The challenge of 21st century is to transform our organisations to adapt flexibly and rapidly to the ever changing and volatile environments we face. We will have to reduce cost structures while increasing productivity, adopt new ways of working and invent business models that challenge old ways to thinking.

Global Head of Design for Coca Cola, David Butler says: “We’re moving from linear problems to wicked problems,” he says, and the old default solution — hire a rock-star designer — no longer works. “The model of a master of design creating that magical object that is going to change the business is an old way of thinking. I can’t use it to work on wicked problems. I need to have capability internally.”

Read more at http://www.fastcompany.com/design/2009/featured-story-david-butler

Ci2012 will provide a chance to learn techniques for unlocking personal and organisational creativity that will inspire your leadership in times of complexity and change by bringing together world-class leaders and innovators to discover cross-disciplinary solutions that will make a difference in your life, organisation and community.

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by Tania de Jong AM

Creativity is the strategic tool of the 21st century

Creative leadership is a priority in these increasingly complex and volatile times. To be a leader today you require a whole different set of tools and thinking. Unfortunately, our education system has not taught us how to think “outside the box”.

Due to the fact that creative thinking is generally not part of our education curriculum, often people lack confidence in their creative ability. We are all creative beings and if we can remove our self-limiting beliefs about our own creativity then we can develop this important capability. Creativity is the process of having original ideas that have value. It’s a process and it’s not random. Furthermore, it can be learnt. As Edward de Bono said: “Creative thinking is not a talent, it is a skill that can be learnt. It empowers people, adding strength to their natural abilities, which improves teamwork, productivity, and where appropriate, profits.” Creativity and innovation are a core competency for leaders and managers. We need to teach people how to perceive the world in new ways, to find hidden patterns, to make connections between seemingly unrelated phenomena, to ask important questions and to generate solutions. Generating fresh solutions to problems, and the ability to create
new products, processes or services for a changing market and new world are part of the intellectual capital that gives a company its competitive edge. Creativity is a crucial part of the innovation equation.

Create a culture of innovation

The key to creative leadership and developing a culture of innovation is engaging your employees. We all have innate, untapped talents that are just waiting to be discovered. Yet very often organizations are restrictive and inflexible and there is too little communication between different areas. Companies are too siloed and, in turn, employees feel disengaged and do not feel a sense of belonging to the “whole”. Companies that create a culture where every voice matters unlock far more of their employees’ creative talents and this, of course, leads to greater productivity, wellbeing and success.

The more that we can give employees discretion and freedom to take initiatives and reward them for doing so, the more they will evolve to become creative leaders. They need to be given a chance to try and prototype new ideas quickly, given permission to fail and then be encouraged to try again.

Rather than the typical ‘command and control’ management styles of the past, organizations need to foster collaboration and communication across departments and celebrate diversity. If you are seeking creativity and innovation then it’s essential to connect regularly across the organization (and ideally across sectors), and tap into people’s senses, perceptions, ideas and passions.

The role of a creative leader is not to have all the ideas; it’s to create a culture where everyone can have ideas and feel that they’re valued. That being said, there does need to be a pipeline to capture all ideas, test them out and eventually prototype and create something new or improved. And don’t forget to develop a rewards system to incentivize your people.

These extremely volatile times and the challenging financial environment mean that being creative is becoming more urgent. Being creative in business terms isn’t an added extra. It’s an imperative. It’s about being creative for a purpose ie. to add value. The purpose in a company is to improve the company’s impact and performance. Therefore any creative strategy is about improving products, processes and services or coming up with new possibilities or opportunities.

Creativity should never be an afterthought and should always be a key part of an organization’s core purposes, not just in words but in deeds. If you create a culture of creativity and innovation, celebrate diversity and ensure that every voice matters you will outstrip your competitors.

Creative leaders continually meet new challenges, and recognize and pursue new opportunities through bold thinking and innovations.

