Creativity in corporate environment
Unlocking innovation in corporation is a key objective. However, due to lack of time and low acceptance of failure, dedicated creativity workshop have been designed for the corporate world and several methodologies have been suggested by consultants (i.e. Innovation Copilots).
Let’s focus first on the creativity process. It allows anyone to come with great ideas and can be used for finding solutions in your personal or professional life. Some people are already used to this process, in particular researchers or artists who have learned to use that process in their daily job. It is a systemic approach from ideation to invention and then to innovation. Creativity is a process to focus imagination, organize it and express resulting ideas. It is the result of a team work with at its origin some social interactions. It combines a common passion an desire to create, to solve challenge.

Step 1 — Insight — Define clearly the problem you would like to solve. Evaluate the context from multiple angle, gather understanding and gain clarity in the problem space. Learn about behaviors, habits, needs. Focus on the “Why” and “How” including the inner feelings. Observe, learn and iterate until you have a deep understanding of the situation.
Step 2 — Saturation — After a clear framing of the problem, it is time to build your knowledge, collect information, investigate, discuss with experts. The curiosity is the main driver, explore topics aside or beneath, multiply inspiration sources, follow the flow and accept to engage unexpected paths. Here we look for serendipity and accidental discovery.
Step 3 — Incubation — Numerous quantity of information is available to address the problem. It is time to make a break and stop working on it. Have some vacation, read a book along a swimming pool, go diving or hiking. The unconscious part of creativity take place an need time to start establishing the hidden links and connecting all the information accumulated. By having a break, the brain has time to assimilate deeper the information an create a space for ideas to go live.
Step 4 —Illumination — Eureka moment when the big idea hits at the time you would not expect. Answer usually come when not concentrated on the problem but rather an idea or event that link to the problem unconsciously. It is time to take some notes on the idea before it disappear.
Step 5 — Verification — After having a few genuine ideas that seems feasible, it is time to evaluate and improve. In particular it is important to analyze with facts, knowing people fall in love with their ideas. The earlier the verification the lower risk of project to fail.
Here are a few factors that lead to pure creativity. First it is team members attitude, positive, driven, hard working and not giving-up easily. Accepting and celebrating failure is important, the iterative approach of try and learn allows to fail fast and cheap. The hard work should be acknowledged and the information gathered will be a strong foundation for further creativity sessions.
Second is the team vulnerability, acceptance among each others of inner feelings, imagination, that requires trust and collaboration. Individuals need time to think, self reflect alone without disturbance from devices, obverse around, understand the culture. We encourage to have a dedicated environment and organize trips outside of the office to foster creativity.
As a facilitator, it is key, preliminary to the workshop to define with the sponsor/decider what the expectations are. The team is assembled with different profiles and personalities in order to deliver the results expected by the sponsor. Defining some rules with the team will ensure persistence, bouncing back from inherent failures and capturing achievement of intermediates results that can be re-used within the company.
The facilitator need to be neutral, in particular with some troublemakers personalities. The environment should allow to break existing rules such as hierarchies or status quo. Facilitator can help by adding rhythm, being dynamic to avoid being stuck on one idea and move around, help to enrich, add images, stories, analogies. By adding non-related concepts it can help to stimulate the intuition from the team an move further the first idea to a more innovative variant. Facilitator can mix creativity techniques to further explore concepts, for instance Brainstorming alternating divergent and convergent thinking, the six hats to rethink the ideas from different perspectives, the SCAMPER or Blue Ocean Strategy to revert the idea space. Ideas will be filtered at the interface of the creative and feasible space reflecting on direct and indirect experience of the team.
Combining ideas from individuals, adding to the diversity, seems to be the best way to come to new ideas and teamwork with solid facilitation is at the heart of the creative process.
