Why do we collude with each other? Do we settle for mediocrity because we fear the discomfort of being truly honest ? And does it affect our ability to be creative and innovative?
Tag: Creativity and Innovation
My writings and reflections in the fields of creativity and innovation
Sleeping on Decisions
A Wise Approach to Group Decision Making I know we’re all supposed to be busy. Somehow busyness has become equated with effectiveness which has an Alice-in-Wonderland feel to it, yet too many people have still bought this pup. We need to get to decisions “quickly”; an effective meeting is one where decisions are reached, where…
Involutionary Brainstorming
What is it? Brainstorming is the rapid pooling of all and any ideas that a group of people can come up with before any discussion or judgement takes place. Every idea is recorded no matter how bizarre or irrational. Enable individuals and groups to: · Problem Solve · Evaluate How to Brainstorm 1. Keep a…
Ego and the Small Business
Here’s a paradox: It is ego that often launches a successful new business, realising the vision of a single individual or small group and turning into an energetic, fast growth enterprise. It is also ego that can kill off a struggling business, stopping it from changing, recovering and redefining itself. Without the strong will, focus…
New iPad? Tech firms have abandoned radical innovation for mediocrity
Paul Levy, University of Brighton The dust has now settled on the latest product launch from Apple, which for many trumped headlines about refugees, poverty and the battles for the Republican nomination and leadership of the UK Labour Party. We have new iPads, iPhones and more….
Gazing, Process Gestures and Innovation
This article applies concepts derived from artistic discipline and applies them to process innovation. Two process innovation techniques emerge from this unique application which are described. Firstly, the concept of “gazing” is discussed and its use as a method for observing and analysing manufacturing and business process is outlined. A second concept, “process gestures”, is…
Product and Process Innovation in Small and Medium Sized Firms, using Action Learning
This paper was presented at the MIT Conference in Fiesa, Slovenia Product and Process Innovation in Small and Medium Sized Firms, using Action Learning. Paul Levy and David Knowles1 1University of Brighton, CENTRIM, UK Abstract This paper describes early results from a research project aimed at assessing the impact of action learning on…
New Direction 3 – Storytelling and Myth Making
Stories enable people to place their experience in a process of time, to draw on metaphors and to reflect on their experience through the process of storytelling itself. Storytelling may simply involve the recounting of history. The facilitator, through a range of possible research methods tries to construct a history of an issue or a…
New Direction 1 – Moving Away from Tools Towards Processes
The metaphor ‘tool’ has gained wide currency in industry to describe not just physical artifacts but also managerial and organisational processes. The extent to which the metaphor is an appropriate one to describe such processes is a matter for debate. A physical tool is popularly thought of as something simple such as a hammer or…
New Direction 5: Process Gestures
The following reflections arose as a result of the workshop from discussions following a Research Workshop between participants from the universities of Brighton and Ljubljana. On a first reading they may seem simplistic and abstract. However, further thought, we believe, will lead to some practical insights into change and innovation. Processes contain within them…
All the New Directions in One Place
from the book “Technosophy” which I created with Prof Mihael Junakr, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
New Direction 4 – Large Group Interventions
In recent years a new method or approach to technology assessment and innovation and innovation and management has emerged. This approach includes a range of different techniques under the heading ‘large group intervention methods’. A large group intervention method is an approach to managing technology assessment and innovation and innovation that take place around an…
New Direction 6 – Involutionary Change
This is a different look at the difficulty of grasping a technological process in order to assess and innovate it. ‘Process’ is a difficult process to grasp because we can look at processes on many different levels of complexity. We can look at the process of two different atoms combining together to form a molecule…
New Direction 8 – The Holographic Structure
A holographic structure is based upon an organisational form which recognises the diversity of each individual member, yet is coordinated through a shared set of beliefs. Diversity – taken to its ultimate extreme – has a basic unit of analysis of one: one person. In the truly diversity-based organisation, the needs of each individual are…
New Direction 9 – Emotional Intelligence and Innovation
Intellect Driven Design – the dominance of thinking. Let’s first look at how machines are designed. The picture consciousness of machine design tends to be driven by the metaphor of machine as mechanised system. Other metaphors have more recently come into play, particularly in terms of the biological metaphor and the idea of cellular development…
New Directions in Innovation 7 – Childlike Perspectives on Change and Innovation
As children we are innocent and open to the world. Sigmund Freud once said: “What a distressing contrast there is between the radiant genius of a child and the feeble mentality of the average adult”. The naive standpoint of a child is something we lose as we grow up. Children ask the question ‘why’ a…
New Direction 2 – Innovation as Artistic Criticism Using ‘Critiques’/Crits
‘Crits’ are to be found more in the worlds of art, craft and design but there is much potential to apply them within organisational life One version of a ‘crit’ (critique) involves literally pulling people off the street (voluntarily!), inviting them into the design space and inviting opinions, responses, views of the design of the…
