Transcript Innovation/Creativity - Mullard Space Science Laboratory

Innovation/Creativity
Innovation/Creativity
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Sources of new product ideas
Creativity: can it be learned?
Techniques for fostering group creativity
Increasing personal creativity
Importance of Innovation to Companies*
Companies say it is important...
...But Few Feel Good at it
Find innovation
unimportant
Good at innovation
4%
20%
80%
Find innovation
important to their
business
* Based on 1993 study of
American Companies
96%
Think they are bad at
innovation
Sources of New Product Ideas
Sources of new ideas
Economy
Technology
Suppliers
Customers
Employees
Rapidly
Changing
Environment
Management
Competitors
Distribution
Maverick
Channels
Government
Regulations
Japanese Industrial Sector Spend on
R&D Outside its Core Sector 1980-86
70
50
50
35
Textiles
Fabricated
Metals
Iron &
Steel
35
Commun- Electronics
ications
equipment
35
Precision
Machinery
Regulatory Changes
Change
Product Area
Fire retardant foam
New infills for sofas, mattresses, etc
Financial Services Act
Insurance salesmen had to declare
whether ‘tied’ or ‘independent’. leading
to new selling techniques
Economic Changes
Economic Change
Product Example
Recession
New lower-cost foods
High interest rates
Multiple savings products
Negative equity
Special loans
High unemployment
Home brewing (!)
Environmental/Demographic
Changes
Environmental
Demographic
- Health consciousness leads to
Kraft’s ‘fat free’ ice-cream
- Ageing of population leads to
residential care insurance
- ‘Green’ consciousness leads to - Both parents working leads to
change in solvent based to water new types of convenience foods
based paints
- Baby boomers having their own
- Increase in crime leads to new children leads to new types of
security devices (e.g. remote
family car (e.g. Renault Espace)
control security systems)
Technology
Technology
New Product/Service/Process
EPOS
Revolutionised stock holding at
retailers
Genetic Engineering
Human ears grown on a mouse’s
back
Customers: Product Innovation From
Market Needs vs Technological
Opportunities
Market needs
Technological
opportunities
100%
10%
90%
Type of
Materials
innovation
Sample size
10
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
5%
22%
78%
Computers,
railway,
housing
439
25%
75%
Instruments
33
31%
34%
69%
66%
61%
Winners of
the Industrial
Research
Award
108
British
innovators
Weapons
systems
84
710
34%
Source:
Utterbach
Dangers of using Customers’ Ideas (In The USA!)
Evaluation Procedures by
Company*
Used legally
sound
procedures
If unsolicited idea not
handled properly, a
subsequent product
may be claimed by the
person whose idea it
was
20%
13%
Rejected all
outside
suggestions
* Based on an evaluation of 166 companies
67%
Used legally
dangerous
evaluation
procedures
Source: U&H
Management
Product
Source
Walkman
Akio Morita
D.O.S
Bill Gates
Savoy’s purchase
Lord Forte
Louvre pyramid
Mitterand
Body Shop
Anita Roddick
Employees: Examples of Companies
Where Employee Suggestions Valued
3M
Toyota
Kodak
McKinsey
John Lewis
Manufacturing
Study done by Myers and Marquis (admittedly in 1969)
showed 20% of ideas came from manufacturing
- Intimate product knowledge
- Constant efficiency drive
- Boredom factor
- Good for product improvements vs totally new
concept
Distribution Channels
Channel
Example
Marks and Spencer
Controls most of its suppliers very
closely and is key idea-source in
developing new sectors (e.g. ready
meals)
Doctors
Provide constant feedback to
pharmaceutical companies
Car Dealerships
Regular flow of ideas regarding
existing and potential products, back
to manufacturer
Suppliers
It benefits suppliers of chemicals and materials to
have their products used more widely
Supplier
Example
DuPont
Invented Teflon for use on cookware
DuPont
Invented Lycra for use in clothing
ALCOA
Invented aluminium truck trailers
(Truck manufacturers were originally
reluctant to use them)
Competitors
Competitor
Direct
Comment
All organisations within a sector watch
each others’ moves regarding innovation,
to:
- stay apace
- simply copy
- improve an idea
Indirect
Successful firms also watch organisations
outside their direct area for ideas
- in other sectors (e.g. software for
newspaper layouts used in desktop
publishing)
- in other countries (e.g. Body Shop based
many of its product formulations on third
world/tribal recipes)
Creativity Can Be Learned
“Inventing is a skill that some people have and
some don’t. But you can learn how to invent.