Here’s my top 10 Creative Leadership attributes any organisation needs in today’s business climate:

1. Great at generating many ideas – innovative, game-changing and even commonplace
2. Always looking to experiment with good ideas. Sometimes, trying out a few times
3. Unwavering belief in their creativity and innovation, coupled with originality in thinking
4. Smart and bright with a positive self image. More often, they are not born geniuses
5. Passionate, expressive and sensitive to their teams, colleagues and surroundings
6. Demonstrate superior judgment, and do not make quick decisions (although have a gut feel)
7. Non-conformists and independent, requiring less social approval than most people
8. Innate ability to understand and solve the problem, and manage the consequences
9. Born dreamers with strong imagination; however, manage to keep things in perspective
10. Create and launch game changing products meeting a high level of quality and design

According to Harvard Business Review, some questions to address if you wish to develop creative leaders who can help your organization cope with increasing complexity:

1. What cultural, political, organizational and technological barriers should your organization overcome if it wishes to develop a group of creative leaders?

2. What structures, reward systems, processes, metrics and goals do you have in place to support creative leaders?

3. How do you encourage risk taking and learning from failure? How do you measure it?

4. Do you simply adopt best practices learned from industry leaders or do you shape “next practices” that will make your organization the leader in the future?

5. How effective are you in partnering with customers, suppliers, employees and even your competition to improvise great solutions and co-create the future together?

Matt Goldberg, CEO of Lonely Planet, recently said to me: “The challenge of the 21st century is to transform our organisations to adapt flexibly and rapidly to the ever-changing and volatile environments we face. We will have to reduce cost structures while increasing productivity, adopt new ways of working and invent business models that challenge old ways of thinking, and maintain our commitment to innovation and growth even as we make the transition away from core businesses that have served us so well in the past. It is a high stakes race to position ourselves to respond effectively to the dynamic challenges emerging around us.”

To meet this challenge we need to become better creative leaders. Celebrate passion, diversity and openness and respect courageous new ideas. Companies that fail to nurture creativity and foster innovation now will not be around in 5 to 10 years. It’s worth the risk – get creative!

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by Tania de Jong AM

The global economy swings between signs of recovery and predictions of imminent collapse. Businesses appear paralysed. Though many are cash-rich, they’re risk-averse, strategically incremental and lacking fresh ideas and innovation. The world needs leadership, invention and daring now more than ever. We need audacity not austerity. We need to attack big, wicked, problems that improve the economy and society as a whole. We need to embrace bold ideas that represent real business opportunities and spark a revolution for courage and change.

Our world faces incredible challenges. We live in a world full of surprises – there’s something about technology that brings us ever closer to the margins than we could go before: drilling oil deeper, taking greater banking risks and even increasing the number of aeroplanes in our skies. When things go wrong and the oil leaks, or the finance sector collapses, or volcanic ash clouds block our skies, they go very wrong indeed.

Inevitably as technology progresses, the extent of associated risks does too and our lives in this new millennium will be, as they already are, filled with large surprises. We face the certainty of uncertainty. Individuals and organisations need creative new ideas and innovative solutions to adapt to constant change and re-invent the future.

Strategic creativity is increasingly valuable to nations, communities and individuals making the transition to innovation and knowledge-based economies. Creativity and innovation are vital for businesses exposed to globalisation, increased competition, consumer diversity and rapidly changing technology. Tomorrow’s competitive success will be based on creative ideas.

The development of people who can imagine and create innovative new solutions is the key to future success and sustainability. The recent IBM CEO Global Study surveyed 1500 CEOs and identified creativity as the most important leadership attribute over the next five years in an increasingly complex global environment. This study is the largest known sample of one-on-one CEO interviews, with over 1,500 corporate heads and public sector leaders across 60 nations and 33 industries polled on what drives them in managing their companies in today’s world.

So what is creative leadership?

