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Can Creativity Be Taught? Insights from Jacob Goldenberg and Others

Published date: September 29, 2014 в 3:00 am

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Can creativity be taught? Here are insights from Professors Jacob Goldenberg, Rom Shrift and others on this seemingly elusive topic (from Knowledge@Wharton, August 27, 2014):

“I think there are individual differences in our propensity to be creative,” says Wharton marketing professor Rom Schrift, “but having said that, it’s like a muscle. If you train yourself, and there are different methods for doing this, you can become more creative. There are individual differences in people, but I would argue that it is also something that can be developed, and therefore, taught.”

Wharton marketing professor Jerry (Yoram) Wind has in fact taught a course in creativity at Wharton for years, and says that “in any population, basically the distribution of creativity follows the normal curve. At the absolute extreme you have Einstein and Picasso, and you don’t have to teach them — they are the geniuses. Nearly everyone else in the distribution, and the type of people you would deal with at leading universities and companies, can learn creativity.”
Does creativity need the right conditions to flourish? Jennifer Mueller, a management professor at the University of San Diego and former Wharton professor who has researched creativity, sees evidence that it does. “Every theorist that exists today on the planet will tell you creativity is an ability that ranges in the population, and I think in a given context, creativity can be shut off — or turned on, if the environment supports creativity.”
In whatever the sector or discipline — product development, exploitation of networks, music or education — creativity shares certain traits, experts say. Jacob Goldenberg, professor of marketing at the Arison School of Business at the IDC Herzliya in Israel, says creativity has more than 200 definitions in the literature. “However, if you ask people to grade ideas, the agreement is very high,” he notes. “This means that even if it is difficult to define creativity, it is easy to identify it. One of the reasons why it is difficult to define is the fact that creativity exists in many different domains.” Still, he says: “Most creative ideas share a common structure of being highly original and at the same time highly useful.”

In Inside the Box: A Proven System of Creativity for Breakthrough Results, Goldenberg and co-author Drew Boyd make the case that all inventive solutions share certain common patterns. Working within parameters, rather than through free-associative brainstorming, leads to greater creativity, the book says. This method, called Systematic Inventive Thinking, has found application at Procter & Gamble and SAP, among others. “We shouldn’t confuse innovation and creativity,” Goldenberg says. “Creativity refers to the idea, not to the system [product, service, process, etc.] that was built around it. For example, online banking is a great innovation, but the idea [of using the Internet to replace the branch] was not creative. It was expected years before it was implemented.”

Similarly, he adds, “cell phone technology is one of the most innovative developments, but the need was defined years before, and we just waited for the technology. In my view, a creative idea that is still changing our lives is the concept of letting users develop the software they need on a platform [that a particular] firm sells: the apps concept. This means that consumers develop and determine the value of the smartphone and tablets.”
This example, Goldenberg says, fits one of the templates for creativity described in Inside the Box: “Where you subtract one of the resources” — such as engineers and marketers — “and replace them with a resource that exists inside a closure (box), in this case your consumers.”
Schrift has used a different template from Inside the Box in his classes: The idea of building a matrix of characteristics of two unrelated products, and creating new dependencies. Such examples, he says, include an air freshener that changes scent every 10 minutes (remixing the concepts of time and fragrance), or a gym with a fee that is structured to increase if you don’t work out enough (fitness and incentive). “A lot of the time, looking for a new dependency gives you a creative idea,” Schrift notes.

How to Involve Customers in the SIT Innovation Process

Published date: August 4, 2014 в 3:00 am

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When describing the SIT method, I sometimes say it’s like using the voice of the product. That’s because SIT is based on patterns that are embedded into the products and services you see around you. If products could talk to you, they would describe the five patterns of SIT.

But there’s another important voice in business innovation: the voice of the customer. After all, that’s why you do innovation – to create new value, directly or indirectly, for your customers. A good innovator understands their needs and wants. Here are four ways to gain new insights from your customers.
One of the first things you should do is listen to what customers are saying about a particular product or brand. It’s especially important to hear what customers say to other customers. That’s when they’re the most truthful and objective, even when talking to complete strangers. If you had a way to eavesdrop on a conversation between two customers, you’ll get new insights about their attitudes.
A great way to do that is to use social media. Applications like Twitter and Facebook let you hear what’s being discussed, almost as if you were standing right there with them. It’s inexpensive and it’s easy. When you listen to customers on social media, pay close attention to the specific words or phrases they use. What emotions do they express? What beliefs do they have about a product and how it works? Whether those beliefs are true or untrue, you need to know what they’re thinking so you can design your products accordingly.
Another way to learn about your customers is to watch them. Using field research, you go into the customer’s natural setting where they use the product or service. You observe their behaviors as they do routine, ordinary activities. If you watch carefully, you’ll see things they could never have described for you in words. They’re not even aware they are doing them.
By watching them, you might learn about a new step in how they use the product. That could affect how you use the Division Technique. Or, you might become aware of a new component in their Closed World, and that might affect how you apply the Task Unification technique. Pay close attention to who else is involved, what information are they using or not using, how they prepare the product for use, and perhaps how they store it or maintain it.
A third way to get customer insights is to ask them. You’re probably familiar with marketing research tools like surveys and focus groups as a way to collect voice of the customer data. But there are two simple techniques you always want to be able to use at a moment’s notice in case you engage a customer.