You have to have the will not to jump at the
first solution because the elegant solution
might be around the corner. An inventor is
someone who says, ‘Yes, that’s one way to do
it but it doesn’t seem to be an optimum
solution.’ Then he keeps on thinking”.
Ray Dolby, inventor
“Problems cannot be solved by
thinking within the framework
within which the problems were
created”
Albert Einstein
Left and Right Brain in Creativity
Left Brain
Creative Thinking
Right Brain
Symbols
Sensory Images
Words
Dreaming
Logic
Feeling
Judgement
Intuition
Mathematics
Visualisation
Speaking
Creativity Exercise
Objective: Remove the
ball from the bottom of
the tube without
damaging the tube, ball
or ground
Ping pong ball
Tube with diameter
2mm wider than ball
Tube cemented into
ground
Creativity Exercise: Implements
- Chisel
- File
- Hammer
- 100ft of clothes line
- Light bulb
- Wire coat hanger
- Box of cornflakes
Techniques for eliciting group
creativity
Techniques for Eliciting Group Creativity
Technique
Need/Problem
identification
Description
- Based on asking people about the needs &
problems they have with existing products
Attribute listing
- List major attributes and consider how
to modify each one
Brainstorming
- Stimulate ideas in a group of 6 to 10
people in a non evaluative way
Lateral thinking
- Elicit ideas, using tools which bypass “vertical,” rational logic
Needs/Problem Identification
Based on consumer, not “creative brainpower”
Process
Evaluation
Consumers are asked about
needs, problems and ideas,
either:-
1. Can be expensive (need
hundreds of responses or
detailed interviews)
- quantitatively - Hundreds are
asked to rank whether satisfied
or unsatisfied with particular
attributes
2. Good for making product
improvements
- qualitatively - through
discussion in focus groups
3. Rarely effective in
finding entirely novel ideas
Attribute Listing
Process
1. List attributes of
product
2. Take each attribute in
turn. (No more than 7
at a time)
3. Consider how each can
be modified
4. Evaluate best ideas
Evaluation
- Produces solutions directly
pertinent to the problem
- Need to concentrate on
attributes related to primary
functions, otherwise it’s easy
to become irrelevant
- Unlikely to produce true
novelty or richness in problem
solution
Attribute Listing: Toothbrush Example
1. List attributes
- Made of plastic
- Manually operated
- Needs supply of
toothpaste and water
2. Take each attribute (e.g.
made of plastic)
- Could it be made of other
materials?
- Could it be made more
cheaply in other materials?
- Could it be made more
fashionably in other
materials?
- Could there be a
disposable version?
- Could there be a ‘green’
version?
3. Evaluate best ideas
- Suggest full costing
of aluminium
toothbrush
- Examine
technicalities of
biodegradable bristles
Definition of Brainstorming
“To practice a conference technique by
which a group attempts to find a solution
for a specific problem by amassing all the
ideas spontaneously contributed by its
members”
Osborn (inventor of brainstorming), 1953
Basic Rules of Brainstorming
• No criticism whatsoever
• Free-wheeling is welcome. The whackier the
idea, the better
• The more ideas, the better
• Building on others’ ideas is encouraged
Brainstorming: Warning
PREMATURE EVALUATION WILL
PREVENT CONCEPTION !
Brainstorming : Problems Solved And
Group Composition
TYPICAL PROBLEMS
ADDRESSED
Suggestions for new
research
New concepts for products
or markets
Managerial problems (eg
how to make work more
fulfilling)
Improvements to
processes
GROUP COMPOSITION
Open minded individuals
Few vested interests
Avoid extremes - dominant or
insecure personalities
Variation in age
Variation in background
Brainstorming : Evaluation
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Frequently used technique
Easy to implement
Time efficient
Prone to inaccurate usage
Research findings on usefulness are
contradictory (both positive and negative)
• Inconclusive
Lateral thinking
NB: Please see separate pack of slides
Synectics
Etymology : Made up of “Syn” and “ectors” which
together suggest “the bringing together of
diversity”
Synectics involves “making the familiar strange”
to gain new insights. It is a process for a group of
individuals working in a group using nonrational
approaches
Synectics : Process And
Requirements
PROCESS: Example
1. State the problem
2. Select the metaphor
3. Use the metaphor to
generate new ideas
GROUP REQUIREMENTS
Needs experienced, trained and
uninvolved facilitator
Groups used to dealing with
metaphors
Emotional maturity
Willingness to experiment
Ideal group size : 6-8 people
Session runs for 3 days
Examples of Metaphors
Analogy
Personal
Description
Example
Put yourself in the shoes of
the object
Think how tired a door
hinge becomes from
opening and shutting
Describe how it feels to
use a particular object
Imagine the sensations
of being in an open top
sports car
Direct
Make comparisons with
similar facts, information or
technology
Compare a problem of
irregular paper flow in
an office with the flow
of a river
Fantasy
Based on Freud’s notion that
creative thinking and wish
fulfilment are related. Does
away with bounds of reality
How in our wildest
fantasies would a new
alcoholic drink look and
taste
Synectics : Evaluation
• Dependent on trained facilitator and receptive
group members
• Good at generating novel solutions
• Used less than brainstorming due to need for
facilitator and general risk-aversion
associated with ‘wild thinking’
• Used more in the USA than here
Increasing Personal Creativity
Ways of Enhancing Personal
Creativity
1.
