Attachement 1: Culture and creativity

ESF project 4895: Meer werk maken van innovatie voor werkgelegenheid en arbeidsmarkt

ANALYSIS FICHE OF LITERATURE

TITLE OF LITERATURE: Creating Breakthroughs at 3M

AUTHOR : Eric Von Hippel, Stefan Thomke, Mary Sonnack

TYPE OF AUTHOR (academic, consultants, practitioners, other): academics

COMMISSIONER OF LITERATURE (IF APPROPRIATE):

ORIENTATION OF LITERATURE (check with X):

• innovation in general: • innovation by / within the public sector: • innovation oriented towards citizens: • innovation oriented towards social and employment issues typically dealt with by ESF: X

LESSONS LEARNT REGARDING:

A. How to define innovation e.g. in types

B. How to formulate an innovation strategy (in terms of scope, types of innovation, requirements) Lead user process as a process of innovation:

• Commercially important products are initially conceived and even prototyped by users rather than manufacturers

• Such products tend to be developed by lead users

C. How to organize innovation as a process in different stages? - Information collected from lead users: collect information about needs and solutions

from users of the target market but also from markets that face similar problems but in a more extreme way (via networking; working your way up to people higher up in the pyramid of expertise). By doing that even the goal of the innovation can change

- Workshop with lead users and people from the company (last 2 or 3 days)

Phase 1: laying the foundation

The team identifies the markets it wants to target and the type and level of innovations desired. Stakeholders must be on board early!

Phase 2: determining the trends

Talk to experts in the field to see what the trends are

Phase 3: identifying lead users

Networking process to identify and learn from users at the leading edge.

Phase 4: developing breakthroughs

Host a workshop and discuss the possible solutions. After the workshop look at the different possibilities and propose to senior management. One member of the group should stayed involved in the rolling out of the innovation.

Duration: 4 to 6 weeks for each phase and 4 to 6 months for the entire project.

D. How to define outputs of innovation e.g. in terms of idea, concept, prototype…?

E. How to make decisions regarding progress of an innovation? High commitment of team members and senior management Inadequately skilled teams might derail the entire project.

F. What roles exist for different actors in the innovation process? What competences are required for these roles?

G. How to organize interaction with external stakeholders (open innovation)? Identify lead users and learn from them. Most of the time they want to give their ideas because they are often in other fields or industries. Besides, lead users develop innovations because they need to, not as a source of competitive advantage.

H. Specific tools that are explained (list briefly for each tool in what stage, by which role, why, how it is to be used).

a) Tool 1:



TITLE OF LITERATURE: Beware the “Aztek Effect”

AUTHOR : Jeremy B. Dann

TYPE OF AUTHOR (academic, consultants, practitioners, other): editor of Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation

COMMISSIONER OF LITERATURE (IF APPROPRIATE): Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation


• innovation in general: X • innovation by / within the public sector: • innovation oriented towards citizens: • innovation oriented towards social and employment issues typically dealt with by ESF:


A. How to define innovation e.g. in types B. How to formulate an innovation strategy (in terms of scope, types of innovation,

requirements) You need to lock down a limited number of core concepts at the beginning of a project’s development process!

C. How to organize innovation as a process in different stages? D. How to define outputs of innovation e.g. in terms of idea, concept, prototype…? E. How to make decisions regarding progress of an innovation? F. What roles exist for different actors in the innovation process? What competences are

required for these roles? G. How to organize interaction with external stakeholders (open innovation)?


a) Tool 1:



TITLE OF LITERATURE: ‘People centered innovation’ voor beginners. Consumenten krijgen inspraak.

AUTHOR : Benny Debruyne

TYPE OF AUTHOR (academic, consultants, practitioners, other): journalist

COMMISSIONER OF LITERATURE (IF APPROPRIATE): Trends


• innovation in general: • innovation by / within the public sector: • innovation oriented towards citizens: involvement of customers • innovation oriented towards social and employment issues typically dealt with by ESF:



B. How to formulate an innovation strategy (in terms of scope, types of innovation, requirements)

C. How to organize innovation as a process in different stages? - Onderzoeken waar de klant mee bezig is, wat diens kerntaken zijn en wat hij verwacht; - Blik van de onderneming verruimen - Mensen enthousiasmeren - Mensen begeleiden D. How to define outputs of innovation e.g. in terms of idea, concept, prototype…?

