Customer Reviews

Creativity Inc.: Building an Inventive Organization

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I have been doing seminar and study on the subject of creativity and innovation as i run my webdesign company, and i found this book interesting.

Published by HBS and written in the more "formal" language, it seemed like the paradox of creativity itself, funky fancy fun theory in the heavy corporate type of text book.

Most of creativity books are fun, delicious, crunchy, and toward the right brained style of writing with pictures and funs and games etc. But this book try to formalize into a textbook format. Hench my thought of the paradox.

The writers devide the book into 3 parts: CREATIVITY THINKING, which basically tell you wht creativity is, CLIMATE, which is more like culture with some differences, and ACTION, how individual or corporation can implement the creativity.

The authors also describe 7 steps of PURPOSEFUL CREATIVITY, which i found quiet interesting, and formalize creativity into intended innovation.

All in all this is a good book which formalize creativity and make it more corporate-like. However i think it will still be a fuzzy thing if you only read this book alone and expect that you can drive your organization to become a creative organisation. This book has a good way of telling you the direction and what it is all about, with a lot of samples (mostly taken from big famous brand name company).

I surely hope there are more serious creativity book in the future.....

Creativity cannot be reserved for the R&D team or the marketing department. Every enterprise needs to be creative at all times, in all areas, and in all activities. This is what Jeff Mauzy and Richard Harriman call "systematic creativity". Their call for universal and constant creativity might be a slight stretch but it stretches in the right direction. The universal nature of their opening message does not carry over into some unique formula for fostering systemic creativity. Instead of one "right" way, they draw on four decades of research in the field of creativity to set out basic principles and practical techniques that have endured.

The emphasis on tested principles and practices in place of a fixed recipe is the first of six underlying central assumptions for the book. The second assumption is that creativity and innovation are two distinct concepts. The authors follow clear practice in distinguishing creativity - "the generation of novel and appropriate ideas" - from innovation - which "implements those ideas". A third central assumption is that creativity occurs in three areas: individuals, coalitions and teams, and organizations.
The remaining pillars that hold up the perspective of Creativity, Inc.: Underlying creativity are four interconnected dynamics that form the "heartbeat" of systemic creativity: motivation, curiosity and fear, the breaking and making of connections, and evaluation; Creativity depends on climate; Systematic creativity asks everyone to be a leader.

This stimulating, informative, and cleanly written book is organized in three parts. Part I, Creative Thinking, Part II, Climate, and Part III, Action. The first two parts examine a range of aspects involved in building individual and organizational creative capability, while the final part shows how to connect creativity to purposeful work. Happily, the authors understand that organizations find it easier to boost creativity temporarily; making it stick as an integral part of the organization is much tougher. They devote the final chapter to "Sustaining the Change".

If you're the kind of reader who likes to go beyond the main text and dig into the authors' sources and references, you'll be delighted to find that the compact (185 pages) of the main text is followed by copious chapter notes and references. Creativity, Inc. provides a rich set of principles and tools for steeping every aspect of your organization in creativity. Mauzy and Harriman's book on systemic creativity complements work on systematic innovation processes. Businesses that manage to get the twin engines of creativity and innovation running at full power will have the only enduring competitive advantage left.

Because I've studied and read so much about creativity I must admit that I approached this book with a certain amount of trepidation. I wasn't sure that I wanted to read it. I told myself, just read the intro and the first chapter and then stop if you don't like it. Well, I didn't stop. It was an enjoyable read throughout with many insights along the way. What the authors bring forward in this book is a methodological approach to creativity in organizations, more particularly corporations. They describe a system that seems to touch all the right points in order to increase creativity in an organization. In addition, they provide some helpful information for individuals who want to improve their own creativity.

The book is broken into three parts and eight chapters:

Part 1 - Creative thinking

 The Dynamics That Underlie Creative Thinking
 Becoming Creatively Fit as an Individual
 Breaking and Making Connections for an Enterprise

Part2 - Climate

 The Climate for Creativity in an Enterprise
 Personal Creative Climate: The Bubble

Part 3 - Action

 Leadership: Fostering Systemic Creativity
 Purposeful Creativity
 Sustaining the Change

When an organization has systemic creativity, the authors write "systemic creativity becomes an integral part of everyday operations and spawns new thought, from small changes to breakthroughs, that organizations now need in every activity that makes a competitive difference.

For this to happen, creativity must become the responsibility of everyone - every leader and senior manager as well as every employee. Systemic creativity is only systemic when everyone in an organization learns how to practice it and then promotes it constantly."

This is not an easy task in today's short-term, bottom-line, stockholder-value driven organization. The authors point out "The behaviors required for successful creativity are out of tune with the behaviors that make a company operationally efficient, well-organized and clear-sighted on its mission and goals."

