.

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You snooze, you lose, Newsweek, July 21, 1997

• Sewell Avery (Chairman of Montgomery Wards some
  50 years ago) is to blame for their not opening a
  single new store from 1941 to 1957.
• Montgomery Wards bankruptcy isabout the people
  we all love to hate Stubborn bosses who wont
  change their minds
• Their troubles today spring from adherence to a
  bad idea decades ago

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Environmental Blocks

• Improper physical environment
• Faculty at Georgia Tech
• Office type
• Home type
• Cabin in the woods type
• Writing books in bed
• Faculty retreat

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Hallmark Cards keeps its creative staff members
fresh

• The dress code
• Sweaters, jeans, etc.
• The neatness policy
• Whatever inspires the creative juices including
  hamsters and plastic toys
• No daily quota, no deadlines, no homework
• An atmosphere to cultivate creativity
• Research trips around the world, workshops, free
  movies

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GEs Research Center

• GE is building a meeting and conference
  facilities at the Niskayuna Center, so that
  employees across the company can hobknob more
  comfortably
• Some of the best ideas come at off-hours, when
  employees are relaxing in the lounge or over a
  meal
• Source GE goes back to future, WSJ, May 7, 2002

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Give a message for a greeting card to cover the
situation where someone doesnt receive a job
that they really wanted.
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Environmental Blocks

• Lack of implementation support
• Many steps in the process
• Prototype
• Patent
• Marketing

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Intellectual Blocks

• Blocks to creativity from failure to understand
• Fear of saying I dont know
• Many creative solutions are hidden by mistaken
  assumptions

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Tell me why

• What genetic advantage do peaches gain from
  having fuzz?

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Tell me why

• Why is the sky blue?

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of people befuddled by their
Cell Phone
Computer
Home Security System
VCR
Stereo
TV
Source Online survey of 3000 adults, Jan. 10-12,
2002 by American Demographics/NFOWorld Group
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Tell me why

• Many creative solutions are hidden by mistaken
  assumptions

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Why do we have fingerprints?
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Why is a yawn infectious?
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End