This has always been a topic for debate amongst those propping up bar counters or for day dreaming types. How do you know what goes on inside your refrigerator when the door is shut? We all assume that the manufacturer has done their job correctly but you can not be sure, unless of course you climb inside (definitely not advised).

Not long ago I had a similar experience with my car. Like most people, I assumed that when I shut the doors and locked the car all of the interior lights  went out. Sadly this was not the case and the combination of the interior lights and the car alarm flattened the battery. The next time I went to the car it would not start.

I am not suggesting that we all  become obsessive and peer into our refrigerators or hang around parked cars waiting for lights to go out but I do believe that once in a while it is worth examining all of the things that we take for granted just to see if anything has changed. Maybe I will detect a faulty light switch once in a while but the implications in a business context are far more important.

How many times have we been told that a particular project or course of action is closed to us because of certain 'givens' that are accepted as variables that never change? Maybe a project costs too much, or the computers are not fast enough or the container ship takes too long to travel from China. But what happens when costs fall, computers become faster and container shipping times are slashed? Shouldn't we periodically consider these things?

Our business environments change at different paces. Competitors react faster than governments and customer requirements even faster. We make assumptions at our peril, most things change at some point so we should be ready and be checking once in a while. Once we get used to doing this we can also avoid the other obstacles that get in our way. The only way to dodge the rocks being hurled at us is to be looking for them!!

So if your are the type that simply shuts the refrigerator door and forgets about what might be going on inside, just take a sneaky peek once in a while.

What normally happens when people come up with bright ideas at work? A manager will typically calculate the cost of implementing it. This cost will then be balanced against the value potential of the idea – usually additional income from increased sales or reduced operational costs. The more creative an idea is, the harder it can be to determine the value in monetary terms. Many potentially very exciting ideas are not implemented simply because a manager has decided that to do so would be too costly.

While such managers are excellent at working out the cost of implementing an idea, they often fail to calculate the cost of NOT implementing an idea which can often be far more than the cost of implementing.

How much does it cost not to implement an idea? Here is a simple example where an idea might lead to cost savings on a production line. The cost of the idea in terms of equipment and labour is USD500,000 and is a one off cost. As a result of this, the cost of manufacturing each widget that comes off your production line is reduced by USD5.00. Your Sales department tells you that you are currently  making 100,000 widgets each year and that sales are expected to rise 10% per year over the 5 year life of the equipment.

Simple maths tells us that the cost of not implementing the idea is zero in year 1 and then USD500,000 in year 2. Over 5 years the cost would be over USD2,300,000 which is significantly larger than the initial investment needed.

Things are not always this easy though. Imagine that one of your R&D staff has come up with a pen sized device that can see through solid objects with potential applications  in medicine, construction and intelligence gathering to name a few. To get such a device into production might cost say USD50,000,000 but how can you predict the sales potential of such new technology and also keep it secret from your competitors until launch? The potential seems huge but you cannot put your finger on it.

We know that ideas do not spring from single sources and it is likely that a competitor will come up with a similar idea at some point. What will they do? Will they develop the idea and create a new product? What will happen, will it be a success? If it is then you lose out big time in terms of cash. But what about your reputation?

The cost of not implementing an idea might be both financial and long lasting damage to your reputation and brand.

Does anyone remember Polaroid? Polaroid was the word that described instant images. The company failed to keep pace with digital technology and almost went bankrupt.

Next time an idea is put to you, think very carefully about the cost of not implementing it as well as the actual cost of implementing it.

Have you ever wanted to be the person who has all the new ideas?  Some people think that creativity is something that you either have, or you don’t. The fact is that everyone of us is creative and the creativity that we have can be boosted. Here's how!

Learning to think creatively is a lot easier than you think.  The left and right hemispheres of your brain work together like a two man soccer team, and it’s natural for them to try out new tactics every now and them.  With just a little bit of effort, you can be bending your brain, and twisting your thoughts in new and exciting ways in no time at all.

The first step to training your brain to generate new thought patterns is to sneak up on yourself. There are things that you do, that you take for granted.  Patterns, or ruts that simplify your life and that help you to focus on what is important.  It is natural and healthy to develop patterns in your life so that your brain is comfortable and at ease, and able to focus completely on whatever task you assign it, but be aware that every pattern you fall into unthinkingly, is another thread of unconscious-unthinkingness that collectively binds and suppresses your creativity if you don’t take steps to keep your thinking clear and fresh.