The authors also correctly point out that there is no "right way" to foster creativity in an organization. The approach depends upon a number of factors. "There are, however, basic principles and practical techniques that have stood the test of time." This book is a great contribution that goal.

The book is informed by six basic understandings:

1. There is no recipe for systemic creativity.
2. Creativity and innovation are two distinct concepts.
3. Creativity happens with individuals, coalitions and teams, and organizations.
4. There are four critical dynamics.
5. Creativity depends on climate.
6. Systemic creativity asks everyone to be a leader.

According to the authors, the four inter-linking dynamics of creativity are motivation, curiosity and fear, making and breaking connections, and evaluation.

In the authors' model, making and breaking connections within an enterprise is the pivotal dynamic of the creative process. To foster this, they encourage conflict of ideas, encourage risk taking, the promotion of diversity, organizing for intrinsic motivation, the development of information flows that support creativity, and the utilization of more and less information.

The "conflict of ideas" concept is one of the few areas in the book that I find myself disagreeing. I have found that the metaphor of battle in creativity to be de-motivating for many people. There may be certain personality types that enjoy competition over new ideas, but there are even more people who find this stressful and a turnoff. I think what needs to be fostered in organizations to promote creativity is the development and facilitation of conversations about ideas. Non judgmental conversations about ideas usually generates new ideas that quite often are better than the originals. To converse is to turn around together.

The authors make a distinction between climate and culture. The difference according to their definition is understandable. Many models of culture include a hierarchy of philosophies, beliefs, values and behaviors. Values set expectations and therefore the author's definition of climate encompasses values and behaviors.

The concept of a personal creative climate, a "bubble" is an extremely powerful one. There are many distractions, conflicting priorities, and decentives to creativity in organizations. I have always found for myself, as well as observing the behavior of others, that those who can create this "bubble" are the most productive and the most creative.

The authors end the book with some wise advice to would be promoters of creativity in organizations. They write "As the change to systemic creativity goes forward, everything covered in the introduction and the first seven chapters - from the dynamics of the creative process and their relationship to individuals and companies, through personal; and corporate climate, through leadership and innovation - requires continued attention, reinforcement, exercise, follow-through, and reinvention." They explain that the forces against creativity are so strong, that without continued reinforcement and reinvention, any approach to systemic creativity will fail. Their advice:

 Plan ahead
 Record results
 Expect resistance
 Encourage the flow of information

"More than forty years ago, in The Human Side of Enterprise, Douglas MacGregor challenged the command-and-control assumptions about the business establishment: `The distinctive potential contribution of the human being...at every level of the organization stems form his capacity to think, to plan, to exercise judgement, to be creative, to direct and control his own behavior.'

MacGregor was arguing on behalf of the creative climate. Today, while there has been much progress, too few leaders ask and expect creativity of their employees; too few leaders provide the climate in which creativity can flourish."

How true!

Jeff Mauzy is a Consulting Manager and Richard Harriman is Managing Partner at Synectics, a pioneering consulting firm specializing in business creativity and innovation.

Length:: 0:47 Mins

An absolute wonderful resource for anyone leading with creative people.

Also recommended The Disney Way, Revised Edition: Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company

There are so many other books now in print which offer valuable guidance to those who wish to increase creative and innovative thinking within their own organizations. I identify several of them at the conclusion of this brief commentary. Include Mauzy and Harriman's among them. In fact, it is one of the most thoughtful and thought-provoking books on the separate but related subjects, creativity and innovation. Mauzy and Harriman agree with Teresa Amabile that creativity is the generation of novel and appropriate ideas whereas innovation implements those ideas "and thereby changes the order of things in the world." They carefully organize their material as follows:

Part I: Creative Thinking (The Dynamics That Underlie Creative Thinking, Becoming Creatively Fit as an Individual;l, and Breaking and Making Connections for an Enterprise)

Part II: Climate (The Climate for Creativity in an Enterprise and Personal Creative Climate: The Bubble)

Part III: Action (Leadership: Fostering Systemic Creativity, Purposeful Creativity, and Sustaining the Change)

I agree with Mauzy and Harriman that, "When systemic creativity is in place, creativity flourishes from top to bottom and across all functions. People and teams come up with blockbuster ideas that turn into multimillion-dollar products or even billion-dollar new businesses. Or they create ingenious marketing campaigns that ratchet up revenue, or lead process improvement programs that delight customers and empower employees alike, or implement restructuring initiatives that maximize cost reductions but minimize layoffs. And systemic creativity does not apply just to the big creative triumphs: People in organizations daily spark thousands of ideas that provide value in themselves and also build a higher plateau from which greater peaks of creativity can rise." I agree with Mauzy and Harriman that there is no "recipe" for systemic creativity but that most people within almost any organization (regardless of size or nature) can -- and will -- think more creatively if what Mauzy and Harriman characterize as "four critical dynamics" are present: motivation, curiosity and fear, the breaking and making of connections, and evaluation.

