Blueprint for a Creative Culture [Commonwealth Club of SF, Mar 2011]

Building engagement in your organization

Blueprint for a Creative Culture | March 2011

e Commonwealth Club March 23, 2011 #creativecultureblueprint

Kate Rutter, Adaptive Path www.intelleto.com | www.adaptivepath.com twitter : @katerutter | @adaptivepath

Introduce me


I’m a designer and strategist. Designing delightful experiences makes me tick. Making things visual and visible makes my heart sing.

Over the past few years I’ve been exploring what makes creative cultures tick, with a goal of ensuring that everyone can bring their most inspired self to work each and every day.

Adaptive Path is a User Experience strategy and design consultancy. Our mission is to help companies make products and services that deliver great experiences that improve people’s lives.

Adaptive Path

Hi, I’m Kate.



Every individual has the right and

responsibility to do work that is interesting, fun &

meaningful. Every company has the responsibility to

create a space where people can do their best work openly and effectively.

I believe...


...and the us/them divide is arti"cial and damaging

to the human spirit.

Companies are made of people. And we are those

people.

And I believe...


How did he get there?

possibilities create! opportunities become! responsibilities dependencies lead to!

LOBOTOMIES!

spirals into!


But it’s not isolated.

Playing with the model


What if...

possibilities opportunities responsibilities dependencies create! become! lead to!


What if it looked like this?

become!responsibilities

dependencies

lead to!

possibilities that!inspire!

opportunities

create!


LOBOTOMIES!


Meanwhile...

Enter this book

and this article.


a cultural landscape


WHAT CREATES IT?!

WHAT FEEDS IT?!

WHAT SUPPORTS IT?!


e blueprint is a guide for a creative culture.

WHAT CREATES IT?!

WHAT FEEDS IT?!

WHAT SUPPORTS IT?!



Expertise!

Motivation!

Challenge!Freedom!

Resources!


Workgroup features!

Supervisory encouragement!

Leadership support!

Creative thinking skills!



WHAT CREATES IT?!

Expertise!

Motivation! Knowledge • tactical • procedural • intellectual

 Acquired by • formal education, • professional experience • interactions with colleagues & peers

 Intellectual space for problem-solving and solution-"nding

 Ability to look across intellectual spaces for ideas

 Capacity to combine ideas in new ways

 Ability to depart from the status quo

 Perseverance

 Intrinsic • passion • interest • challenge

 Extrinsic • carrot &stick


Brown

Bags


In Brown Bags the team gathers to get exposed to different ideas and discusses topics related to our work. Tuesdays from 12-1 is set aside, but if there is a lot going on, Brown Bags can happen more often.

Anyone can host a Brown Bag, and they often feature special guests. We've heard from futurists, software developers, people doing cool research, and seen demos of digital or design tools. If there’s not a guest, we’ve watched TED talks.

Internal brown bags have included staff portfolio sharing, focused discussions of internal projects and ad-hoc working sessions on a wide variety of topics.

WHAT CREATES IT?!

Brown

Bags


WHAT FEEDS IT?!

Challenge!Freedom! Resources!

  Ability to de"ne “how”: sense of ownership, autonomy

  Decide the best "t of the approach & expertise

  Clearly de"ned goals that don’t shift

 Space: a place to focus, a place to explore, tools

 Culture: open & honest  Money: legitimate, fair and

an appropriate amount  Time: realistic and real

deadlines, time for exploration

 Match people with work  Know people: interests,

skills, expertise

Open Design

Sessions

Open design sessions are one-hour sessions where a project team opens up participation to others. During the hour the team has access to fresh perspectives, ideas and experiences to help think through a problem and give feedback on the work.

This open working style encourages the free sharing of ideas and approaches and serves as cross-project pollination. Working together enables people who don’t frequently work together to collaborate.

Getting exposure to each other’s interests, skills and expertise smoothes the path for people working together in the future, and knits the culture together through sharing ideas.


WHAT FEEDS IT?!

Open Design

Sessions


WHAT SUPPORTS IT?!

Workgroup features!

  Mutual support

  Diverse perspectives

  Willingness to help in difficult times

  Shared excitement

Supervisory encouragement!

 Communicate that the work matters

 Meet ideas with an open mind

 Banish negative bias

 Guard against a culture of fear

 Celebrate failure

 Discuss ideas promptly

 Reward participation in a timely manner

 Recognize the creative work 5-minute

Madness


At the monthly all-hand meeting, we have 5-minute sessions where someone can make a statement that they don’t know is true, or that they think may not be true.

Then the group discusses it for 5 minutes (time-enforced.)

This helps us say things that we’re not sure of, encourages people to speak up about things that feel unformed, keeps us uncomfortable, and keeps us open to being wrong in service to sharing ideas.

This in turn helps us keep our creative thinking skills honed because it encourages departing from the status quo. It reinforces the importance of diverse perspectives in our workgroups.

