Purposeful Creativity and Innovation in IT Business Planning
DYNM 692: Innovation and Creativity in Organizations
Dr. Steven Freeman
Fall, 2010
Ada Bickert
Scott Yarosh
December 8, 2010
Purposeful Creativity and Innovation in IT Business Planning
Table of Contents
• Table of Contents
– Executive Summary for Class Presentation, Dec. 8, 2010 – Process and Outcomes
– Appendix
• PowerPoint for Participants - 2 Day Workshop Slides
• Facilitation Outline - 2 Day Workshop
• Team 1 and 2 Activity Results
• Team 3 and 4 Activity Results
Purposeful Creativity and Innovation in IT Business Planning
Executive Summary: Process and Planning
• Preplanning
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Spark and imbed innovation mindset
Step outside of company culture – separate operation & innovation world
Invent new process, product, or service to improve team effectiveness
2 day event, 20 people
• Planning day structure
• Followed Creativity, Inc.’s Purposeful Creativity method
• Climate Setting: Where are you now? (mentally)
• Step 1: Groundwork and Immersion
• Reframing: Enemy/Defender, Zip-Zap-Zop, What is Creativity?, Leadership Lessons from the Dancing
Guy, Start with “Why?”
• Step 2: Divergent Exploration
• Awareness: Moon walking Bear, Point the Arm, The Consultant – Fast Problem Solving
• Wishing: What makes you happy? What do you wish you could do in life?
• Excursion: Wegmans, Toys R Us, Home Depot, Walmart
• Analogy: Workplace Fairy Tales (Finding Nemo, Batman)
• Step 3 and 4: Selection and Focused Exploration
• Facilitated Questions: What keeps me awake at night?, Who is your primary customer?
• Vision and Purpose: Ideal Future State
• Step 5: initial Articulation of Potential Solution
• Innovative Path to Future State: Develop 4 Ideas to Reach Goals (consider results of prior activities)
• Time to Synthesize: Share solutions and feedback
Purposeful Creativity and Innovation in IT Business Planning
Executive Summary: Innovation in Action
• A few pictures from the day…
Purposeful Creativity and Innovation in IT Business Planning
Executive Summary: Results and Reflections
• Results
• Team building
• Curiosity, risk-taking, imagination
• Clarification of current situation/problems
• Better understanding of existing problems
• Emerged problems
• Critical thinking
• Collaboration
• Innovative solutions
• Key Inventions
• Team 1: Home Depot
• Team 2: Walmart
• Team 3: Toys R Us
• Team 4: Wegmans
• Participant Reflections
• Our Reflections
Purposeful Creativity and Innovation in IT Business Planning
Executive Summary: Key Inventions and Revelations
Key Inventions
From the following pages that you will see, the teams are planning to implement…
• A new mindset; realizing that we have the power to change things
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“Purposeful Play” – time for hands-on-machine exploration
Create hands on models of new architectures rather than just PowerPoint slides
Denser client relationship model – and new process
New process to proactively look for customers of our services
LED scrolling sign to convey system capacity issues
System changes for automatic capacity limits being reached – automatic warnings
Website portal for the services that we offer across both groups
• Services offered
• What to do when you get stuck
• Do it yourself instructions
• Clarity on what to expect
FIELD TRIP- Home Depot – Team 1
• Observations
– Holiday display – Creating more spirit in our environment
• Architecture
– Cabinet display, lights
• Building models rather than PowerPoint
• Something concrete, tangible
• Illuminating, showing the way
FIELD TRIP- Home Depot – Team 1
• People
– Employee from Home Depot
• Don’t be afraid to ask for help
• Proactively look for customers
• Tools
– Some all purpose, some meet specific need
– To be successful must be seen as expert
– Balance doing a lot with doing them well
FIELD TRIP- Home Depot – Team 1
• Client relationships
– Spotlight with sensors
– Keep an eye out for projects that need assistance
– Entry into Tech. Ops.
