Creativity That Doesnt Sound Like Quality Work

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Creativity? That Doesnt Sound Like Quality Work!
Mollie Brown, 14 April 2009
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Creativity

• Shared learning and first steps toward innovation
  based on Paul E. Plseks book,
• Creativity, Innovation, and Quality,
• 1997, Quality Press

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Quality Management

• Quality Management is about the success of our
  organizations.
• Success is a barrier to success.
• The customers voice may not be enough.

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Analysis should solve everything!

• So we think harder and harder but
• and some problems just evade improvement

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• Process Analysis may have a negative by-product
  the pool of unsolved problems that dont respond
  to analytical methods seems to be growing (Plsek)
• Reengineering literature cites 50-80 failure
  rates of re-engineering projects.

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We need an additional tool

• And Creativity seems to be the tool but where do
  we get it?
• Where do YOU think it comes from ??

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• Some people claim not to be interested in the
  logic of creativity and are impatient to get on
  with the practical techniques. This is a
  mistake, because you will not use the tools
  effectively unless you know what lies behind the
  design of the tool.
• Edward de Bono

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Creativity defined

• As many definitions of creativity as of
  quality
• Creativity is the connecting and rearranging of
  knowledge in the minds of people who will allow
  themselves to think flexibly -to generate new,
  often surprising ideas that others judge to be
  useful.
• Paul Plsek

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Creative Ideas that led to True Innovation

• Surgical glue instead of stitches
• Zip-lock plastic bags
• Velcro

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Okay, but how did they get those ideas?

• Original ideas come from making novel
  associations and seeing surprising patterns
• Cultivating certain personality characteristics
  flexibility in thinking
• spontaneity in thinking
• regular departures from your comfort zones

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And one more thing

• Analytical thinking and Logic must be used to
  develop the practical value of the new ideas.
• The innovation that is good for business comes
  from implementation of your good ideas.

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Thinking about thinking

• Self-organizing system of mind theory models
  to use to talk and think about memory and
  creative thinking
• Everybodys neural networks are different from
  everyone elses- (Two heads..., teams)
• Stream of thought electrical and chemical
  action -neural network patterns that we repeat
  over and over because the line of thought is so
  familiar that it is easy for us.

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De Bonos Connectionist model

• Topography model of the mind
• Mind is a landscape with flat high ground or
  plains
• Thought rivulets form streams
• Streams create valleys (perceptions)
• Thoughts from similar perceptions will run
  quickly and effortlessly down the channels of our
  minds

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Deep Valleys become Ruts

• The more often we access the memory, the deeper
  the rut becomes
• We experience stuck thinking because our thought
  patterns have become automatic
• It is hard to keep our thoughts from rushing down
  those same ruts

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Ruts can be useful

• Ask someone VERY different from you to think with
  you when you are stuck in a rut and cant find a
  useful answer.
• You can try backing up the rut to see what line
  of thoughts led you down that channel. Try to
  identify each preceeding idea and you will have
  new knowledge about how YOU think!

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Why do you always think that way?

• de Bono says the deep ruts create individual
  paradigms.
• Our individual paradigms lead to stereotyping.
• No one is perfectly rational.

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More Bad News

• Limited capacity for rational thought
• Choices based on beliefs and preferences
• Judgment leads to irrational choices
• Emotions lead our judgment
• We act in ways that make sense to ourselves but
  maybe not to others

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The Good News

• THESE ARE JUST OUR NEURAL MECHANICS DOING WHAT WE
  ARE PROGRAMMED TO DO
• New experiences carve new ruts on our landscapes
  and disuse fills the old ruts with silt.

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SO! You want to direct your thinking?

• Getting out of the rut is easy learn and
  practice the hueristics associated with creative
  thinking.
• How would you begin to develop creative ideas?
  What advice would you give?

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Some Good Advice

• Rules of thumb are for the dumb? Hardly
• Rules of thumb are the hueristics of every field
  of work-
• Quality rule of thumb from Dr. Juran
• Look for the vital few!

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Hueristics

• Rules of thumb are based on the experience of
  many people doing the same work.
• They often help but must be examined
• How good is If it aint broke, dont fix it?

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Hueristics for Directed Creativity

• Suspend Judgment, but be practical
• Set it aside- think about it again later
• Deliberately set a quota for the number of of
  fully developed ideas (Amabile, 1989)
• Seek advice and critical analysis from others
  especially those with very different experiences
  than your own and LISTEN!

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Hueristics for Directed Creativity

• Keep your options open as long as possible
• Think broadly
• Break habits do many things a different way
• See things as though you had never seen them
  before

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Plseks Hueristics

• Make it a habit to purposefully stop and notice
  things. Why?
• Focus your energies on only those few topic areas
  for which you genuinely care. Why?
• Work on the ones you care about steadily for
  several weeks or months deepen and enrich the
  associated mental valleys

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• Use the broadest possible definitions of each
  problem. Avoid damaging shipping crates morphed
  to the much more elegant activity of find
  creative ways to distribute undamaged goods to
  the marketplace
• Examine multiple definitions of the problem
• Potential Pitfall every system is part of a
  larger system balance thoughtfulness and action

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Joy! Joy! JOY!

• Ideas that make you laugh --
• Laughter may be a reliable clue that we are on
  to something (de Bono 1969)
• Surprise occurs when two streams of thought are
  unexpectedly associated
• Fire Hydrant Factory

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Making it work of you!

• The comedian lets your mind settle into a
  familiar valley before he links it for you to a
  totally other valley and you are surprised!
• You can start making new valleys and new
  connections every day
• Make novel associations from what you already know

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More Hueristics

• Carefully examine any ideas that make you laugh
  when you first hear them
• Create a storehouse of concepts you do not have
  to know how you will use them (de Bono 1992) -new
  mental valleys
• KNOW that your streams of thought are inherently
  neither right nor wrong!

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• Keep a notebook and record anything different
  that you notice
• Have timelines, but be patient and dont stop
  when a satisfactory solution arises. Reach the
  quota of good ideas that you defined before you
  stop.

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If its to be, its up to me

• Make a deliberate effort to harvest your ideas
  Innovation is the payoff!