E. How to make decisions regarding progress of an innovation?


G. How to organize interaction with external stakeholders (open innovation)? A bottom up approach works better Flemish organization: www.humin.be (helps people to innovate)


a) Tools: - Inleving

o Customer journey mapping (in de huid kruipen van de klant) o Storyboarding (op basis van observaties een storyboard maken waarop men uitlegt

hoe een product wordt gebruikt) o Persona’s (dit zijn fictieve personen die een doelgroep of segment voorstellen en

gecreëerd zijn uit etnografische research naar echte mensen) - Achtervolging

o De vlieg-op-de-muur-techniek (observeer de klant zonder dat hij u ziet) o Foto en video

- Informatiegaring o Een dag in het leven van o Teken uw ervaring o Interviews met extreme gebruikers o Unfocusgroepen (ook gebruik maken van mensen die niet meteen tot de doelgroep

behoren) - Prototype

o Story playground (idem als storyboard maar dan in drie dimensies) o Bodystorming o Prototypes op papier en leren van spontane reacties

http://www.humin.be/



TITLE OF LITERATURE: What’s stifling the creativity at CoolBurst?

AUTHOR : Suzy Wetlaufer

TYPE OF AUTHOR (academic, consultants, practitioners, other): senior editor at HBR

COMMISSIONER OF LITERATURE (IF APPROPRIATE): Harvard Business Review






C. How to organize innovation as a process in different stages?

It is the story of a juice company that does not allow creativity or innovation (so for that reason one of the most creative people left the organization).

5 people give some possible solutions of what to do:

- Paul Barker (Hallmark Cards): you need a CEO who truly believes in the company’s vision. Changes in an organizations do not have to be major, sometimes it is better to change gradually so that the troops who made the company successful are not threatened b ut engaged.

So what to do:

o The CEO has to change his mind set o Not only marketing and product development departments should be creative (all

the others as well)

o Start thinking about long term goals how can past successes be linked to a future

vision) o Prepare an action plan o Talk to the employees (on a personal level) o To get creative thinking started it is a good exercise to ask the employees to think

about how competitors view the company; or get the employees out of the office so that they can gather inside of how the product has been seen by the consumer (use experiences outside the office to foster your creativity)

- Teresa M. Amabile (Harvard Business School): Change the thinking on creativity. All people can be creative and just hire people to be creative does not work. In the company there should be 3 things: expertise, creative-thinking skills and intrinsic motivation (see other article “How to kill creativity?”). Set aside some resources specifically for innovative projects (at 3M people have to devote 15% of their time on invention). And if there are proposals you have to make a serious attempt to see if it can work!

- Manfred F.R. Kets De Vries (INSEAD in Fontainebleau): there is a huge difference between working hard and working smart! The CEO must create a transitional space where there is room for people to play. Rules and regulations should be minimized and it should be clear that employees are allowed to make mistakes. But it is best to make a bif change and replace the CEO because noncreative people are bound to drive out creative people and vice versa.

- Gareth Jones and Elspeth McFadzean (Henley Management college): you can not ignore or put down the company’s past because that will discourage the employees. They must identify the existing strengths and build on them. Tip: start a suggestion theme (often done at Japanese companies!).

o Encourage employees to take more risks. o Use creative problem-solving techniques (brainwriting; object stimulation, …) o Encourage employees to challenge their own perceptions of the products and

processes. Create a creative problem solving team that includes employees from different functional areas.

o Think positive. Blocking new ideas only discourages people. o Encourage visioning o Employ rebels o Allow time for pet projects o Ensure senior managers’ support

Liberating creativity is a continual process – not a one shot deal!




G. How to organize interaction with external stakeholders (open innovation)?


a) Tool 1:



TITLE OF LITERATURE: How to kill creativity

AUTHOR : Teresa M. Amabile

TYPE OF AUTHOR (academic, consultants, practitioners, other): Harvard Business School in Boston






B. How to formulate an innovation strategy (in terms of scope, types of innovation, requirements) It is possible to create organisations in which business imperatives are attended and creativity flourishes. Creativity refers to the way people think but two other parts are also important: expertise and motivation. What is creativity? The three components of creativity: Expertise (knowledge – technical, procedural and intellectual), creative thinking skills (those skills determine how flexibly and imaginatively people approach problems) and motivation (an inner passion to solve the problem = intrinsic motivation).


