Getting to know "The Innovative Team"

A book review by: Adela Vangelisti
Graduate Student
International Center for Studies in Creativity

Do we really need another leadership book?  Many widely-read books have been written about the subject, ranging from New York Times Best Sellers like John C. Maxwell’s The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership (2007) to scholarly texts like Leadership: Theory and Practice, by Peter G. Northouse (2010).  Chris Grivas and Gerard J. Puccio wrote The Innovative Team (2012) because they believe that some authors approach the topic by giving too much weight to following rules and guidelines, and too little to nurturing our innate leader.  Thus, it is helpful to have several books covering the same territory with different perspectives.

The authors restore the balance by exploring, in detail, the activities of a fictional group. Using a breakthrough thinking process and a self-awareness framework the group deals not only with the client’s demands for innovation in their organization, but tackles today’s collaboration challenges when working in a team environment. The authors contend that, “the potential of any working group is defined by its members—not just individually but collectively” (p. 237).

The subtitle, “Unleashing creative potential for breakthrough results,” calls attention to another natural skill: creativity. The authors noted in the book’s foreword, “among many insights, one undeniable fact has emerged—creative thinking is a teachable and trainable skill” (p. xvi, foreword). Throughout The Innovative Team, Grivas and Puccio demonstrate a unique ability to describe the ways in which the science of creativity holds the key to organizational survival.

The biggest contribution of The Innovative Team is the effortless way in which Grivas & Puccio manage to bring the team of fictional characters to life. The authors place the team of Juan (senior business analyst), Elaine (business analyst), Damon (marketing analyst), Maya (associate business analyst), and Amy (data integration specialist) into a typical organization’s setting, with a writing style that is relatable to every reader. Unlike other books in the genre, which portray teams as experimental subjects utilized to describe confusing observations or complex theories, Grivas and Puccio depict them as real people, with real problems.

The Innovative Team begins as the team is informed by their senior partner, Tony, that their new team leader, Kate, who is in charge of the organization’s innovation efforts, has been assigned to work with the team on their biggest client’s account: Consolidated. Tony starts out by giving the team harsh feedback: “…what we’ve given her [Alicia, the senior VP at Consolidated] so far is nothing that another firm couldn’t have delivered for half the price” (p.16). The team members are surprised: they turned in their recommendation to the client on time, checked their usual sources, and wrote a comprehensive report.

Kate leads the team through the Consolidated challenge using deliberate processes and tools. Grivas and Puccio masterfully guide us through the sequence of the four-stage breakthrough thinking process that “simply puts names on the stages of innovation that we all do naturally” (p.47). We are also given a number of practical tools and concepts along the way to facilitate the journey. Of particular importance is the use of the FourSight framework (www.foursightonline.com), which transforms the team’s dynamics.

FourSight brings awareness to our individual strengths and challenges as we move through the breakthrough thinking process. Each individual in the group (including Kate) feels energized at one point in the process. The group must learn to not just focus on one particular stage when contributing, but to make an effort to work on all the stages to collaborate effectively. The team is very fortunate to have Maya among them who, according to FourSight, is an Integrator, or someone comfortable with all stages. Her all-encompassing preference helps to bridge the gaps between the other members.

Even though, Grivas and Puccio manage to effortlessly, shine a light on what team innovation looks like, the book is not perfect. The authors emphasize the physical characteristics of the individuals down to their dressing style, “…Tony Martin, the senior partner ….cut a handsome figure with his tanned complexion, graying temples, and designer suit” (p.16).  However, their personalities are not as extensively developed. Also, I understand the true purpose of describing their thinking styles as single faceted to illustrate the four FourSight preferences in their purest form. Yet, the pieces of the puzzle come together too quickly.

On the other hand, I give high marks to Grivas and Puccio for backing up the claims they make with well-researched, hard facts in the second half of the book. Using clear explanations and concise bullet points, the authors provide the reader with a common language to describe both the breakthrough thinking process and the FourSight framework for both discourse and application. Also, sprinkled throughout the book are signs of Grivas and Puccio’s passion to demystify creativity as “fantasy,” and to share the power of discovering some of your own solutions trough creative thinking.  Kudos!