Here are one or two things that you can do to spice up your life and trick your brain into thinking a little bit differently:

• Wear your watch on your other wrist or even somewhere completely different
• Wear differently coloured socks or gloves
• Use your left hand to do something when you would normally use your right
• Wear a flower on your lapel
• Invent a new handshake with your friends
• Start up a conversation with a stranger that you wouldn’t normally consider talking to
• Try ordering something strange or out-of-the-ordinary at a restaurant

Coming up with your own creativity exercises is a great way to flex your own creativity muscle. Judicious use of self-trickery can slice through complacent, uncreative thought patterns like a Jedi's light sabre and release your natural creative power in no time at all. 

1. slicing thorough the organisation
2. undergoing some form of 'transformational change'

The first remedy is easy to implement. If we need savings of 10% then let us trim 10% from everything. This takes no account of what we do, it is just simple belt tightening and when services start to suffer our leaders just cry 'we had to do it to make ends meet' and 'its all the fault of the government'. For those who cannot understand why this approach is bad, let us use the metaphor of a soccer team. A club that has a large ground, a reasonable squad of players and ground and catering staff. Times get tough and the accountants in charge cut 10% off everything each time there is a round of spending cuts. What can happen?

1. We lose seating capacity in the stadium (10% each time) so eventually we have to lock out fans
2. We lose ground and catering staff so eventually the pitch does not get prepared and we are also unable to generate extra revenue through match day catering and functions
3. The number of players eventually falls below 11 so that we do not even enough players to form a team
4. We can no longer function

In these situations common sense should prevail and we should prioritise but compare this to the public sector where this course of action is being actively pursued.

And now we come to the dangerous part. For those who have realised that simply hacking off 10% is not good we now introduce the 'Transformational Change Programme'. My own personal view is that if an organisation must change then it is up to the leaders and managers to first of all decide on the reason for the change, what the post change organisation will look like and then make the change happen. However, it appears that many public sector organisations are  embarking on a course of action that goes something like this:

1. Decide on an arbitrary cost saving
2. Create a transformational change programme at a cost which will save an amount equal to or more than the above
3. Draft in one or two outsiders who have successfully achieved this elsewhere (unlikely as this is not a good way of doing things)
4. Set up a standalone project to analyse the organisation using 'Lean' or similar techniques
5. Implement the streamlined processes

On the face of it this looks like a good plan but there are flaws. LEAN is meant for manufacturing or situations which can be treated as such, with highly replicable processes and little or no scope for the ambiguity that humans introduce. LEAN does not cater for humans.

Next, because of cutbacks the composition of our change projects means that they are staffed internally. This can mean that one or both of the following happen:

• Staff are taken away from their 'real' jobs, leading to an accidental accelerating of our 10% cut strategy
• Many staff are untrained for carrying out the required business analysis or project management tasks with little context specific knowledge

This may then lead to a lean looking set of business processes which can be flawed but which are then forced upon largely unsuspecting employees, reducing motivation and increasing fear and uncertainty in the current economic climate. Many leaders will say that they will ensure that this never happens but both of the above can never achieve their desired objectives.

What does work then? Well a system that:

1. Gains buy in from front line staff
2. Increases effectiveness
3. Reduces management overhead
4. Can reduce the need for compulsory redundancy
5. Uses your own staff with minimal outside intervention
6. Is low cost (compared to the alternatives)

Such a methodology exists. Colleague Dr Paul Thomas has coined the phrase Simplexity as a combination of simplicity and complexity theory. It has now been successfully trialled in a number of organisations. Get in touch to find out more, or see my other blog posts Ban The Boss and Ban The Boss – update.

Organisations, just like people, can get set in their ways. Relying on established ways of working and fixed patterns when solving problems not only stifles innovation, but can lead to a narrow perspective and moments of self delusion when you kid yourself that things are going ok ,and there is nothing else you can do. Here are three ways to help your organisation  wake up:

• Challenge existing rationale. Every organisation has shared explanations for doing things the way they do. Be critical about these explanations and ask the question 'why is this standard practice?'
   
• Expose faulty either/or thinking and decision making. Sometimes we are forced to make irrational choices about how to work. Don't let your choice be A or B. Propose options  C or D as new ways of working and evaluate them all.
   
• Focus on the long term. By focusing on the  near future you will be more inclined just to keep on doing the same old things. Help to wake up your colleagues by letting them see the bigger picture, and understand not only the short-term gains but also the long-term consequences.

Be gentle!

There are professional bodies that see themselves as the custodians of Leadership or Management, however are these the bodies to take things forward? In fact should there be representative bodies at all? The problem is that we are trying to paint a picture of the future which a) obviously does not exist b) which we wish to be different from the present.