Increasing expertise and creative thinking skills will be more time consuming. But intrinsic motivation can be increased considerably by even subtle changes in an organisation’s environment (so will give more immediate result).

What are the link s between work environment and creativity? They used 3 methodologies: experiments, interviews and surveys.

Six general categories: challenge, freedom, resources, work-group features, supervisory encouragement and organizational support.

The used the quantitative survey instrument KEYS (78 questions used to assess various workplace conditions.

Challenge: matching people with the right assignments. Perfect matches stretch employees’ abilities. To do that managers have to possess rich and detailed information about their employees and the available assignments.

Freedom: give people autonomy concerning the means, concerning the process not necessarily the ends. The goal however should be clear. Ii is almost impossible to be creative if the target keeps moving. People should not have autonomy in name (so in fact when the process is proscribed!)

Resources: deciding how much time and money to give to a team or project is a sophisticated judgment that can either support or kill creativity.

Work group features: pay attention to the design of the team. The team should comprise of people with various intellectual foundations. Diversity is one thing but 3 other elements are important as well: members share excitement over the team’s goal, members must display a willingness to help their teammates, every member must recognize the unique knowledge and perspective that members bring to the table.

Supervisory encouragement: to sustain passion most people need to feel as if their work matters. Managers can support creativity by acting as role models.

Organizational support: put in place appropriate systems or procedures and make sure that people share knowledge. Those organizations make it clear that creativity is a top priority (and they reward creativity).


E. How to make decisions regarding progress of an innovation? The final goals have to be set by the managers but the day to day responsibility is with the team.


Creativity can flourish in an organization when the managers create teams in a clever way (P&G for instance ask for volunteers in their organization if they want to innovate); if they communicate with them and if they support their work. They brought the right people together and pushed them to their limits or even created new competencies (taking into account that the gap between assignment and skills was not to big).

A lot of interaction across all the quarters is important as well.

So what NOT to do:

- Change goals all the time; - Mismanage resources; - To be routinely critical of new suggestions; - Provide no recognition or reward to the team; - Allow political problems to fester - G. How to organize interaction with external stakeholders (open innovation)?


a) Tools: • Quantitative survey KEYS



TITLE OF LITERATURE: Innovation inside

AUTHOR : Judith A. Ross

TYPE OF AUTHOR (academic, consultants, practitioners, other): a writer

COMMISSIONER OF LITERATURE (IF APPROPRIATE): Harvard Business School Publishing Cooperation





B. How to formulate an innovation strategy (in terms of scope, types of innovation, requirements) You can start looking for innovation by making external partnerships but you can also develop a culture and internal processes that unleash the power of ideas within the own organization.

C. How to organize innovation as a process in different stages? - Have a shared mental model of commitment (embedment wheel; the outermost layer

depicts vision and goals; the middle layer outlines the infrastructure required, leadership, culture and values, HR, incentives etc; the center contains the actual processes and tools needed to innovate). But everything has to move together!!

- Availability of internal seed money (small amounts of money for small experiments) - Encourage experimentation and tolerate failure! And if you are starting with innovation you

have to look at shelved ideas! - Ability to measure innovation’s value. Result goals are long term while embedment goals are

the activities of the embedment wheel. Whirlpool for instance works with an innovation dashboard






a) Tool 1:



TITLE OF LITERATURE: Igniting a Passion for Innovation. If you can’t inspire your team with a sense of purpose, you’ll never see your vision come to life.

AUTHOR : Patty Laduke, Tom Andrews and Keith Yamashita

TYPE OF AUTHOR (academic, consultants, practitioners, other): consultants of Stone Yamashita Partners

COMMISSIONER OF LITERATURE (IF APPROPRIATE): Magazine Strategy & Innovation






Do not neglect to convey the why behind the what. Innovation begins with a compelling purpose that captures people’s hearts and minds by addressing their emotional and intellectual needs in equal measure. People have to see the benefit, the relevance. The bigger the innovation the more time you have to put into this face.


Tell stories from your customer’s perspective. Make a customer journey book, a video, a speech, or a simulation where your team acts out the new interaction.






a) Tool 1: a figure how to combine rational argumentation and emotional appeal to motivate people to start with innovation. The key is not to use one specific tool but to have a balanced approach in all the communication.