The first is to use open-ended questions. An example of an open-ended question is: “What’s most important to you when using this feature of our product.”  A closed-ended question would be: “Do you like this feature of our product?” The open-ended question encourages a full, meaningful response as opposed to a closed-ended question, which encourages a short or single-word answer. You’ll get deeper insights with open-ended questions.

The second technique when talking to customers is to use laddering. Laddering means asking a series of questions, one after another, but you base the next question on the answer you received from the last one. Like climbing the rungs of a ladder, you first ask about the functional aspects of your product, then ladder up to the values the customers sees in those features.
Finally, a great way to learn about your customer’s needs is to involve them in the innovation process. Use the Function Follows Form process. Once you’ve created the virtual product using one of the five SIT techniques, you ask two specific questions. The first is should we do it? Does the new configuration deliver some new benefit? Who would want this? I can’t think of anyone better to help you answer these than your customers. After all, they stand the most to gain by a new innovation. When they see something they like, they’ll tell you or they’ll tell you how to modify the concept to make it even better.
Customers might also have new insights about the second question: Can we do it? Do we have the know how or the right material or the right processes to make this? Are there barriers that might prevent us from making this? Your customers might have some critical insight or skills about how to remove barriers or make the concept more feasible.
Listen, watch, ask, and involve. The Voice of the Customer, used along with the SIT Method, will help you become a more effective innovator.

How to Organize an S.I.T. Innovation Workshop

Published date: July 7, 2014 в 3:00 am

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You can use an innovation method like S.I.T. on your own. But there are times when you want to use it in a group with your colleagues. After all, innovation is a team sport. Innovating in groups lets you harness the brainpower of others. Here are some tips and techniques to get the most out of your S.I.T. ideation session.

Perhaps the most important step is to select the right participants. The ideal number of participants is between 12 and 16. These people should be from diverse, cross functional areas of the company. About one third of the participants should be marketers from different parts of the marketing organization – market research, brand management, and so on. About one third of the participants should be technical – mechanical engineering, software engineering, operations, and so on depending on the project. And finally, about one third of your participants should be customer oriented. These are people that advocate for the customer. They include your salespeople, packaging, and customer service.
It’s also important to have gender diversity. An equal number of men and women is the ideal. Be sure participants are fully committed to participation in the workshop. Avoid letting people drop in and out as it suits their schedule. Otherwise, it interrupts the flow of the workshop.
When you begin your workshop, start by identifying the constraints around the exercise. Without constraints, the ideation will lack focus. You’re likely to generate ideas that are too wild to be considered viable.
Next, make sure you and the participants define the closed world around the problem. The closed world principle states there is an inverse relationship between distance from the problem and the creativeness of the idea. The farther away the solution, the less creative it will be. Where you define this imaginary space around the problem will have a big impact on how you apply each technique.
Once you select the techniques, create a list of the components and attributes by writing them down on a whiteboard, a flip chart, or a pad of paper. With Division, it’s a good idea to put these on sticky notes. Make sure you number the list. That helps keep the workshop more organized as you work through the lists.
When you apply a technique, be sure to work in smaller teams of two or three people, not as one large group. Working this way has many advantages. Pairs give each other their undivided attention. Working in pairs is also more efficient. As you apply a technique, assign each pair a different component from the list. That forces them to really focus, and it increases their chance of coming up with a creative idea. Be sure to set a specific time limit, say 3 minutes. This further constrains their brain to think inside the box.
When ideas are generated, try not to identify ideas with a specific person. Otherwise, people may bias the idea depending on who generated it. A simple way to do this is to have people write down their ideas. When giving credit for the source of an idea, make sure it’s from the pair of colleagues, not just one person. You have to find ways to strip ideas of their identity. This will make sure ideas don’t get thrown out prematurely.
A typical workshop can be anywhere from an hour in length to several days. Innovating is hard work, so be sure to manage the group’s energy level. Take a lot of breaks during the workshop, and mix up the activities to keep people engaged.
The S.I.T. method works because it channels people’s ideation and it regulates their thinking. You and your colleagues will generate many great ideas, so be sure the team has a process in place how you will capture and collect those ideas throughout the workshop.

