THE CONCISE Adair on creativity and innovation Edited by Neil Thomas Blank page THE CONCISE The Concise Adair on Creativity and Innovation Edited by Neil Thomas Published by Thorogood Publishing Ltd Special discounts for bulk 10–12 Rivington Street quantities of Thorogood London EC2A 3DU books are available to Telephone: 020 7749 4748 corporations, institutions, Fax: 020 7729 6110 associations and other Email: [email protected] organisations. For more Web: www.thorogood.ws information contact Thorogood by telephone © John Adair 2004 on 020 7749 4748, by fax on 020 7729 6110, or email us: All rights reserved. No part of this [email protected] publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed upon the subsequent purchaser. No responsibility for loss occasioned to any person acting or refraining from action as a result of any material in this publication can be accepted by the author or publisher. For information on seminars and training A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. with the John Adair Leadership Foundation, ISBN 1 85418 273 0 see www.falconbury.co.uk Typeset by Bookens Ltd, Royston, Herts For information about Printed in India by Replika Press Pvt.Ltd. John Adair and products/services, see www.johnadair.co.uk The author and editor John Adair John Adair is internationally acknowledged as having had a significant influence on management and leadership develop- ment in both the business and military spheres. He has seen military service, lectured at Sandhurst, worked extensively as a consultant, held professorships in Leadership Studies and authored well received management and leadership books, including Inspiring Leadership, The Adair Handbook of Management and Leadership, The Concise Adair on Leader- ship, The Concise Time Management and Personal Development and The Concise Adair on Communication and Presentation Skills. (www.johnadair.co.uk) Neil Thomas Neil Thomas is the Chairman of Thorogood Publishing Ltd and Managing Director of Falconbury Ltd. He has been involved in publishing and seminar/training for over twenty- five years. (www.thorogood.ws, www.falconbury.co.uk) Blank page Contents Introduction 1 Part one: Creative thinking 5 The creative process 7 Obstacles which inhibit creativity 7 The non-creative person 8 Developing creativity 9 Remember 16 Decision-making and the creative thinker 16 Key elements of creative thinking and decision-making 20 Analysis 20 Synthesis 23 Valuing 25 Other useful approaches to creative thinking and decision-making 26 Imaginative thinking 26 Conceptual thinking 29 Intuition 29 Checklist: How does your mind work? 30 Using creative thinking to evaluate the options 32 Checklist: Options 34 Calculating the risks 36 Part two: Innovation 39 The process of innovation 41 Five factors to create the right climate for innovation 43 Innovation and organisation 44 Characteristics of an innovative organisation 45 Checklist for the innovative organisation 49 What qualities should a chief executive as a leader have? 51 Motivation and innovation 53 Characteristics to look for when recruiting 53 What do innovative people expect from the organisation they work for? 54 Distinctive characteristics of the creative leader 55 The generation of ideas 57 Team innovation 58 Communicating about innovation 60 Checklist for building on ideas 60 Brainstorming 62 Checklist: Brainstorming 64 Two more methods of collecting ideas 66 Suggestion schemes 66 Quality circles 67 Checklist for the generation of ideas 68 Dealing with change and overcoming obstacles to innovation 69 Criticism 70 Exercise: Overcoming obstacles 70 Part three: Summary 73 A creative thinker and innovator in practice 75 The seven habits of successful creative thinkers and innovators 77 1 Thinking outside the apparent confines of the problem/situation 77 Checklist: Beyond the nine dots 79 2 Welcoming chance intrusions 80 Checklist: Chance intrusions 81 3 Listening to your depth mind (the unconscious mind) 82 Checklist: Are you listening to your depth mind? 84 4 Suspending judgement 85 Checklist: Suspending judgement 86 5 Using the stepping stones of analogy 87 Exercise: Putting the stepping stones of analogy into practice 88 6 Tolerating ambiguity 89 Checklist: Tolerating ambiguity 90 7 Banking all ideas from all sources 91 Checklist: Banking ideas 93 Conclusion Checklist for creativity and innovation 94 Appendix Solutions to problems 97 Quotes about creativity and innovation 99 Blank page
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