True, there are individuals who -- almost single-handedly -- have generated novel and appropriate ideas or implemented someone else's ideas and thereby changed "the order of things in the world." However, there are more instructive examples of how important, climate, environment, culture, etc. are to nourishing creative thought by members of teams or coalitions. Perhaps the most widely cited example is the world's first research and development center which Thomas Edison established in West Orange, New Jersey, in 1887. Others exceptionally creative "communities" include the Disney studios which produced so many animation classics; Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) which developed the first personal computer; Apple Computer which then took it to market; the so-called "Skunk Works" where so many of Lockheed's greatest aircraft designs were formulated; and Los Alamos (NM) and the University of Chicago where the Manhattan Project eventually produced a new weapon called "The Gadget."

Everyone seems to agree that having creative and innovative people throughout all levels of any organization is highly desirable and substantially beneficial. To achieve "systemic creativity," the question remains: HOW? The book which Mauzy and Harriman have written is their response to that question. I especially want to commend them on the fact that they devote much less attention to principles and much more attention to implementation than do most other books on this subject. With due respect to their talents as creators and innovators, I appreciate the fact that they are also pragmatists. No doubt each bears some scar tissue from combat with those who felt threatened by what is new or what is different.

When nearing the conclusion of their book, Mauzy and Harriman assert that information "is the fluid expression of knowledge feeding the creative effort. Keep it available, keep it rich and diverse, keep it flowing. And remember to keep it flowing up to leadership, not just horizontally or from the top down....If you and your organization have the resolve to carry on, the creative effort you undertake now will continue. In evolving forms, the effort will begin again and still continue. The rewards that creativity brings will continue and renew as well." To paraphrase Henry Ford, whether you think you can or think you can't think creatively, you're right. Most limits really are self-imposed.

For many of those who read Mauzy and Harriman's brilliant book, this will be the most exciting intellectual experience they have had in years.

Those who share my high regard for it are urged to check out Evan Schwartz's Juice: The Creative Fuel That Drives World-Class Inventors. Also Harvard Business Review on Innovation and Harvard Business Review on Breakthrough Thinking as well as Tom Kelley's The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America's Leading Design Firm, Robert I. Sutton's Weird Ideas That Work: 11 1/2 Practices for Promoting, Managing, and Sustaining Innovation, Roger Von Oech's Expect the Unexpected or You Won't Find It: A Creativity Tool Based on the Ancient Wisdom of Heraclitus, Joey Reiman's Thinking for a Living: Creating Ideas That Revitalize Your Business, Career, and Life, Doug Hall Jump Start Your Business Brain: Win More, Lose Less, and Make More Money with Your New Products, Services, Sales & Advertising, and Michael Michalko's Cracking Creativity: The Secrets of Creative Genius.

Jeff Mauzy and Richard Harriman's seminal volume on systematic creativity garnered a lasting impression largely due to his gift for making the corporate world intelligible. The book is not solely intended for the tenacious "higher-ups" that dictate the feel of the workplace, but instead tends towards the hands-on approach that is the hallmark of the individuated sucessful corporation.<br /> <br /> The main thrust of his approach is to create a kind of learning environment that allows for "growth" and "specialization" in a particular field. Mauzy's knack for egalitarian leadership is firmly based in his experience in child-rearing. Allowing a young person to mature into a specialized and highly competant individual is analogous to the process that Mauzy and Harriman espouse.<br /> <br /> I found it to be especially useful when the book described the creative process as being like the teaching of mathematics. It seems counter-intuitive to link creativity to mathematics, but in fact one can be expressive within a rigidly defined field, much like the corporate world itself. I highly recommend this book for its emphasis on the educational and mathematical aspects of corporate creativity.

Mauzy seems to really know what he is talking about. When he separated the concept of creativity from the innovation in the first chapter he really got my attention. Imagine creating a corporate culture that actually fosters creativity. Lots of folks talk about this but Mauzy and Harriman actually showed how to do this. And the answer isn't some defined formula so it might just work in my company. This book is full of essential ideas, and shows a wealth of experience and great writing!

In a sea of books describing on how the PROCESS of innovation, Jeff does a good job of reminding us that without creativity, without the big idea, innovation may be possible, but it won't be very interesting. He provides a solid framework, to expalin why may organizations conforatably build systems and provide infrastructure to support innovation but do not achieve what they set out to do.. a interesting book worth a read

It really is a great book to get creativity going and to really start thinking about why things are done the way they are. As a business student I would say that it really can open your eyes to what changes can be made using different inspirations even in such a rigid structure as business.

There is some fair content, however I was not inspired or blown away so-to-speak with the presentation and usefulness of the book. It felt high-level, flat and academic at best. Shouldn't a book on creativity be creative?