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Inside versus Outside: The Story of the Inside the Box

Published date: April 20, 2014 в 5:25 am

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Go behind the scenes of “Inside the Box: A Proven System of Creativity for Breakthrough Results”  with co-author, Drew Boyd, who shares insights about the writing of the book and its impact on the creative potential of organizations.

The book has been or will soon be published in the following languages: English/US, English/UK Commonwealth, Dutch, Spanish, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Hebrew, Portuguese, Thai, Russian, German, and Turkish. See all book jacket versions here: http://www.pinterest.com/drewboyd/inside-the-box/.
 

Innovation Sighting: Task Unification in a Parking Lot

Published date: September 2, 2013 в 11:49 am

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The Task Unification Technique is one of five in the innovation method called Systematic Inventive Thinking. It is defined as "assiging an additional task to an existing resource." It is such a powerful technique because it often leads to Closed World solutions, or what we like to call "thinking inside the box." It yields innovations that tend to leverage some resource in the immediate vicinity in a clever way. It also tends to yield innovations that have a characteristic known as Ideality – the solution to a problem only appears when needed.  When the problem arises, the solution is also there.

Here is a perfect example. It comes from an oil company in Seoul, Korea that wanted to reduce the wasted driving time looking for open parking slots:

To use Task Unification:

1. List all of the components, both internal and external, that are part of the Closed World of the product, service, or process.

2. Select a component from the list. Assign it an additional task. Consider ways to use each of the three Task Unification methods:

  • Choose an external component and use it to perform a task that the product already accomplishes
  • Choose an internal component and make it do something new or extra
  • Choose an internal component and make it do the function of an external component (effectively “stealing” the external component’s function)

3. If you decide that an idea is valuable, you move on to the next question: Is it feasible? Can you actually create this new product? Perform this new service? Why or why not? Is there any way to refine or adapt the idea to make it more viable?

The LAB: Innovating the PC and Printer…Together (March 2012)

Published date: March 26, 2012 в 3:00 am

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Hewlett Packard’s announcement that it’s combining its PC and printer divisions is meeting skepticism.  Larry Dignan, editor-in-chief of ZDNet, had this to say:

“Hewlett-Packard says it’s combining its printer and PC divisions partially because the move will drive “innovation across personal computing and printing.”  Oh really?  Color me decidedly skeptical on that claim, which was touted in the company’s announcement today. My mental block: What exactly are the touch points between a printer and a PC, and where does the innovation lie?  HP does have printing innovation. Its inkjet technology can be used for drug delivery, for instance. However, unless your PC is delivering doses of pharmaceuticals to you, it’s a stretch to see the connection.”

For this month’s LAB, lets put the S.I.T. method to the challenge. Imagine being part of this newly-combined HP organization.  Here is how you might apply each of the five techniques of Systematic Inventive Thinking.  The key is to leverage each technique in a way that forces non-obvious connections between the two units, laptop and printer.  These configurations become “virtual products.”  We use Function-Follows-Form to work backwards to problems they solve or benefits they deliver.

The LAB: Innovating a New Product Launch Campaign (September 2011)

Published date: September 26, 2011 в 3:00 am

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Innovation methods are not just for inventing new products.  Savvy marketers apply innovation methods to the “big event” – the product launch campaign. Companies spend millions of dollars to get a product off to the right start.  The launch of a new product can make or break it.

Some companies excel at this.  Memorable campaigns include Apple’s launch of the iPhone, Microsoft’s launch of Windows 95, and my all time favorite – Tickle Me Elmo – by Fisher Price.  But a lot can go wrong with product launch, so marketers need ways to stand out from the crowd.  Whether you have a big budget or small one, structured innovation methods take your dollars further and may be the difference between success and failure.

For this month’s LAB, we will demonstrate the use of Systematic Inventive Thinking to this critical aspect of marketing: the product launch.

The method works by applying one of five innovation patterns to components within the product launch process.  The pattern morphs the component into something that unrecognizable or ambiguous.  We take that “virtual product” and work backwards to uncover potential benefits, a process called “Function Follows Form.”

We start by listing the components of the launch:

The LAB: Innovating Software Applications with S.I.T. (August 2011)

Published date: August 29, 2011 в 3:00 am

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Software runs much of our lives.  It runs everyday items like computers, automobiles, banking, telephones, and even kitchen appliances.  Software will affect more of our daily routines in the future. According to market researcher DataMonitor, the global software market will grow to $457 billion, an increase of 50.5% since 2008.

The problem with software is you cannot see it.  The term was coined originally as a prank to contrast the term, “hardware.” Unlike hardware, software is intangible – it cannot be touched.  So how do you innovate software especially with a corporate innovation method like S.I.T.?  This method uses the components of the product or service as the starting point.  Companies sometimes struggle creating new applications because software seems too abstract.