References

Grivas, C., & Puccio, G. J. (2012). The innovative team: Unleashing creative potential for breakthrough results. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

About Adela Vangelisti

A Guide to "Transformative Scenario Planning"

A book review by: Eva Teruzzi
Product Marketing and Business Development
Fiera Milano

Published in 2012, Transformative Scenario Planning: Working together to change the future is a non-fiction book that can greatly benefit anyone interested in designing and facilitating multi-stakeholder change in “stuck” contexts, especially political and social ones. The narrative approach chosen by Adam Kahane makes the readers dive into a powerful storytelling experience, where methodological learning is combined with a vivid narration of actual projects.

One doesn’t need to be a scenario expert to understand the evolution Kahane brings about in this book. While scenarios are created as “objective” stories - to be used by management for strategic planning purposes - Kahane posits that scenario creators can be “passionate” change makers at the same time.

Creativity and change professionals will find many familiar concepts embedded in a practical guide coming from the life-long experience of Adam Kahane.  Kahane is a scenario expert who worked for 20 years as head of Scenario at Royal Dutch Shell, and, for about the same time, as transformative scenario facilitator at international level.

The book is organized around 9 chapters addressing transformative scenario planning insights, process, tools and tips.

In chapters 1 and 2 Kahane reminds us that “necessity can be the mother of creativity,” while telling us how he created his methodology, and what differentiates it from traditional scenario planning. It all started in the ’90s while he was helping South Africa transit from Apartheid to the Mandela's era.

In chapters 3 to 7 he presents his five-step transformative process. Creating the team - chapter 3 - is a key step: in fact, 50% of Kahane’s projects failed during the multi-stakeholder team creation step. The approach will sound somewhat familiar to the creativity expert: (i) to create mutual understanding we must “suspend assumptions,” and (ii) creative change projects are  “emergent” and arise from iterated conversations.  

Chapter 4 is about “building up a rough shared understanding of what is happening in the system by enabling more people to see more of the whole.” Specifically, we must look for driving forces and say things that, if impacted even by a small change, can produce major changes in the system variables. According to Kahane, we must  “breath in” current reality by freeing  ourselves “from prejudice and old perceptions,” then we must “let new perceptions cook,” and finally, we must “draw conclusions about what to do next.” Creative Problem Solving experts will see some connections  with their methodology, and also some tools to consider, e.g. (i) asking team members to bring a physical object, to metaphorically address their understanding of the situation; and (ii) making the team do a “learning journey” in order to discover something useful they didn’t know.

Once the team has its driving forces, it can start working on creating stories about “plausible futures” (chapter 5). Stories must be “relevant, challenging, plausible and clear,” and  can be generated “deductively or inductively.” The deductive approach produces “adaptive” scenarios. Instead, the inductive approach produces “creative” scenarios, applying creativity tools such as brainstorming and clustering.  Kahane provides also some tips for effective scenario communication, such as to “choose names for the scenarios” that provide metaphorical power, and to document them so that they can be easily understood and remembered.

Chapter 6 introduces the key discontinuities with traditional scenarios: how teams can make sense of stories and identify what they can and must do in the future. Much of this step resonates with chapter 3 content.

In chapter 7, Kahane provides examples of actions taken in his projects “to multiply a new way of working,” while in chapters 8 and 9 he reminds us that only “new stories can generate new realities,”  which, eventually, “can mutate into myths,” thus giving us more courage to act.

I found the book easy to read and dense at the same time. More reflections on how to prevent projects from failing during the team creation phase, and how to make the process work in corporate environments, would have been beneficial.

I think Transformative Scenario Planning methodology can be effectively used together with CPS, especially in the Clarification and Transformation phases, as it provides add-on tools and insights – e.g. how to create mutual understanding, identify and select challenges, and create the vision.  I also think that Kahane would benefit from CPS knowledge to make his implementation step  more robust – e.g. with tools for exploring acceptance.

Kahane’s book effectively turns scenario planning into a tool for enacting change in “stuck situations.”  In doing so, he reminds us about the need of suspending judgment and the importance of storytelling in fostering shared understanding,  collaboration and creativity. One of Kahane’s greatest insights in the book is the recognition of the power  of “pattern interrupting practices…of non-working periods” as highly creative and productive moments.  This book reminds us that the “future cannot be calculated or controlled, yet, it can be investigated and [creatively] influenced." A call for creative action!