And it supports open communication, meeting ideas with an open mind and taking risks.

WHAT SUPPORTS IT?!

5-minute

Madness


WHAT SUPPORTS IT?!

Leadership support!

  Mandate information-sharing   Implement creative principles

  Promote open & clear communication   Ensure political problems don’t fester

  Encourage sharing outside the organization

Guerilla

Collaboration


Why wait for Leadership support? DIY culture change at a large non-profit

WHAT SUPPORTS IT?!

Guerilla

Collaboration

Freedom!  Ability to de"ne “how”: sense

of ownership, autonomy

Resources!  Space: a place to focus,

a place to explore, tools   Diverse perspectives   Willingness to help in difficult

times   Shared excitement

Workgroup features!

  Meet ideas with an open mind Supervisory encouragement! Leadership support!

  Mandate information-sharing   Implement creative principles   Promote open & clear communication

Expertise!  Knowledge from interactions

with colleagues

  Intellectual space for problem-solving and solution-"nding

Motivation!  Intrinsic

• passion • interest • challenge

  Ability to depart from the status quo

  Perseverance


As an assessment tool…

What are we already doing to

foster a creative culture?

What are we missing?

Think about how your organization

functions…what areas of the creative

blueprint are already in play?

! What specific elements are present?

! What activities promote or reinforce these

elements?

! What elements are not yet part of your

organizational behavior?

! What kind of activities, processes or

behaviors could help fill the gaps?

As an inspiration tool…

How can we build more creative

thinking into our culture?

What could that look like?

What areas & elements of the creative

blueprint are most interesting to you?

! What are 2-3 ideas for activities that could

introduce the element?

! How could these activities be introduced?

! What are some ways to observe the impact?

Putting the blueprint to work

Creative / (krē-ā

ˈtĭv) / –adje

ctive

Characterize

d by origina

lity and

expressivene

ss; imaginat

ive.

Culture / (kŭlˈc

hər) / –nou

n

The predomin

ating attitu

des and beha

vior

that charact

erize the fu

nctioning of

a

group or org

anization.

Blueprint

/ (blo͞oˈprĭnt)

/ –noun

A detailed p

lan of actio

n.

A model or p

rototype.

Sample activities include : casual interactions

! processes ! meetings ! physical space !

tools ! policies ! behaviors ! routines

! workshops ! retreats ! celebrations

? !?

Creative thinking is the fuel that powers new

ideas, exploration, invention and progress in

the world. Staying fresh and engaged is

crucial to making this happen. But it takes a

team approach to create and foster a culture

that thrives on creativity.

How does workplace culture support creative

thinking? What activities do people and

organizations do to foster curiosity, collective

engagement and making ideas happen?

This creative culture blueprint is a way to

assess your culture, to understand why some

activities promote inventive thinking (and why

some kill it), and to envision & build a culture

where creativity is appropriate, useful and

sustaining.

What makes a creative culture?

Digital versions of the blueprint are available for download at : http://www.adaptivepath.com/ideas/essays/archives/001192.php

For assessment & inspiration



Putting it to work


2

what is one thing you do that you want to stop doing, but that others depend on you for? 1

1

something you are passionate about. 2

2

on the card, write down... 1 minute


~ Heraclitus

“! “!A wonderful harmony is created when we join together the seemingly unconnected.

What is one thing you do that you want to stop doing, but that others depend on you for?


1

Something you are passionate about. 2 2

1 2

3

3

What is one idea for how you can satisfy both?

on the card, write down... 2 minutes


4 Now share your great idea with the person sitting next to you.

3 minutes


Your toolkit: A model for awareness, so you know when it’s time to envision new possibilities.

A blueprint for how to create, feed and support a creative culture.

A personal starting point to put into practice.


Talk to 2 new people about your work. Actively listen for and write down possibilities.

your challenge

Pilot a 5-minute madness one time. See where it takes you.

Host a Brown Bag or a collaborative problem-solving session. Bring new ideas into your environment.


a future vision...

Companies are made of people who are open, inspired and who support each other in envisioning and building positive futures. We claim our own power, and use it.

Every company is a place where we can do our best work openly and

effectively.


Each and every one of us uses our creative mojo in work

that is interesting, fun & meaningful.

a future vision...



LOBOTOMIES!

and best of all...


Shout-outs to...   Dr. Teresa Amabile for her catalyzing article   HBR for publishing awesome stuff   Leah Buley for sharing a few of her sketches   the folks at Adaptive Path for the everyday activities that create, feed and support a creative environment!

you! thanks!

Kate Rutter, Adaptive Path http://www.intelleto.com twitter : @katerutter

opportunities

responsibilities

dependencies

create!

become!lead to!

possibilities that!inspire!

Business

Blueprint for a Creative Culture [Commonwealth Club of SF, Mar 2011]