• More illuminated communications
– LED scrolling sign
• Performance
– Circuit Breakers
– If your system looks like this, here’s what you can measure
– Dimmer tool – Scale
– Timer in tracker system for automatic notices
FIELD TRIP- Home Depot – Team 1
• Tools to measure
– Use tools you feel comfortable with
– Explore with something new
• Inventory tags
– Using tools you have for new solutions
• Refrigerator delivery
– Provide capacity you need before you need
FIELD TRIP – Walmart Team 2
• Satisfaction Guarantee
– Customer service
• Navigation
– What services do we offer clients
• Do it yourself
– Enable other teams to do things themselves
FIELD TRIP – Walmart Team 2
• “Check price here”
– What do you do if you get stuck
• Custom Fit
– Dr. Scholl’s custom solution for clients
• Tire lube
– Step by step solution
– Give people clear path of what to expect
FIELD TRIP – Walmart Team 2
• Computer (Touch screen)
– Not just one way communication
– Interact
Purposeful Creativity and Innovation in IT Business Planning
Team 3 – The Field-trip and connections – Toys R Us
• Big Map – “Going Global”
– Show performance for international applications “How” do we get there?
– Metaphor for thinking big
• Training Aid for Writing – “New Approaches to
Training”
– Uses a touch screen to walk a child through writing
each letter in the alphabet
– Portal into team where viewer could see model of how
to do something
• Crazy Action Contraption – “New Ways to Put Things
Together”
– Parts to build unique toys
– Take components and decide where you want to go
– Resolving issues – which path do you want to pursue?
• Ocean World Book – “Best Practices for
Documentation”
– Interestingly done
– Appealing from outside
– Inside – good fonts, pictures, layout (Easy to follow)
• Nerf Dart Tag – “What’s Old Can be
New Again”
– Take concept of something people
loved and make it acceptable and
better for now
– Repackage at the right time
Purposeful Creativity and Innovation in IT Business Planning
Team 4 – The Field-trip and connections – Wegmans
• Seafood Cooking Techniques
– Documentation for platforms, as well as for workloads on platforms
– Useful for all 3 teams
– Would require communication mechanism
• Craft your own Pack Beers
– Pick assorted beers you want
– Have clear inventory of what teams can do
– Let client decide what they’d like to try
• Cat Nip
– Energizes the cat
– Schedule time for purposeful play,
experimentation, R&D
• Chocolate Covered Apple
– Provide services to the client
they never thought they
needed but once they
experience them the services
become indispensible
• Store Layout – “Stores Within Stores”
– Separate but function as a whole
– Place things together that are used together
– Cross pollination of teams so you know what is going on in other teams
Purposeful Creativity and Innovation in IT Business Planning
Participant Reflections
• Great to learn about the Performance, Capacity, and Architecture teams.
• Learned more about myself and how the innovation process can work for all kinds of people (technical,
artistic).
• Try to be observant of things that are happening around you that you may have missed before by
focusing on certain things. You can get locked in to a particular way of thinking that may prevent you
from seeing other options. Always look to the bigger picture.
• All three of our teams share some of the same problems:
– Under appreciation of the services we provide.
– Struggle with platform teams who may think they can do just as well without us.
• Numerous opportunities exist for our teams to work together and leverage each others strengths.
• It’s great to get together and discuss issues as a team.
• It's about the group and not the individuals.
• Got to know more details of the job functions and challenges of other groups.
• Learned we have similar wishes for the ideal workplace.
• Learned lessons on leadership from the “Dancing Guy”. (first follower, etc.)
• Learned how best practices from retailers (or anywhere really) can be fuel for innovation in our own
workplace.
Purposeful Creativity and Innovation in IT Business Planning
Our Reflections
• Learned how to use the Creativity, Inc. innovation process within a work place
• The reframing through seemingly unrelated activities was very effective in fostering
innovative thinking
• Most people were very open to this new and different way of thinking
• Getting them away from their everyday campus and environment set the stage for interactive
participation and “safety” (new relationships between people, trial and error)
• A raised awareness of new possibilities. People’s awareness can change and grow.
• New eyes and perspectives on other people’s problems adds to the robustness of thought
• Consideration was given to how to apply new ideas to existing environments and potential
resistance
• No one person has the answer alone – the power of groups was evident
• Started looking at flaws as difficulties to be worked through
Next Steps…
– are continuing already! Teams have met several times to continue the work of designing
and implementing the ideas and solutions.
– Involving customers to gain their thoughts on usability/wishes.