2.
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5.
6.
7.
Accept there’s no right answer
Don’t follow the rules
Be foolish
Ask ‘What if?’
Think outside your area
Go for ambiguity
Believe in yourself
1. No Right Answer
• The best way to get a good idea is to get a lot
of ideas
• Change your question (eg IBM should have
thought in terms of solutions to problems, not
computing hardware)
• Avoid workplaces with a culture of uniformity
2. Don’t Follow The Rules
• We make rules based on reasons that make
sense
• We follow these rules
• Time passes, things change
• The original reasons for the rules no longer
exist, but because the rules are still in place,
we continue to follow them
Don’t Follow The Rules :
Example
QWERTYUIOP
Examples of Rule-Breaking Creativity
Who
How?
Columbus
Broke the rule that to travel East you cannot go West
Copernicus
Broke the rule that the universe is anthropocentric
Einstein
Broke the rules of Newtonian physics by equating mass
and energy as different forms of the same phenomenon
General Motors
Broke Ford’s rule of any colour, as long as it’s black
Butterfly Stroke
Broke the rules of ‘arm recovery’ in breaststroke
Henry VIII
Broke the rule that the Pope should hold sway in
England
Bell Labs
Broke the rule that electrons need to travel in a vacuum
for signal processing
3. Be Fool-ish: Examples
Think against the conventional flow, like the fool
in Shakespearean times
Case
Area
19th century physician Edward Jenner
in looking for a small pox cure, looked
not at those with small pox, but those
without
Small pox vaccinations
Alfred Sloan and his disapproval of
“groupthink”, retabled motions where
everyone agreed
Car industry
1334 siege of Hocharterwitz castle in
Austria
Survival
Twelfth Night
Act 1 scene 5
Clown
Good madonna, why mournest thou?
OLIVIA
Good fool, for my brother's death.
Clown
I think his soul is in hell, madonna.
OLIVIA
I know his soul is in heaven, fool.
Clown
The more fool, madonna, to mourn for your brother's soul being in heaven. Take away the
fool, gentlemen
4. Ask “What If?”
• Ask “what if” someone else were solving your
problem for you, eg
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Churchill
Machiavelli
Freud
Ghandi
Mozart
• 5 minute exercise : ‘What if’ someone else
were running this session on creativity. How
would they organise/structure it?
5. Think outside your area: Examples
Who?
How?
World War I
military designers
Borrowed ideas from cubist art to create more
efficient camouflage patterns for tanks and guns
John von Neumann
(Mathematician)
Used knowledge from poker playing to develop
the “game theory” model of economics
Japanese industry
Collaborations between entirely unconnected
industries actively encouraged to make R&D
breakthroughs
Think Outside Your Area :
Suggestions
1. Read fiction and stimulate your imagination
2. Go to places you wouldn’t normally go (eg a junk
yard, a fairground)
3. Develop the explorer’s attitude : the outlook that
wherever you go, there are ideas out there
(4. When you hit on an idea, write it down)
6. Go For Ambiguity
“If you tell people where to go, but not how
to get there, you’ll be amazed at the
results”
George S Patton (American General)
Ambiguity As Found In The
Workplace
• Non hierarchical organisation
• Tolerance (or even encouragement) of
different approaches
• Broad goals defined, but little else
Believe in Yourself
Lack of creativity is a self-fulfilling prophecy
(as substantiated by research!)
Innovation/creativity:
conclusions
• Creativity CAN be learned . If your
organisation/group doesn’t make use of
specific creative techniques, why not
introduce them?
• Be willing to think ‘whacky’ thoughts collectively these can spark excellent ideas.
• Be constantly receptive – creativity comes
from the most unlikely sources!