References

Kahane, A. (2012). Transformative scenario planning: Working together to change the future. San

Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

About Eva Teruzzi

Eva has worked in high-tech and service companies, and experienced the challenge of being a professional, a manager and an entrepreneur for almost 30 years. As a result, she has grown a sound understanding of how to make things happen in organizations. 

Today, she is in Product Marketing and Business Development at Fiera Milano, Italy.

Her core competence is change management, which she sees as an overarching competence, necessary for being proficient in almost anything. 

She holds an M.A. in French and English literature and languages, is a certified coach with I.C.F. and is currently  enrolled in the M.Sc. in Creativity at SUNY, Buffalo, NY.

Exploring Visual Thinking

An independent study by: Jody Fisher
Ideation Strategist
Nestlé Purina PetCare

“Draw Your Ideas”

Several years ago, I participated in an ideation session for a new product, lead by an innovation consultancy called Gravity Tank. At this session, we were each handed a stack of 8½- by 5½-inch pieces of paper and were told to “draw your ideas.”

This was the first time I’d been in a session where the ideas were approached in a visual way. My experiences up to that point had involved Post-It Notes, Sharpies and words—lots and lots of words.

At the end of the day, I asked one of the Gravity Tank partners about why they used the “draw your ideas” method. She told me that it came out of the fact that most of the staff had backgrounds in industrial design, so they were naturally inclined to draw. But, she said, they had also found that it really helped distill the idea down to its core. Without words, there was no room for fluff or distractions.

It was powerful. But why?

Why is a visual thinking experience so different from a linguistic-based one? What do we mean we say “visual thinking”? What does it take to become a visual thinker? And why are so many people afraid of it?

This summer, I embarked on an independent study to find some answers.

Why Visual Thinking?

For the purposes of my study, “visual thinking” is not “visual learning,” which is about how information is taken in (Felder, 1993). Visual thinking is about how information is processed and expressed. "Visual thinking is a way to organize your thoughts and improve your ability to think and communicate. It’s a way to expand your range and capacity by going beyond the linear world of the written word, list and spreadsheet, and entering the non-linear world of complex spatial relationships, networks, maps and diagrams" (Gray, 2013).

A lot of our mental resources are dedicated to what we see—much more so than any other sense (Eagleman, 2011; Roam, 2011). We think in images first: even our conceptual mind is pre-linguistic (Margulies & Maal, 2002). The origins of our written language began more than 32,000 years ago with a simple drawing of a bull on a cave wall. Over time, those simple pictures evolved from representing a word to representing a sound, and the images themselves evolved into a symbolic alphabet (Roam, 2011).

At some point, the written word became the standard mode of communication. But using words alone to express ideas constrains our thinking (Gray, Brown & Macanufo, 2010; Roam, 2011). The written word is linear: lines on a page, progressing predictably from left to right. To express an idea visually—to create a picture— is to “make use of a massive range of cortical skills: colour, form, line, dimension, texture, visual rhythm, and especially imagination — a word taken from the Latin imaginari, literally meaning ‘to picture mentally’” (Buzan, 1993, p. 73).

Why Aren’t We All Visual Thinkers?

If visual thinking is “natural” to us, why is it so hard for so many of us to approach problem solving from a visual point of view?

“I can’t draw.”

If this is what you think, welcome to the club. That’s what I thought going into this study. Roam (2009) pointed out that the only group of people who willingly and enthusiastically say they can draw are kindergarteners.

There’s a widely held (mistaken) belief that either you know how to draw, or you don’t. Discomfort among adults regarding drawing is due to the fact that they haven’t got the “grammar” of it (Roam, 2011). The “grammar” is more simple than you might think. Rohde (2013) has broken down “drawing” into five basic elements:

If you can draw these, he said, you can draw anything.

When it comes to “drawing,” we are bogged down by intellectual and emotional baggage. It raises questions of good and bad, right and wrong, pretty and ugly. We get caught up in judgment and forget the point of visual thinking: to express ideas not more beautifully but more clearly and intuitively. "The point of problem-solving pictures isn’t to create great art. We’re not trying to show ourselves and others what things look like ‘out there’ (in the real world); we’re trying to show what things look like ‘in here’ (what we see in our own heads)" (Roam, 2009, p. 261).