The secret to using S.I.T. on software is this.  Don’t innovate the software code; rather, use the innovation method on what the software does.  Apply the method to the products and processes that the software affects.  This will create new-to-the-world innovations.  Then, write the software code that implements these new applications.

Here is an example with the software program, Quicken.  We start with a component list of a routine process within the software – creating an invoice.

Innovation Sighting: Street Art Without the Paint

Published date: May 23, 2011 в 3:00 am

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Here is a nice example of the Subtraction tool of the corporate innovation method, S.I.T..  Imagine painting a picture without the paint. From PSFK:

From metal to billboards, Portuguese artist Alexandre Farto aka Vhils is regarded for his work across a variety of mediums. However, his “Scratching the Surface” style (which we first noticed here) is particularly remarkable. Using decrepit city walls as his canvas, the artist carved faces from the concrete, unmasking the beauty inherent to even the most neglected spaces.

To use Subtraction, start by listing the components of the situation, product, service, process, etc.  (The method works with just about anything that can be conceptualized into components).  In this case, the innovator (artist) would create a list like this:

  1. canvas
  2. paint
  3. pallet
  4. brush
  5. subject
  6. model

Alexandre-Farto-aka-Vhils-Wall-Mural-575x430-525x392 The next step is to subtract a component, preferably something that seems to be essential to the original item.  In this case, removing the paint creates our “virtual product” – an abstract, ambiguous configuration that results from applying one of the five S.I.T. patterns.  Then we imagine the benefits, potential customers, and needs addressed by the virtual product.

The Subtraction tool is a great starting point for innovation sessions because it helps confront the fixedness we all have about the world around us.  A painting without paint certainly fits that description.

To extend the idea, try using the other patterns.  For example, Task Unification assigns an additional job to an existing resource.  To use Task Unification, list both the internal and external components within the Closed World (an imaginary space and time around the situation).  Then select a component randomly and give it a “job” related to your paining.  In the works by Vihils, for example, we might take a component of the building and use it as a part of the facial features.  Or, we might give people on the street the additional “job” of adding details to the picture.

To use Attribute Dependency, we imagine creating a correlation between internal attributes of the painting with external attributes of the environment around the painting.  Simply said, as one thing changes, another thing changes.  For example, when it rains, imagine how the Vihils painting might change.  Perhaps it changes color, or shape, or theme.  Perhaps the change is related to moisture such as wet tears flowing from the subject’s eyes.  It is these additional innovations, especially ones that draw from the Closed World, that create that extra element of surprise – “Gee, I never would have thought of that!”

 

Innovation and Humor

Published date: December 20, 2010 в 3:00 am

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A church needed a new bell ringer.  When a man with no arms applied for the job, the doubting priest asked, “Can you ring the bell?”  The applicant climbed the bell tower, took a running start, and plowed his face into the bell producing a beautiful tone.  He suddenly slipped, fell to the ground, and died.  The crowd of onlookers asked the priest, “Do you know this man?”  The priest replied, “No. But his face rings a bell.”

If you are like most people, you laugh at jokes at their very end, not the beginning.  Why?  Because jokes make sense only in hindsight after we hear the proverbial “punch line.”  We have no context to start laughing at the start of the joke.  But once we hear the final line, our mind works its way backwards to make sense of it.  We laugh.

So it is with innovation.  An abstract concept remains abstract until our mind works backwards to make sense of it.  Only then do we see the value.  Edward de Bono describes this phenomena in his new book, Think! Before It’s Too Late.  As de Bono puts it, “All creative ideas will be logical in hindsight.”

For the innovation practitioner, this ability to automate our thinking and “see value in hindsight” is a crucial skill, one that can be trained and learned by anyone.  It can be strengthened and perfected with practice.  Once we develop an inate ability to see value in hindsight, the practitioner needs to develop a way to  create the abstractions.  That is where the use of innovation patterns comes in.  Five simple patterns – subtraction, task unification, division, multiplication, and attribute dependency – guide us to create abstract concepts.  They help us innovate systematically, on demand.

What is unique about these patterns is that they have emerged from products already deemed innovative.  They do not rely on random generators.  They do not rely on special cognitive abilities of individuals.  They do not rely on unique insights gained from customers.  The patterns act like a cognitive prosthetic that creates the abstractions for you.  All you need to do then is “see the value in hindsight” just as you do with a good joke.

The church continued searching for a bell ringer.  Another man applied – the twin brother of the man who died.  The priest asked, “Can you ring the bell?”  The applicant climbed the bell tower as his brother had done and ran straight at the bell.  He suddenly slipped, fell to the ground and died, almost in the same spot.  Stunned onlookers asked the priest, “Do you know THIS man?” 
“No, but he’s a dead ringer for his brother.”

 

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