Creativity and Sustainable Innovation:The Essential Keys for Progress

Dr. Robert EpsteinCreativity International

The Failure to Innovate

“The enterprise that does not innovateages and declines. And in a period of

rapid change such as the present…thedecline will be fast.” –Peter Drucker

• There’s no excuse for this failure• Practices that stimulate creativity and innovation

can be embedded into every level of an organization

• Scientific research can guide this process and assure success

No Excuse

• Enormous diversity: fuel efficiency, recycling, alternative energy, lighting, forestry, aviation, etc.

• What do all of these companies have in common?• Driven by radical thinking... Not just radical answers,

radical questions!• PepsiCo: what’s the carbon footprint of a half-gallon of

orange juice?• Who would even have asked a question like that 20

years ago?• Answer: 3.75 pounds of greenhouse gases• What the sustainability industry needs most is

sustainable innovation

What the Sustainability Industry Needs Most

• Generativity Theory and research: helps us understand and engineer creativity and innovation

• Creativity Competencies: can be measured and trained to sustain creative output at a high rate

• Games & Exercises that strengthen creativity skills and boost innovation

• Takeaways: three practices that will help you keep creativity flowing….

Science, Competencies, & Three Tips…

• Competing behaviors produce new behaviors

• The combinatorial process is orderly and predictable

• We can accelerate and direct creativity by influencing the type and number of competing behaviors.

Generativity Basics

From Pigeons to People

PROBABILITY PROFILE

0

0.05

0.1

0.15

0.2

0.25

0.3

1 4 7 10 13 16 19 22 25 28

TIME ("tics")

PRO

BA

BIL

ITY

B1B2B3B4

Novel Behavior Is…

…orderly…

…and predictable

• Generative mechanisms are universal• Creativity can be engineered for specific ends• People need to learn to pay attention to and to

preserve their new ideas• Failure is valuable for creativity, because it

causes ideas to compete• Broad training is important for creativity, because

it makes ideas available to compete• The physical and social environments can

stimulate creativity by causing ideas to compete

Lessons from the Science

• Capturing• Challenging• Broadening• Surrounding

Four Core Competencies: Essential for Individual Creativity

• Encourages the Preservation of New Ideas

• Challenges Others• Encourages Broadening

of Knowledge and Skills• Manages Surroundings

to Stimulate Creativity• Manages Teams to

Stimulate Creativity

Managers: Eight Competencies (ECCI-m)

• Manages Resources to Stimulate Creativity

• Provides Feedback and Recognition to Stimulate Creativity

• Models Appropriate Creativity-Management Skills

50 percent Increase in ideas expressed

$4 million in new revenues and non-invasive cost cutting over 8 months

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

PRE-TRAINING 8-MONTH FOLLOW-UP

IDEA

S PE

R EM

PLO

YEE

n=74

p<.01

Training Creativity Competencies: Long-Term Benefits(Brea, California, USA; Epstein et al., 2008))

The Lola Cola Game

Bridges to Creativity

Tip #1: NO BOUNDARIES!Make All Assignment Open-Ended

“The way to get good ideas is to get lots of ideas and throw

the bad ones away.”–Linus Pauling

• Cost: Zero.

• Cases: None.

The What Game?

The

SRTCDJGJKLERED

Game

Selling a Zork

TOP SECRET

Tip #2: CHANGE YOUR SPACE!Make Your Environment Dynamic and Interesting

“The environment determinesthe individual.” –B. F. Skinner

• Cost: Minimal to moderate.

• Case: BMW puts manufacturing, engineering, design, marketing, & other employees in one facility, in full view of

each other.

• Case: Pixar’s main building was designed to “maximize inadvertent encounters.”

The Shifting Game

Tip #3: RETOOL YOUR TEAMS!Shift, Don’t Just Brainstorm

“A committee is an alien with atleast six legs and no brain.”

–Unknown

• Cost: Zero.

• Case: BMW makes extensive use of cross-functional teams & informal

networks.

Embedding Creativity and Innovation

• Don’t leave innovation to chance

• Embed it into policies and procedures

Everything You Do...• Workspace design• Task and goal

structuring• Suggestion systems• Improved team

utilization• Management training• Competency

assessment• Competency training• Evaluation systems

• Incentive systems• Materials and supplies• Policies and procedures• Improved scheduling• Process improvement• New efficiencies and

resource utilization • New products and

services

Companies that Use These Practices• Google• 3M• BMW• Pixar• Nintendo• Dupont• Lockheed Martin• Hitachi• Pfizer• Bloomberg• The Body Shop

• Bell Laboratories• Canon• Honeywell• IDEO• Texas Instruments• Johnson & Johnson• Genentech• Procter & Gamble• GE Healthcare• Sony• Disney

• Cognition, Creativity, & Behavior: Selected Essays

• Creativity Games for Trainers • The Big Book of Creativity

Games • Scientific reports in Nature,

Science, Psychological Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

• Articles in Encyclopedia of Creativity, Reader’s Digest, Psychology Today, Scientific American Mind

• MyCreativitySkills.com• CreativityInternational.com

Background Material

“The power of imagination makes us infinite.”

John Muir19th Century American Naturalist

http://sustainablelifemedia.com/