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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Activating the Maverick Synapses, May 9, 2000
This review is from: When Sparks Fly: Igniting Creativity in Groups (Hardcover)
There are many books now available on the general subject of "creativity" but relatively few on the subject of "group creativity." Leonard and Swap have selected an appropriate title for theirs. As they explain, if you create the appropriate physical and psychological environments for a group, creative "sparks" can "fly"...perhaps igniting a department, a division or even an entire organization. For whatever reasons, others do not share my high regard for this book. So be it. What I expected -- and what it delivers -- is a solid conceptual framework within which to generate and then sustain collegial creativity. If you've read Robert Fritz's The Path of Least Resistance for Managers, you are already aware of his assertion that an organizational structure can be designed for success. Leonard and Swap agree with Fritz, not only that such a design is possible but also that it is imperative. Their book consists of six chapters: What Is Group Creativity? Creative Abrasion Generating Creative Options Converging on the Best Options Designing the Physical Environment Designing the Psychological Environment These chapters are followed by several pages of Notes and a superb Bibliography. Their concluding thoughts reiterate that "creativity is a process -- and can be encouraged and influenced....Thinking of creativity as a process removes, we hope, some of the mystery -- and the temptation to step back from the challenge....Creativity, like learning, is not only a process but an attitude. An attitude that promotes creativity is a kind of alertness to innovation opportunities -- a constant mental challenge to routine and openness to change.... Some individuals thrive on the challenge of constant change and improvement; others recoil from the implicit chaos....But it takes only a small spark to ignite a large fire. Let the sparks!" I provide this brief excerpt for two reasons. First, it gives you at least some idea of how the authors think. Also and more importantly, their remarks imply some of the barriers to "group creativity" which must be overcome, if not eliminated: fears of being "wrong", of embarrassment, of rejection, of seeming "dumb", etc. As Leonard and Swap correctly suggest, it is as important to be alert to human sensitivities and vulnerabilities it is to "innovation opportunities." Without mutual respect, there can be no mutual trust. Without mutual trust, there can be no creative collaboration. If you share my high regard for this book, you may wish to check out the works of other authors such as Guy Claxton, Edward de Bono, Doug Hall, Michael Michalko, Joey Reiman, and Roger von Oech.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Essential Tool for the Internet Age, June 8, 2000
This review is from: When Sparks Fly: Igniting Creativity in Groups (Hardcover)
Innovation in the workplace is difficult to achieve for all organizations. Most businesses do not have a resident genius, but rely on the creativity of many people over multiple disciplines. Managing these different perspectives and expectations can be a nightmare. Risks of alienation, creating winners and losers and outright failure inhibit even the most self-assured manager. Within the first 15 pages of the book the authors, Dorothy Leonard and Walter Swap, introduce Ken Iverson, the chairman of Nucor Steel who reported that, "when his company took on a new, extremely high-risk creative project, he slept like a baby -- he woke up every two hours crying!" According to the authors, group creativity requires thoughtful preparation, cultivation of different options, time to reflect and careful culling of the "right" ideas. Each step in the process will either energize the team to work harder or become part of a demoralizing and fractious process. As Leonard and Swap write, "Two (or more) heads are better than one, however, only if (1) there is useful knowledge inside the heads; (2) all that useful knowledge can be accessed; and (3) all that accesssed, useful knowledge can be shared, processed, and synthesized by the group." While reading the first section, I "borrowed" a legal pad from my spouse to pilfer the numerous creative ideas suggested. By the time I was done, I had filled the entire pad and was writing on the cardboard back, with designs for programs to reward creativity and groundrules for initiating appropriate creative sessions. Just about everything is covered -- from why preppy Tommy Hilfiger can design for urban youth to how Weyerhaeuser created new, cost effective particleboard. While the reader may not want to use every single idea, there are many new ideas to choose from, representing the best-of-breed these authors have found from around the world's corporations in their considerable body of research. When Sparks Fly: Igniting Creativity in Groups marks the publishing debut for a team of seasoned professors: Dorothy Leonard, of Harvard Business School, and Walter Swap, dean of the colleges at Tufts University. It is a rare business book: accessible, fresh and realistic. Perhaps it is no accident that the book was written shortly after the marriage of these two well-respected academics. Sparks do fly.
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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Book doesn't live up to promise of its title, February 20, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: When Sparks Fly: Igniting Creativity in Groups (Hardcover)
I wanted to like this book, but found it too academic in style, and with not many new ideas. One redeeeming point was an excellent bibliography. I found it a bit self-serving to have testimonials from other Harvard Business School faculty on the back cover of the book. Could these persons really offer an impartial assessment of a book written by a colleague they see almost every day?
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