Tracy Stanley News

Playing with ideas in your team

An essential part of being creative involves play, that is taking time to play with ideas and explore different scenarios. Play is a word we typically associate with children. Indeed, when I searched for pictures of play most images were of children playing, like the one above.

But play is also a mindset. The capacity to play facilitates experimentation and the exploration of ideas. It’s a perspective we can lose as we get older.

In this blog, I’m going to explore different ways you can help your team to play with ideas and things you need to consider to do this successfully. But firstly, I need to start with a definition.

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Earlier this year, just as the pandemic was breaking, I set off with a few friends on a bike ride through Southern Myanmar. My husband was unable to join me as he had hurt his back.

We both kept diaries from the trip which we have shared in our book, Soft Nut Bike Tour of Burma, exploring the less travelled roads of Myanmar. Les recounted how he was spending his days in Brisbane, while I described (perhaps in too much detail sometimes), what I was experiencing as I flew from Brisbane to Bangkok and to Mae Sot for the start of the adventure into Myanmar. The contrast in experiences and writing styles makes the book unique. It’s an insightful and occasionally irreverent read.

You’ll enjoy it if you like visiting lesser known parts of the world, like (or don’t like) group travel, and appreciate the slower-paced form of transport that cycling affords. There’s also travel by train, tuk tuk, truck and all manner of water-craft. You’ll also enjoy Soft Nut if your fed up with being ‘locked down’ and dreaming of travelling.

Below are a few photos from the tour and this is where you can pick up your copy of Soft Nut.

I’ve also added two videos from the trip on my Amazon author page.

The book provides an opportunity to travel vicariously while you wait to see these wonderful places yourself, post Covid-19 quarantine.

Creative leadership during the time of COVID-19

The world is facing a truly wicked problem as the Corona Virus spreads unabated. We watch with admiration, concern, horror, (tick which is most appropriate), as leaders grapple with what to do. It’s a problem for which there is currently no vaccine or cure and for which there are significant health management, economic and moral challenges.

Decisions being made as to how to manage during this pandemic reveal the values of leaders. I was reflecting on which leaders had employed creativity in how they have responded to this crisis. Let’s look at this by considering what is creative leadership.

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Painting is just another way of keeping a diary

Pablo Picasso

I rather like this quote by Picasso as it presents something artistic such as painting in a more rational context, i.e. keeping a diary. It demonstrates an interesting application of an artistic process.

I want to share with you how I’ve used artistic processes to help teams solve problems and imagine a different future. It’s a process that may bring back, memories from your childhood. I hope these memories are full of experimentation and play.  The goal of the exercise is to think in a different way. While the definition of art as described by Google Dictionary has two parts:

the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture,

producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.

The goal of this exercise is focused more on the first part of the definition, applying imagination. It’s not to produce something traditionally considered beautiful. However, it’s entirely likely that when you apply your insights, you or your team will create something powerful.

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I love learning from case studies and plan to write a few this year on creativity and innovation.

I was delighted to work at Cisco as an Innovation Consultant in 2017. This is a technology company which has invested heavily in building processes and systems to support a culture of innovation everywhere.

In writing this blog I draw heavily on the thinking of Alex Goryachev, Global Innovation Leader at Cisco starts his book, Fearless Innovation with the opening remark that,

‘Innovation is a horrible word – The term has become so buzzy, it seems to have lost all practical meaning’

Later on, he goes on to explain that,

‘Innovation isn’t a thing, it’s a mindset and attitude made up of clear principles that help individuals, organizations and societies adapt to change, survive and grow, progress and prosper’

He explains that to keep it alive requires focused effort. In a blog on the Cisco website, Alex proposed five strategies to build an innovative culture.

1.   Break down silos and foster cross-functional collaboration

Recognize that great ideas can come from anywhere inside the organisation and that innovation programs should not be limited to particular departments and that employees should be encouraged to think beyond their own job and function and across to other teams and disciplines to solve problems.

2.  Gamify Innovation and Have Some Fun in the Workplace

Create friendly competitions that incentivize and reward employees and teams for identifying and developing new ideas. Encourage other employees to vote on the ideas to encourage discussion.

3.  Form a Community-wide Network and Innovation Hubs

This strategy recognizes that no single company can innovate on their own. It’s recommended to invest in coaching and mentoring to develoo skills and confidence and build on strategy 1, by providing employees with channels to connect with leaders in their business community. Cisco is a prolific bringer together of customers, partners, start-ups, developers, representatives from local government, researchers and academics under one roof to discuss challenges crossing sectors. Through their various Innovation Centers they have given internal and external parties a space to meet and exchange ideas.

4.  Secure Executive Commitment to Innovation

Leaders empower employees to dedicate time, away from their day-to-day responsibilities to innovate ideas they’re most passionate about creating an environment where employees feel free to experiment and take risks, without fearing repercussions. Francine Katsoudas, Chief People Officer at Cisco, suggests that managers build a culture of trust and talk about a mistake they’ve made, to model a behavior for other team members to follow. At the same time, they need to ensure that there is a metaphorical safety net there to protect employees.

5.  Weave Innovation into the Everyday Fabric of Your Work Culture

Managers should set aside time for conducting meaningful discussions with their teams around persistent problems or challenges they’re seeing in the workplace and how they could be solved.

You can learn more about Cisco and what they’ve done to build an innovative culture at the links below.

References

Alex Goryachev (2020) Fearless Innovation: Going beyond the buzzword to continuously drive growth improve the bottom line, and enact change. Wiley Publishing

https://blogs.cisco.com/innovation/cultivating-innovation-within-your-organization

Jacob Morgan interviewing Francine Katsoudas

Everyone is impacted by the Corona Virus / Covid-19 whether you are an employee or have your own business.

I recently shared a blog on how to use Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats to solve complex problems.

I’ve been thinking about the challenges presented by the Corona Virus so applied the model to this problem.

Here’s what I came up with.

Hopefully it will help you to think through any opportunities that could emerge from this dreadful pandemic.