This means that if we use the current knowledge and models from any existing sources then we are likely to be interpolating in order to create the future. Even current management thinking tells us to be wary of this. Surely what we desire is a way of extrapolating from what we already know. Fans of Douglas Adams will only be too aware of how the 'Infinite Improbability Drive' was extrapolated from an exceedingly hot steaming cup of coffee in The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy (please read it if you have not already done so). If Douglas Adams had interpolated then he might have just created a frothy Latte rather than an 'Infinite Improbability Drive'.

So what does this mean for Leadership? In terms of concrete actions, I am not entirely sure. However, to find out I believe that we need to paint a picture of the future which does not have to be complete fantasy but which should not be limited by current thinking. This should maybe focus on organisational structures (or not), behaviours and the ways in which employees communicate as well as the requirements of organisations. The let us consider how we get there.

We should not throw away what we already know but neither should we accept an interpolated future just because there are aspects that we are unclear about. If there are no Leadership and Management models then let us invent them, if we do not like the language used then let us create new language. Even if we cannot do that, let us experiment and create a prototype of the future which others can borrow or add to.

The danger is that this will be seen as too high a price to pay for creating a brighter future. What price are you and your organisation prepared to pay?

Do you have any ideas about the things that could wreck your business? Market changing new products announced by competitors, new government legislation, flash flooding or severe bouts of food poisoning are all possibilities! Some of these threats are predictable (to some extent) such as flooding but many are not. It is likely that you have the predictable events covered already so let us focus on the unpredictable for now. As well as protecting your business you could actually discover ways to threaten the competition.

As you would expect, we are going to use creative thinking techniques but in a slightly more focused way than normal. Instead of asking “What could destroy our business tomorrow?” questions should be more relevant to the type of business that you have. To start off with try coming up with some ideas about the areas in which your business might be vulnerable. If you manufacture products from raw materials then you might be vulnerable in areas such as production or delivery of raw materials, continuity of energy supply, or distribution of finished products. You might also be threatened by Government legislation or exchange rates if you export.

Now let us get focused. If we have identified that transport and distribution is a potential issue then ask:

• What could stop us obtaining raw material or delivering to customers?
• What would happen if the price of diesel fuel rose dramatically?
• What would happen if our competitors did a deal with road haulage companies?

If you were making consumer products you could also be worried about bad PR if your products were faulty or even killed people! You get the idea?

To get the best ideas you will need to involve as diverse group of people as possible and make the questions relevant to your business or business.

If you do identify serious threats then you can do something to reduce their impact or avoid them altogether. Identifying a ground breaking product that might put you out of business is also good since it provides you with the opportunity to develop such a product and hence outfox your competitors. 

Wherever there is a threat there is also opportunity, so get thinking!

We are all aware that innovation has its own language conventions rich in buzz words. At first glance this may seem like a harmless dialect that simply reflects the nature of the work we are undertaking.

Innovators, after all, are trying to communicate the promise of something that may not exist yet, and sometimes that requires some (over) optimistic decoration. Innovation is about extrapolation not interpolation and so we do have to rely on ambiguous statements.

The metaphors and other language used could signal something more important. Maybe the language is used because of a lack of hard data, or the fact an idea isn't yet properly formed.  If we recognised this fact then perhaps we could use these communication tools only when they're effective (or, more importantly, not when they are ineffective). A more effective use of language might allow us to gain get buy-in on important projects.

Research has shown that where people lack hard data/information, they tend to use three types of language to describe innovation concepts.

• Metaphor is the substitution of figurative language for literal language. 
• Hyperbole is exaggerated language used for emphasis or effect. 
• Revisionist rhetoric is the simplistic, inaccurate, or self-serving characterisation of events to create or support an argument. 

You can see in the wordle above some of the most common words or phrases that are used. Are you using these in your own communications? Below are some suggestions to anyone interested in communicating the potential of an idea:

Recognize how you are using metaphor. Metaphor can help focus attention or highlight key aspects of an idea in a universal way. Be careful though, a metaphor can also signal to others that you haven't thought through your idea. Some people do find that businesses that consistently use descriptive approaches report a degree of frustration and lack of buy-in for their ideas. Metaphor should be used to supplement, not a substitute, for hard facts.

When you have a potentially good idea but lack evidence, begin with experimentation or prototyping. People are often likely to begin their pitches by putting their energy into speculative communications (using descriptive language rather than hard data), and fail to gain the personal or organisational support that they need to take their idea forwards. It is more likely that people gain support by investing in models or prototypes to demonstrate their ideas and then follow it up with descriptive communications.