TITLE OF LITERATURE: Sparking creativity in teams

AUTHOR : Marla M. Capozzi, Renée Dye, Amy Howe

TYPE OF AUTHOR (academic, consultants, practitioners, other): experts at McKinsey

COMMISSIONER OF LITERATURE (IF APPROPRIATE): McKinsey Quarterly







Innovation in teams.

How to stimulate? We must bombard our brains with things it has never encountered.

There are four practical ways to apply this thinking:

- Immerse yourself: seeing and experiencing something firsthand can shake people up; so to start creativity-building exercises or idea generation starts outside the office. (they give some tips how to that: go to others similar business to learn, go through your own product but with an eye of the consumer, conduct online research of your own product (like a customer would have to do), observe and talk to real consumers)

- Overcome orthodoxies: we have to challenge our core beliefs and try to figure out how the future will change things (technology f.is is evolving exponentially and not linear)

- Use analogies: discovery skills for innovators are associating, questioning, observing,

experimenting and networking. But associating; making connections across seemingly unrelated questions is important. (in the article they give questions you can use)

- Create constraints: impose artificial constraints on your business model. (some examples given in the article)






a) Tool 1:



TITLE OF LITERATURE: The discipline of Innovation

AUTHOR : Peter F. Drucker

TYPE OF AUTHOR (academic, consultants, practitioners, other): academic (prof em at the Claremont Graduate University)






Sources of innovation:

- Unexpected occurrences and what was a failure first can become a success afterwards) - Incongruities (in medical technology, economic realities, between expectations and results) a

shift in viewpoint is sometimes necessary - Process needs - Industry and market changes

Three additional sources of opportunities:

- Demographic changes - Changes in perception (the glass is half full or half empty; has more to do about mood than

about fact) - New knowledge (but it takes approximately 50 years before new knowledge becomes an

innovative product!)

B. How to formulate an innovation strategy (in terms of scope, types of innovation, requirements) Innovators must analyze all opportunity resources Innovators must also go out and look, ask and listen An innovation has to be simple and has to be focused

If an innovation does not aim at leadership from the beginning it is unlikely to be innovative enough.







a) Tool 1:



TITLE OF LITERATURE: Why culture is key

AUTHOR : Barry Jaruzleski, John Loehr, Richard Holman

TYPE OF AUTHOR (academic, consultants, practitioners, other): connected to Booz and Company

COMMISSIONER OF LITERATURE (IF APPROPRIATE): Strategy & business





B. How to formulate an innovation strategy (in terms of scope, types of innovation, requirements) The most crucial factors are strategic alignment and a culture that supports innovation There is no significant relationship between financial performance and innovation spending, in terms of total R&D dollars or R&D as a percentage of revenues. An innovation strategy can only succeed if it is supported by the appropriate cultural attributes (interesting charts in the article) At which cultural attributes did they look at: - Strong identification with the customer and and overall orientation toward the customer

experience - Passion for and pride in the products - Reverence and respect for technical talent and knowledge - Openness to new ideas from customers, suppliers, competitors and other industries - Culture of collaboration across functions and geographies - Sense of personal accountability for any and all contributions to the innovation and

product development process - Tolerance for failure in the innovation process

Give innovation people a seat at the executive table (alignment with management)



E. How to make decisions regarding progress of an innovation? HP uses it’s innovation agenda in a strategic way: - One third of the research agenda is very basic research looking 10 years into the future; - Another one third is tied to current products - And one third for applied research which looks 2 to 5 years into the future (which is tied

to application but no products)

The business units keep on supporting it because they got the help for their short term problems and they are part of an advisory board for the other developments!

F. What roles exist for different actors in the innovation process? What competences are

required for these roles?

G. How to organize interaction with external stakeholders (open innovation)? 3 possible strategies of looking at the stakeholders: - Need seekers: actively and directly engage both current and potential customers (in the

article they mention that organisations following this strategy are advantaged) - Market readers: they closely monitor both their customers and competitors - Technology drivers: follow the direction suggested by their technological capabilities


a) Tool 1:

Attachement 1: Culture and creativity

Government & Nonprofit

Transcript of Attachement 1: Culture and creativity