Sketchnotes

When I started this independent study, one of the first things I read about was sketchnoting — in part because I know and have worked with the sketchnote evangelist Craighton Berman (www.craightonberman.com). “Sketchnotes are rich visual notes created from a mix of handwriting, drawings, hand-drawn typography, shapes and visual elements like arrows, boxes and lines” (Rohde, 2013, p. 2).

Sketchnoting requires you to think like a reporter, an information designer and an illustrator, all at the same time (Berman, 2011a). But “sketchnotes are about hearing and capturing meaningful ideas, not how well you draw” (Rohde, 2013, p. xiii).

I attempted my first sketchnote after I had spent some time learning the “grammar” of visual thinking.

There’s definitely room for improvement — I need more icons, for example, and my structure isn’t clear — but I can say just from creating this and a few other sets of notes that the process of sketchnoting is a richer, more engaging note-taking process. It demands active listening while putting you very quickly into a convergent state: is this information important?

Mind Mapping

Mind Maps are “a system for generating and organizing any ideas” (Margulies & Maal, 2002, p. 10). The term “Mind Map” is a registered trademark of the Buzan Organization. Buzan (1993) described Mind Mapping as an external expression of a natural function of the human mind—what he calls “Radiant Thinking.” Because of the way thoughts are captured in a Mind Map—with just one word or symbol per line—the creator must distill ideas down to their core essence (Margulies & Maal, 2002).

While I’ve used Mind Maps as tools for divergent thinking in ideation sessions — as fuel for forced connections — I’ve never before deliberately created one to help clarify a problem.

The development of this mind map (partially shown) was an interesting exercise in highlighting the essence. Because I wanted it to be more visual, I created icons to represent the key ideas, which was a great way to explore how to draw concepts.

Resources

Interested in learning more about visual thinking? I started with Dan Roam’s Napkin Academy training (www.napkinacademy.com). I also learned from:


Berman, C. (2011, June 6). Sketchnotes 101: Visual thinking [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.core77.com/blog/sketchnotes/sketchnotes_101_visual_thinking_19518.asp

Berman, C. (2011, June 21). Sketchnotes 101: The basics of visual note taking [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.core77.com/blog/sketchnotes/sketchnotes_101_the_basics_of_visual_note-taking_19678.asp

Buzan, T., & Buzan, B. (1993). The Mind Map® book: How to use radiant thinking to maximize your brain’s untapped potential. New York, NY: Penguin.

Eagleman, D. (2011). Incognito: The secret lives of the brain. New York, NY: Pantheon.

Felder, R. (1993). Reaching the second tier: Learning and teaching styles in college science education. Journal of College Science Teaching, 23(5), pp. 286 – 290.
Retrieved from cfcc.edu/SACS/QEP/documents/ReachingthesecondtierR.Felder1993.pdf

Gray, D. (2013). Visual thinking school [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.davegrayinfo.com/visual-thinking-school/

Gray, D., Brown, S., & Macanufo, J. (2010). Gamestorming: A playbook for innovators, rulebreakers, and changemakers. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly.

Margulies, N. & Maal, N. (2002). Mapping inner space: Learning and teaching visual mapping. Tucson, AZ.: Zephyr Press.

Roam, D. (2009). The back of the napkin: Solving problems and selling ideas with pictures. New York, NY: Penguin.

Roam, D. (2011). Blah blah blah: What to do when words don’t work. New York, NY: Penguin.

Rohde, M. (2013). The sketchnote handbook: The illustrated guide to visual note taking. San Francisco, CA: Peachpit Press.

Sibbet, D. (2001, May) A graphic facilitation retrospective. Presented at the IAF Conference,
Minnesota. Retrieved from http:// www.davidsibbet.com/GF%20Retrospective(Updated).pdf

Stuart, J. (2010, August 23). Dear Harvard Business Review [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.makingideasvisible.com/blog/visual-mapping/dear-harvard-business-review/

About Jody Fisher

Jody Fisher is the Ideation Strategist for the Emerging Growth Group at Nestlé Purina PetCare. In this role, she helps facilitate creative problem solving around strategic business challenges to feed the company’s innovation pipeline. Prior to joining Purina’s Emerging Growth Group, Jody was a copywriter for 15 years, working on brands like Friskies, Purina ONE, Gatorade, Pizza Hut and more. Jody earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from The Colorado College, and expects to finish her Master’s of Science in Creativity and Change Leadership at the ICSC in December, 2013.

