Practice Notes

What’s new in the world?

Another look at creativity and innovation

It’s worth looking at these two vital topics again. Let’s start with a Steve Jobs
quote. After all, he was a great innovator.

“Picasso had a saying: ‘Good artists copy, great artists steal.’ We have always
been shameless about stealing great ideas…I think part of what made the
Macintosh great was that the people working on it were musicians, poets,
artists, zoologists, and historians who also happened to be the best computer
scientists in the world.”

We think he’s right. Creativity isn’t about pure originality – it’s all about
scratching. That’s a polite expression for stealing others’ ideas.

Here are the 10 top creative leadership traits according to the Creativity and
Innovation Driving Business – Innovation Index.

1. Great at generating many ideas.
2. Always looking to experiment with good ideas.
3. Unwavering belief in their creativity and ability to innovate.
4. Smart and bright with a positive self-image.
5. Passionate, expressive and sensitive to their teams, colleagues and
    surroundings.
6. Show superior judgment and don’t make quick decisions, although have a
gut feel.
7. Non-conformist and independent, requiring less social approval than most
people.
8. Innate ability to understand and solve the problem and manage the
consequences.
9. Born dreamers with strong imagination, but also manages to keep things in
perspective.
10. Create and launch game changing products with high level of quality and
design.

All interesting stuff.

We’re doing a lot more work on creativity and innovation this year than before.
So get in touch if you’re looking for an injection of creative thinking that leads to
innovations.

Why the French did so well in the Rugby World Cup final

Maybe they just believed they were losing just a little. Recent research
suggests that if you want your team to win, i.e. be motivated to beat the
competition, tell team members they’re slightly behind the competition.

Professor James Berger, Wharton School of Business suggests that if a team
receives feedback they are already ahead, tied, or way behind a competitive
team, they won’t change and improve performance significantly.
Only when they’re told they’re slightly behind another team do the team
members pick up their performance.

This tells us something about incentive schemes and motivation. Maybe we’re
better off offering incentives to achieve a performance standard just slightly
ahead of where teams are. Teams know it’s achievable with that little extra
effort.