Learn when to use metaphor effectively.  In many large organisations, people tend to bounce ideas off one another and gain feedback from colleagues. Where there is a lack of data, it is possible for ideas to travel far and wide as metaphor or stories. 

Put hyperbole and revisionist rhetoric in their place. When communicating why an idea has potential, it might seem obvious why you should avoid hyperbole or rhetoric. Surprisingly, there are important situations where such language can be constructive. These are informal meetings or briefings where people understand that language is not intended to be taken literally. These are mostly high trust environments where language and ideas are used as springboards for creative thinking. 

Language is an important of the management of innovation, but it must be used wisely.

It’s time to deeply question the traditions of the past and focus on reinventing the future. It’s time to question, imagine and create

What are you having for your Sunday lunch this week? If you live in the UK I would lay odds on the reply being a Sunday Roast with all of the trimmings. And if I asked you the same question in a month or two the answer would more than likely be the same. If I asked the question a third time you would wonder what type of idiot I was. “Of course I am having a roast dinner” you would say.You are following a good old fashioned tradition and have become a creature of habit. There is no need to even think about what you eat every Sunday lunchtime.

While traditions might be nice in a family or community setting, they can be less than helpful in the business world. Tradition and habit can cause us to switch off our brains.This becomes the easy option, no need to think critically about what you are doing, no need at all. You will just do as you have always done, and will get the same results!!

If your business is more than 12 months old, it will have traditions or norms and you and your colleagues will have developed habits. These will may not be helping to move your business forward. Ideas, processes, techniques, and past habits will hold you back in today’s competitive (and dangerous) economic climate. Even Worse, your workers may be turning off their minds and failing to create new ideas at the time you need them the most.

Great leaders are advocates for change, they acknowledge the past but they win by adapting to the present and creating for the future. They are open minded and brimming with curiousity.They love to challenge the status quo whilst focusing on what is possible.

Charles Handy gives a good example of this in his book “The Age of Unreason”. Does our NHS have to keep paying consultants higher salaries? Habit says that we pay them more (if we have the money to do so) but critical thinking asks “what is it that consultants want?”. They may want more money but how can they get it? Handy’s suggestion is to let them work less for the NHS so that they can work in private practice (or even play more golf). We can then use the money that we save to employ more junior doctors, spend it on hospital equipment or perhaps training.

With fierce global competition, we must question past habits and focus on inventing and shaping the future. What do we want the future to look like, how can we make it so? The alternative is that the future is merely an extrapolation of the past. It’s time to question, imagine and create. Each one of us has an unbelievable creative capacity which can be used in our jobs on a daily basis if the leaders and managers in our organisations allow it.

So whether you’re passing the gravy at Sunday lunch or at the office, now is a perfect time to break with tradition.

If you want to make you organisation more creative, you might be thinking of hiring some staff to help you with this. If these people are likely to be creative then you must keep a tight rein on them and make sure that their job descriptions are comprehensive, right? Wrong!

If we hire people against a strict job description then we run a risk of several things happening:

1. We hire people who only do what it says in their job description
2. We are unable to be flexible about how we make use of these people
3. We will hire people in our own image (since we have created the job specification) and will fail to inject the free thinking that we require

So what can we do? First of all think about what it is that you want these people to actually do or the areas in which you want them to work. If you were a bank and wanted new staff to help you work on making your branches a better place to be you might be thinking of reducing queues. Previously you might have looked at someone with project management or mathematical skills to work out how much time a cashier should spend with a customer. If you wanted your branch staff to allocate more time to satisfying customers then customers will get stuck in queues. So why not make queues a better place to be? Hire someone who has worked at a theme park such as Disney World or Alton Towers. They have huge queues but people do not mind being in them because when they get to the front they are not disappointed by their experience.

When asking for applications, try asking for something different. Ask a potential manager to draw a picture of the sort of workplace that they will create as a result of the changes they will implement or ask customer service staff what a satisfied customer looks like. Make interviews practical experiences if possible, potentially throwing people into completely unfamiliar situations.

By doing something different we can expose the hidden but creative qualities that we are actually looking for. If we always hire the same type of employee we will always be muttering “you can never get the staff these days”. By varying the staff we hire we can easily find out the type that best fit our business whilst bring fresh ideas and energy. If you are averse to the risk of hiring in this way you can always experiment a little by bringing in contract staff and then making them permanent or hiring staff similar to the ones that have helped drive your business forward.