About two years back, I read a book titled ‘Jamming: The Art and Discipline of Corporate Creativity’, by John Kao. Since then, I have got passionately interested in the subject of creativity. It bears a very substantial relevance for problem solving in quality management.
The importance of quality and creativity is increasingly a global issue. Together, they deliver innovation. From the above referred book I have learnt that creativity is not a mere important topic in Japan. It is the only subject for Japan! Japan has mastered quality. Japan has mastered logistics. Japan has mastered many lessons. Now it is focusing on creating value through creativity. Delivering innovative solutions. As in the case of Sony and Toyota.
In the corporate context, creativity means the process used by an individual, a team, or an organization where ideas are generated and developed, and lead relatively consistently to the realization of some kind of value. Apart from innovation, this definition also embraces entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is essentially a skill of being able to perceive things differently from your neighbour, so you see and act on opportunities that other people do not. As you will agree, this is the domain of creativity, and since we live in a time of great change, this entrepreneural notion of creativity is extremely important.
New ways of seeing
According to Kao, creativity is really about harnessing change. It is about having an optimistic view of change – turning the way we think about change from being a set of forces that one has to cope with to viewing it as a set of conditions that offer opportunity for the creation of new capabilities and new business opportunities. Creativity, viewed this way, is not just about creating a new product. It is about creating new ways of seeing things.
By and large, management typically has dysfunctional ideas about creativity. They often think of it as being soft, or identified with the arts, or part of the optional curriculum. Sometimes they even think about it like a menu item in a restaurant... Let’s bring in a creativity facilitator, a creatologist, a brainstorming expert... Let’s go on a retreat and do some creative brainstorming!
A past president of Coca Cola, M Douglas Ivester, is known to have stated, “You know at Coca Cola, we don’t care about creativity today. We don’t care about a breakthrough next week. We don’t care about a creativity campaign next month. What we care about is creativity 365 days a year! Creativity is expressed in every interpersonal interaction in our company, in every meeting, in every glimmering of a new idea, and that is the way we treat it! We try not to let our company get in the way of our creativity”.
Problem solving
Creative solutions are required for businesses to adapt to a constantly changing global environment. Creative problem solving can be done individually, in groups, in electronic form, in person, or by telephone, or in any combination. One of the major strengths of creative problem solving is the ability to customize, based on the problem to solve, and business requirements.
The essentials in creative problem solving are:
- Begin with a clear problem statement. A business is asked to apply some lateral thinking techniques to be sure they have correctly identified the problem they want to solve. More often than not, this results in changes to the initial problem statement.
- Use a variety of lateral thinking techniques. Begin with brainstorming/brainwriting, and move on to tools such as random word/picture, escape, analogy/metaphor for innovative solutions.
- Utilize an environment conducive to creative thinking. Select the right place, lighting, music, seating, etc.
- Include individuals who:
- can allocate resources
- are going to do the work afterwards
- could resist changes and make them fail
- are not part of the business.
- Defer judgement of ideas.
- Select the most creative, yet practical ideas, using a variety of management tools. Begin with nominal group technique and move on to prioritization matrices.
- Implement the selected idea.
According to the creativity guru, Edward de Bono, creativity is an essential part of quality management and all cost-cutting exercises. Since analysis has limitations, there is a need for alternatives and for new ideas. Therefore, problem-solvers have a great need for creativity, especially when the cause of the problem cannot be removed and a way forward has to be designed. I am convinced that improvement needs creativity, especially the improvement of small successive steps.
India
A few months back, I read in a leading business magazine that Wipro has sporadically used creativity tools for achieving innovative solutions to problems. At the top management level. I am aware that Tata Consultancy Services uses the Six Thinking Hats method, designed by de Bono, to improve the productivity of their meetings. Five-fold.
In summary, creativity needs no visa or passport. We need to embrace creativity within an organization for focused problem solving, as well as general thinking skills of everyone. My usage of ‘organization’ is not restricted to corporates. It extends to the Government of India, social institutions, educational institutions and so on.
CREDITS: Suresh Lulla, Founder & Mentor, Qimpro Consultants Pvt. Ltd.