The purpose of this book is to place side by side the ideas of researchers and practitioners concerned with organizational innovation.
The papers included here are largely the products of an event called Creativity Week, which was held annually at the Center for Creative Leadership from 1978 through 1987. Each Creativity Week brought together a small group of theorists, researchers, and practitioners from industry, government, academia, and the arts for an exchange of ideas on applied creativity. This was a high-energy week, with almost nonstop action from Sunday through Friday. Highly participative presentations continued into the corridors and cafeteria, into the organizations of some participants, and—in some notable instances—into other symposia and associations (more on this last point below).
On Friday afternoon, while ideas were still hot and malleable, we would call the staff and presenters together to identify central ideas that promised to make a connection between the known past and possible futures, and between researchers and practitioners. We would then seize the moment and plan the next Creativity Week.
Looking back at the ten years of these conferences, we can now see a pattern of evolution. The earliest meetings focused on individual innovation; subsequent meetings centered on creativity and teamwork, and then on structuring the organization for innovation; the last meetings were primarily concerned with innovation and larger contexts—the cultural and technological environments and planning for the future.
We think that the articles presented here, chosen from the last five annually published proceedings of these conferences, will give a sense of all these themes. Some presenters have rewritten and updated their original reports. And we have added pieces which, although they were not given at a Creativity Week, grew out of the authors’ participation at the conferences. We have also included a sample of the cartoons that were a part of the original presentations. One of the editors (DAH) doodled while the presenters talked. The other editor (SSG) and participants offered their comments, and from this joint effort, an “editorial cartoon summary” of each session was displayed for feedback at the end of the day. It provided a lighthearted way to wrap up some of the implications of and reactions to serious aspects of the sessions. Finally, we have added brief notes to the end of each article; we hope that these informal comments, by supplying some information on the authors and reactions to their ideas, will suggest how interactive and personal Creativity Week was.
What happened to Creativity Week? Well, in a sense, instead of being just a Center-sponsored event, it now belongs to the world. International symposia have taken its place. The Europeans are holding meetings (and have moved to make the format even more interactive by having every participant make a presentation), and the Latin Americans and Japanese are currently investigating the sponsorship of their own events.
Another legacy of Creativity Week is the emergence of networks devoted to the development of innovation. There are at least three which trace their roots to our meetings: the Association of Managers for Innovation (started in 1982), the Self-managing Team Study Group (started in 1989), and the Ideas Alliance Exchange (started in 1990). Other networks that derive in part from Creativity Week are Periscope (for the European Community) and Prism (for North America). Combined, these associations form an international network that is in touch with most of what’s happening in the world today on creativity and innovation.
The oldest—AMI—has over 150 members from 90 companies in Europe and North America. The nucleus of the group was formed when Creativity Week participants from Goodyear, Kodak, and the Center met during a break and realized they had a joint interest in forming a network of practitioners of innovation. The impetus was the need to continue the dialogue taking place at the meeting beyond the week itself. Currently, the group meets twice a year at the Center and issues a newsletter; members confer throughout the year by telephone, fax, or computer links whenever they need to bounce a hot idea off someone committed to and experienced in innovative thinking.
This book, then, is part of an international movement in organizational creativity and innovation. The shifting conditions faced by organizations today demands that managers be leaders of change, and effective change requires innovation. We offer these articles with the hope that they will help foster innovation.
August 1992