First Patrick, then Shawn & now Dave hits us with his KM Australia 2007 gear. What is it with my favorite KM thinkers putting their stuff out there for free!!!
I agree with most of DS's positions (which will not doubt infuriate him). There is one thing that I think he is half wrong about at the 22:40 on the KM Australia keynote mp3.
DS states that creativity does not lead to innovation but rather the reverse - i.e. creativity is the product of an innovative system. And that innovation requires starvation, pressure & diversity.
Here I think he's half right. Trying to get people to be "creative" if everything around them shows that such creativity will not be recognised, rewarded, etc is foolish and heart-breaking. Innovation (as a complex social system) determines and is determined by individual creativity. However, research indicates that starvation & pressure is not always useful for creativity. It may be useful at an organisational level for innovation because a threatening environment can increase an organisation's appetite for risk.
If you want creativity & innovation there is a productive tension between giving people the room (intellectual, emotional) they need to innovate and allowing the organisation to stay off-balance enough to implement those innovations.
BTW I hadn't seen the traffic light /roundabout example before - loved 'em...
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2 comments:
Not infuriated Matt, sorry (can fake it if you need it)
The issue on starvation, pressure and perspective shift is a comment at a group not an individual level (where it applies but less so). A quick review of the history of innovation will show that those three are nearly always there (think of wartime innovation. The real point I was trying to make is the symptom and cause one. People in innovative environments tend to exhibit creativity, but you can't make people creative, unless you change the environment. Its a common mistake of the behaviour type schools.
Dave - I wouldn't want you to fake anything.
"You can't make people creative unless you change the environment"
I'd have no problem with that statement at all.
To link this to another bete noir, the questions "how do we create a knowledge sharing culture?" and "how do we make our employees more creative/innovative?" make the same mistake. People naturally share their knowledge (within a context) and people are naturally creative (again within a context). SO you need to apply naturalistic, context-based approaches to both...
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