The A-Ha! MomentFostering creativity and innovation

A UQ Leadership Community eventTamma Sorbello, Organisational Development

pxleyes.com

How I feel about my ability to be creative and innovative

What does creativity meanto you?

What conditions support your creativity?

Your invitation for today…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map

Creativethinking

?

What is the sum of 5 and 5?

What two numbers add up to 10?

Break the problem into

parts

Turn things around

http://taggalaxy.de/

Look for inspiration outside of your

own area

Look for links between unrelated

thingshttp://watchout4snakes.com/wo4snakes/Random/RandomWord

What would you do if you

were someone else?

How would

you explain

the problem

to a person

who knows

nothing about it?

Structuring creative thinking

Parallel thinking

• A structured process of cooperative exploration• 6 thinking perspectives

Rather than debate/opposition

Looking ‘in parallel’

My view Your view

My view

Their view

Your view

Their view

Your view

My view

6 thinking hats

White hat

Information, facts, data

No argument/judgementDescribe what you see

Red hat

Intuition, hunches, emotions

Put forward gut feel without justification

Yellow hat

Optimism, logical positive

Benefits?How/why will it work?

Black hat

Caution, logical negative

Problems? Why won’t it work?

Green hat

Creativity, new ideas

Seek new perspectives and possibilities

Blue hat

Process, meta-thinking

What do we need to think about now?

All students are guaranteed entry to the university of their choice

Types of innovation

Product

What products and services do

we offer?

Process

How do we create and deliver our

products and services?

Position

Who do we target for our products and

services? What story do we

tell?

Paradigm

How do we think about

what we do? How do we

organise ourselves to do

it?

Incr

emen

tal

Radi

cal

Types of innovation

Product Process Position Paradigm

Incr

emen

tal

Radi

cal

Your opportunities…

• Something in your workplace that frustrates you, or that could be better

• What are the opportunities to improve?

Product Process Position Paradigm

About your context

How can you embed opportunities for creativity & innovation? How do you make the time and space?How do you give yourself permission?

Encouraging innovation at UQ

This could be exemplified by a leader who:• Demonstrates willingness to explore creative solutions to

problems and investigate new ways of working• Supports a learning-centred team, encouraging ongoing

development of individual and team capability• Values a diverse workforce and creates an inclusive work

environment that encourages a broad range of ideas and perspectives

• … http://www.hr.uq.edu.au/leadership-capability-learning

University wide transformation program, sponsored by the Vice-Chancellor, which aims to:• Improve administrative activities and

processes which impact on the core academic purpose

• Empower staff and build a continuous improvement culture and capability UQ-wide

• http://www.uq.edu.au/ess/

What will you do to:- Improve something that

supports our customers (student experience and outcomes)

- Solve a problem

- Create space for you and your team to think more creatively and innovate

- Something else?

UQ Leadership Community www.hr.uq.edu.au/leadership-community

www.hr.uq.edu.au/leadership

Tamma Sorbello: uqleadership@uq.edu.au

Credit where it’s due

• Mindmaps: Learning Fundamentals http://learningfundamentals.com.au/blog/dont-understand-something-break-it-down-with-mindmaps/

• Six Thinking Hats: Edward de Bono• 4 P’s of innovation: Tidd, Bessant & Pavitt

http://www.innovation-portal.info/wp-content/uploads/4Ps-explanation.pdf

• Images (mostly): Marc Helevenhttp://www.slideshare.net/marcnewshoestoday/100-images-for-visual-brainstorming