Creativity in Management:paradoxical thinking

Dr Chris Bilton

Centre for Cultural Policy StudiesUniversity of Warwick

What is creativity?The ‘industrial’ definition (DCMS):

Individual creativity, skill and talent. Potential for wealth and job creation Generation and exploitation of intellectual property

Implications (‘the myth of genius’)

Emphasis on individualtalent (myth of genius)Wealth and jobs (economic rationality)Value chain – content is king, task specialisation

Beyond InnovationInnovation + value / fitness for purposeIdeas are not enoughMultiplicity

Stages in the processMembers of the teamFrom ideas to intellectual property

Beyond the myth of genius

Creative thinking stylesDIVERGENT THINKING

Think around or away from the problemDiscontinuity / break‘dig another hole’spontaneous, informal, randomRemove constraintsunconscious processes

CONVERGENT THINKINGThink through or into the problemContinuity / evolution‘dig a deeper hole’systematic, formal, focusedWork within constraintsconscious processes

Joined up thinking Capacity to move betweenthinking stylesTolerance for contradictions: ‘ego strength’Putting together habitually disconnected frames of references – ‘bisociation’Creative process is not chaotic, but finds transition points between order and chaos

Creativity and the value chain

PREPARATION INCUBATION ILLUMINATION VERIFICATION

Boundary setting

‘Value’ criteria:Fit for purpose

Solves the problem

Meets definitions of quality

‘Novelty’ criteria:New to individual

New to the field

New to the world

Coalition building

Concept generation

Concept selection

Concept realisation

Transfer / diffusion

Innovation activation

Innovation production

Concept evaluation

Three definitions of creativityProcess

Tolerating contradictions + bisociative thinkingContent

Innovation + valueOutcomes

Transformation + rethinking(from Bilton and Cummings, Creative Strategy (forthcoming)

Management / strategy as a creative process Creativity as a managed / strategic process

Uncreative managementCareer specialisation

EducationCareer paths

Organisational specialisationTask specialisation, especially as organisations grow –‘creatives vs. suits’‘Buffering’ the creative process: ‘talent silos’Separation of ‘strategic’ and ‘operational’ rolesValue chain specialisation…

Rethinking ‘creatives vs. suits’The comfort zone: unmanageable creativesand uncreative managers Mutual stereotyping which supports task specialisation and allows us to feel superiorThe Dorian Gray Effect: avoiding our own reflections

Rethinking ‘creative individuals’

Kirton’s ‘Adapters and Innovators’

Mixing not matchingDe Bono’s ‘Six Thinking Hats’

Thinking outside the roleBilton & Leary

Management as talent broker

Rethinking the value chain

Merging of production and distributionBeyond talent, beyond contentInnovation along the value chainCultural entrepreneurs

Self-managing creativesEngaged in both ends of the value chain

Creative managementProcess: paradoxical thinking, tolerating contradictions

Honda

Content: innovation + valuable (valuable innovation)

Marks & Spencer

Outcome: transformation and rethinking

Cirque du Soleil

Further ReadingBilton, C (2006): Management and Creativity: from creative industries to creative management (Blackwells)Bilton, C and Leary, R (2002): ‘What Can Managers Do For Creativity? Brokering Creativity in the Creative Industries’International Journal of Cultural Policy 8.1, pp. 49 – 64Boden, M A (1994): ‘What is Creativity’ in Dimensions of Creativity (London: Bradford Books), pp. 75 – 117De Bono, E (1990): Six Thinking Hats (Penguin)Kirton, M J (1991): ‘Adapters and Innovators – why new initiatives get blocked’ in J Henry (ed.), Creative Management(Sage Publications / Open University Press)Levitt, T (1963): ‘Creativity Is Not Enough’ Harvard Business Review 80.8 (August 2002), pp.137 - 145 Weisberg, R W (1986): Creativity: genius and other myths (W.H. Freeman)