Creative Leadership has been defined as the ability to shed long-held beliefs and develop and introduce original and at times radical concepts and execution. This requires bold, breakthrough thinking. This isn’t about having a lone creative leader at the top but rather a “field” of creative leadership, by igniting the collective creativity of the organisation from the bottom up. In essence, creative leaders excel at creating creative leaders.

The IBM report identifies a group of standout organisations that delivered solid business results even during the recent downturn. Their revenue growth was six times higher than the rest of the sample and they plan to get 20 per cent of revenues from new sources in the near future.

How do these firms succeed? These top performers focus on developing creative leaders across their organisations, deepening partnerships with employees and customers and achieving operational agility. Creative leaders in these firms are more prepared and willing to make deeper business model changes to realise their strategies. To win, they take more calculated risks and keep innovating in how they lead and communicate. They are ready to upset the status quo even if it’s successful and are committed to ongoing experimentation with disruptive business solutions.

Changing the work culture, unlearning and selectively forgetting past success formulas, and co-creating future products and services with employees, customers, and external partners are hallmarks of creative leaders in organizations from the US, Europe, and Asia. Firms exhibiting creative leadership out-performed their competition during the recession.

Let’s stop saying we are creative and innovative and start doing. We need to develop creative and courageous leaders and build a culture of innovation where failure is acceptable and successfully implemented ideas are rewarded and celebrated.

For more information, please visit:
www.creativeuniverse.com.au
www.ci2012.com.au

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Hal Gregersen and Jeff Dyer of Forbes Magazine have found that successful leaders personally understand how innovation happens and they try to imprint their behaviors as processes and philosophies within their organization. Creative Innovation Conference 2012 will bring together leaders and emerging talent to discover cross-disciplinary solutions that will make a difference and showcase the world’s best practice solutions and ideas for the development of sustainable and innovative futures for businesses.

Read more: http://www.forbes.com/sites/innovatorsdna/2012/09/05/how-innovative-leaders-maintain-their-edge/

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With well over 100 outstanding applicants received from around Australia, the selection panel has named 10 winners of the Innovation Leader Scholarships for Ci2012.

Thanks to all applicants for the time and effort put into the scholarship applications. Special Congratulations to the 10 Scholarship winners below – each of which will receive a place at Ci2012 enabling them to meet and discuss ideas and issues with other creative thinkers and an opportunity to present their work to the audience.

• Susan Barton (VIC) – Founder/Director of The Lighthouse Foundation
• Jami Bladel (TAS) – Artistic Director and CEO of Kickstart Arts Tasmania
• Sally Hill (NSW) – Founder and Editor of Sustahood
• Rowan Lamont (QLD) – Founding Director of Transformative Technology Research Group
• Dr Shelley Meagher (VIC) – Co-Founder of Do it on the Roof
• Avis Mulhall (NSW) – Founder of Think Act Change, Loo Loo Paper and Co-Founder of mmMule.com
• Darryl Nichols (NSW) – Co-Founder of The Garage Sale Trail
• Julian O’Shea (VIC) – Founding Director of Engineers Without Borders Institute
• Susan Wade (VIC) – PhD candidate in the Faculty of Education at Monash University focusing on gifted individuals on the autism spectrum
• Arron Wood (VIC) – Founder of the Kids Teaching Kids program

For further information, please refer to the media release: https://www.creativeinnovationglobal.com.au/wp-content/uploads/120905_Media-Release_Creative-Innovation-2012-Scholarship-Winners_FINAL.pdf

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Great opportunities can be harnessed from the CSIRO’s identified six interlinked megatrends that will dramatically shift how people, communities and countries interact over the next 20 years.

The shrinking supply of natural resources and habitats, changing needs of growing and aging populations combined with the exponentially increasing world of digital connectivity all impact on our expectations for our lives and future generations.

The solutions to these wicked problems require creative and innovative approaches which will be addressed at Creative Innovation 2012. The challenge is on!

Follow this link to CSIRO’s report released today http://www.csiro.au/en/Portals/Partner/Futures/Our-Future-World.aspx

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