To keep your business competitive, you must innovate constantly. This book will teach you how to unleash your company's innovative powers by leveraging employees' unique, experiences, thinking styles, and expertise. You'll learn proven strategies for unlocking your team's creative energies, including how to:
Identify opportunities for innovative solutions
Develop an environment conducive to creativity
Move your team from brainstorming to project execution
Meet Your Mentor
Dorothy Leonard is the William J. Abernathy Professor Emerita of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. She teaches courses in corporate creativity, new product and process design, knowledge management, and innovation.
About Pocket Mentors
The Pocket Mentor series offers immediate solutions to common challenges managers face on the job every day. Each book in the series is packed with handy tools, self-tests, and real-life examples to help you identify your, strengths and weaknesses and hone critical skills. Whether you're at your desk, in a meeting, or on the road, these portable guides enable you to tackle the daily demands of your work with greater speed, savvy, and effectiveness.
Mentor's Message: Why Fostering Creativity Is Important xi
Fostering Creativity: The Basics
What Is Creativity? 3
A definition 4
How creativity relates to innovation 5
Five misconceptions about creativity 6
The creative process 8
Step 1 Assemble Your Team 11
The value of creative teams 12
Characteristics of creative teams 14
Spotlight on intellectual diversity 15
Hiring for creativity 18
Integrating team members 19
Step 2 Identify Opportunities 21
Finding opportunities inside your organization 22
Finding opportunities outside your organization 23
Step 3 Generate Options 27
Managing creative abrasion 28
Encouraging divergent thinking 31
Using brainstorming techniques 31
Creating the right psychological environment 36
Creating the right physical environment 42
Step 4 Converge on the One Best Option 47
Moving from divergence to convergence 48
Narrowing down the options 48
Planning for innovation: The end product of creativity 49
Tips and Tools
Tools for Fostering Creativity 55
Test Yourself 68
Answers to test questions 71
To Learn More 73
Sources for Fostering Creativity 79
Notes 81
Overview
To keep your business competitive, you must innovate constantly. This book will teach you how to unleash your company's innovative powers by leveraging employees' unique, experiences, thinking styles, and expertise. You'll learn proven strategies for unlocking your team's creative energies, including how to:
Identify opportunities for ...