Finding and Understanding "The Progress Principle"

A book review by: Darlene Kent
Creativity Coach, Consultant & Trainer

Introduction

The lean, mean business machine myth died with the publication of The Progress Principle, written by Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer. This book shares a study about the importance of inner work life on productivity and creativity. Inner work life is made up of our perceptions, emotions and reactions to what happens at work. As something happens at work people do their best to make sense of it. Leaders, especially immediate supervisors/managers, have a significant effect on the members of their teams, and as a result inner work life.

The focus of the book is on the creative climate. While many of the creative climate studies have been focused on external factors, this book looks at how the external factors affect the person internally, and this is a fairly new perspective in creative studies.

Book Summary

The results of the study presented in the book illustrate that it is our humanness that matters most in productivity and creativity. We all want to make progress towards meaningful work, and it is the manager’s job, and that of the organization, to support people to make “small wins” every day in meaningful work. It is also important to remove obstacles that get in the way of productivity, because the effects of negative events are twice as strong as those of positive events.

Inner work life affects the way we pay attention to tasks, our engagement, and our intention. When inner life is good, we are interested in doing a good job; when inner life is bad, we are not interested in doing much of anything. Making progress or experiencing setbacks are the biggest influences on meaningful work.

Reaction

The book did a great job of presenting its results, connecting it to existing research and providing a thorough overview of how the research was done. The methods employed appear reliable and valid, and the book certainly adds to our understanding of work and creativity.

The progress principle resonated with my own understanding and experiences of what motivates a person at work. The Progress Principle is well written and uses everyday language. It backs up its findings with results of the study, and brings in other research, giving depth and breadth to the topic. I felt I was seeing beyond the surface skin, to the soul of what it means to be a person living in a modern world.

The next step would be to research the implications of the study outside of work, on how we could all have more meaningful lives if we used the progress principle in our private life. We are responsible, each one of us, to support a healthy climate for all, at work and in the world at large.
The authors give leaders a checklist to help them focus on what is necessary to support the people around them to achieve progress in meaningful work. It would be great if more tools and techniques were added through additional research on the progress principle.

Connect to Creativity

The book has something to offer practitioners of creativity. I find myself contemplating how to use visuals and dialog that will show progress in Creative Problem Solving (CPS), so people can see they are making forward movement towards a meaningful goal. I find myself taking steps at work to support the people around me to help them see that they are making “small wins” every day.

This book is about research, and it was written to present the results. Personally, the part that most intrigues me is how I can help people see that they are making progress in creating meaningful lives. This book suggests to me that you get the biggest bang out of creativity when you use it to make progress in living a life full of meaning. Create meaning, create progress, and you ultimately create purpose, satisfaction and happiness.

The Progress Principle offers a fascinating glimpse into the heart and soul of earning a paycheque; it reveals that inner work life and progress in meaningful work are more important than rewards or money. It reveals the hidden truth of what motivates us at work, and I look forward to seeing further research on how the progress principle could be applied to help humans create a life rich in meaning, creativity, and achievement in their personal lives.

References

Amabile, T, & Karmer, Steven. (2011). The progress principle: Using small wins to ignite joy, engagement, and creativity at work. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press. 

About Darlene Kent

Darlene’s passion is “artlightenment” – enriching life with creativity. She is a creativity coach, consultant and trainer, and is earning her Masters in Creativity from the International Center for Studies in Creativity at SUNY Buffalo State. 
While doing a screenwriting workshop she discovered her life’s purpose: support, celebrate, and contribute. Support people to reach their dreams or goals, celebrate the steps forward, and to contribute her skills and expertise to make the world a better and happier place (one creative act at a time).
She will guide you through the adventure of innovating success, from ideas to results. She has helped Creative and Artistic Professionals get inspired, organizations to innovate, and individuals to embrace their creative potential. Reach and connect at 826.dk.

