226 • Creative, Ecient, and Eective Project Management
Verification and Production Phase
e purpose of the verication and production phase is to test and
implement an idea.
Continuing with the deliverable example, the project manager decides
to set up a half-day osite with the team and other stakeholders, such as
representatives from the customer, to develop a roadmap to deploy the
accepted change. All participants in the osite decide that a cost and
schedule replanning eort is necessary to achieve the original perfor-
mance targets for the project.
CONCLUSION
e executing process provides all the opportunities necessary to apply cre-
ativity on a project. e chances of something unexpected are high, especially
as the complexity and the size of a project increase. Many opportunities cen-
ter on correcting problems or resolving issues. If good project management
disciplines exist, applying the creativity life cycle is fairly straightforward.
However, sometimes the diculty of a problem or issue, and the dynamics
of the team members, can make coming up with an agreed-upon denition
and an acceptable solution quite challenging in itself. Some of the creativity
techniques can go a long way in achieving consensus, if not agreement.
Getting Started Checklist
Question Yes No
1. During this process, determine the challenges and constraints that
could impact the creativity of your project team:
Compliant workforce
Dominance of brain thinking
Faster, better, cheaper philosophy
Fear
Focus on the past or future, not the present
Groupthink
Impatience
Inability to adapt
Inghting
Insecurity
Lack of data and information
Creativity and the Executing Process • 227
Getting Started Checklist
Question Yes No
Lack of sharing
Lack of tools
Leaping to judgment
Management’s lack of responsiveness
Methodism
Mismatch
Mores, beliefs, values
Not listen to the inner voice
Overemphasis on by-the-book philosophy
Poor communications
Poor coordination
Silos
Specialization
Start and stop of ow
Stretching resources too thin
Success
Take on only what is known
Team composition imbalance
Too many positive and negative incentives
Too much and too little training
Other(s):
2. Determine the creative abilities that are applicable to this process:
Apply reverse thinking
Applying synthesis
Being iconoclastic, even nihilistic
Being analytical
Being observant
Being precise
Being self-critical
Combining intuition and logic
Determining the essence of something
Embracing ambiguity
Having fun
Listening to your intuition
Looking from the outside in
Reasoning
Shiing between convergent and divergent thinking
Shiing from analysis to synthesis mode of thinking
Shiing perspectives
Suspending judgment
(Continued)
228 • Creative, Ecient, and Eective Project Management
Getting Started Checklist
Question Yes No
Tinkering
Uncovering patterns
Unlearning and relearning
Using linear thinking
Using nonlinear thinking
Other(s):
3. Determine the actions that are necessary to lay the groundwork for
acreative environment:
Allow for risk taking
Allow time for issue denition
Build and maintain trust
Concentrate creative energy
Counter groupthink
Emphasize coordination
Encourage a certain degree of anxiety and tension
Encourage ownership
Encourage transformational leadership
Establish a receptive audience
Grant access to data to do their job
Grant access to necessary tools
Make training available
Provide opportunities to create
Relax rules, procedures, and so on
Reward risk taking
Stress communications
Other(s):
4. Determine the actions to take to improve individual creativity:
Be competitive and collaborative at the same time
Be courageous
Be curious
Be destructive
Be discontented with the status quo
Be intuitive
Be self-condent
Be spontaneous
Be theoretical and experiential at the same time
Experience pleasure when creating
Have an interest in the novel
Have self-discipline
Have the ability to be self-critical
Have the capacity to “break set”
Creativity and the Executing Process • 229
Getting Started Checklist
Question Yes No
Persevere
Realize sooner or later creativity requires being implemented
See outside the box
Take risks
Tolerate failure
Other(s):
5. Determine the actions to take to improve team creativity:
Act as if on a mission
Allow for open discussion and have a tolerance for ideas
Allow individual and group to coexist
Avoid noncontributory activities
Be collegial and hierarchical
Be curious
Be emotional and logical
Be small in size
Be synergistic
Be true believers
Be unafraid to push boundaries
Emphasize relationship building
Engender facilitative and supportive leadership
Have fun
Know the priorities
Seek balance among creating, planning, and implementing
Share tangible and intangible assets
View failure as a learning experience
Other(s):
6. Identify the creativity tools and techniques to use:
Anity diagramming
Analogies, metaphors, and similes thinking
Brainstorming
Brainwriting
Crawford slip technique
Devil’s advocate
Fishbone diagram
Force eld analysis
Hypothetical scenario
Nominal group technique
PDCA cycle
Problem solving
Other(s):
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