You can see an interview with Dr. Teresa Amabile, co-author of The Progress Principle, live at Buffalo State!  Click on the image for details!

"Who Killed Creativity?" - An Inside Peek

A book review by: Paulina Larocca

Global Creativity & Innovation Marketing Manager
Premium Wine Brands

Who Killed Creativity? is a non-fiction book that – at first glance – is yet another book about creating the right climate for creativity and innovation. What makes it stand out is it is told as a murder mystery making it highly engaging and its messages memorable. 

Through a skillful combination of personal anecdotes backed by supporting research, Who Killed Creativity? makes a powerful case for rescuing creativity from modern life’s murderous claws. It identifies the “seven deadly killers” of creativity; shows you how to rescue innocent victims; and create a safe environment. Written primarily for organisational use, it also has helps you to identify the creativity killers in your life. 

Part I is the forensic overview of the “crime” and Part II is the “forensic lab report” to help prevent future crimes against creativity. It opens with an example of how creativity is being “murdered” right under our noses without us realizing it. 

Then using CSI-like profiling, they demonstrate how the “four Stages of Destruction” have spawned the “seven deadly Creativity Killers”. Some are “killers in disguise” – like how a culture of restriction gives rise to killers like “the flirtatious socialite at work” who is the personification of those that “thrive on communicating that they are constantly busy and under pressure” and strangle creativity with their constant demands on your time. 

Locating the crime scenes is not always easy. There are killers in the boardroom but some lurk in unsuspecting places – like the playground – where ‘free play’ is being transformed into ‘controlled play’ building the case that creativity is a necessity, not a luxury.
Part II revives creativity using the ”seven creative thinking strategies” e.g. cultivating curiosity, accepting ambiguity to name a few. 

It reclassifies each crime scene as a “potential rescue site” showing how once deadly places can be transformed into safe havens for creativity. 

As a final twist, it re-examines the evidence to reinforce the idea that creativity requires an acceptance of ambiguity. In the review of the evidence they make the case that potential deadly behaviors – when used in the right way – can actually be good. Creativity is best when it is freed of duality-like judgment of right or wrong. 

It concludes with their “Creative Thinking Life Cycle Model”, which gives you “a solution to every potential creativity problem you, your team or organisation face” with a supporting case study from Procter & Gamble. 

What I really liked about the book was how the authors skilfully weave their personal experiences, like the Bali bombings (the Australian equivalent of 9/11), to illustrate how the rapid pace of global change is crushing creativity. It gives the book a real human edge that I really responded to. They make a compelling case for how the pressure to make more money is making us lose our sense of self and what’s really important. Creativity is often the first victim and they have experienced first-hand this loss and have witnessed its impact our community. While no one sets out to kill creativity – the relentlessness of change makes it easy for us to forget what we really need to be fulfilled. 

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book and the fact that it was written by a fellow student, Gaia Grant, added to my enjoyment. I think it’s a great diagnostic tool to help you understand if you have the best creative climate and how to improve it if you don’t. 

I found the final plot twist very clever. Finally, a book on creativity that acknowledges being creative is not about following a simple recipe for success. 

What could be improved is sometimes their creative idea of telling it as murder mystery distracted from the power and simplicity of their ideas. 

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in increasing their creativity in their organisational and personal life. The key concepts are engagingly presented and it’s refreshing to find a book on creativity that is actually creative. Interlaced with their personal experiences and supported by research, this book demonstrates the importance of creativity and how, if we’re not careful, our modern lifestyles will end up killing it. The case is made that creativity is a necessity for a fulfilled and happy life.

Grant, A., & Grant, G. (2012). Who killed creativity and how can we get it back? Sydney, Australia: John Wiley & Sons.

Meet Paulina Larocca, an Innovation specialist with over ten years' experience working for world-leading FMCG companies.  Paulina currently works at Pernod Ricard's global wine division, Premium Wine Brands, and leads their Innovation function based out of Sydney, Australia.  She is also responsible for training the group in Creativity.

Paulina's core expertise is identifying strategic opportunities, concepting, building the innovation pipeline, influencing senior management and leading cross-functional team to implement the ideas to increase revenue and grow share.  She is also a key player in training and facilitating creativity, as well as ideation.