How to Find and Amplify Creativity
by Bruce Nussbaum

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2013/03/how_to_find_and_amplify_creati.html

This article presents fascinating  and profound concepts:

In 2010, IBM ran a survey of 1,500 CEOs and found that the most valuable management skill was no longer "operations" or "marketing" but "creativity." Since then BCG, Accenture and other consultancies have confirmed the global skill shift. Yet, only 9% of all public and private corporations in the US do any product or service innovation, according to the NSF's Business R&D and Innovation Surveys of 2010 and 2011. CEOs say that creativity is a crucial leadership skill, but few apparently have it. 

And no wonder. Managers are trained in the values of efficiency and the skills of quantitative analytic s  That's what most Americans believe in and what most business schools teach. So we now face a difficult transition. After decades of managing to squeeze out profits, how can executives quickly shift to amplifying the creative capacities .of their people. 

Some of the concepts discussed are:

map your circles of creativity. Businesses are pyramids built to promote efficiency. But creativity is generated within circles — playgrounds — where a small number of highly talented people, usually in twos, threes or small teams, work. 

But generating new ideas, even if they're original, is not enough. Creativity needs to scale in order to generate economic value. So you also need to identify your creativity brokers — people with good judgment and access to resources. 

 move toward multi-generational leadership teams. In a period of cascading change, we are all immigrants to new technologies and new shifts in culture. As hard as we try to immerse ourselves, we simply cannot know as much as someone who embodies these changes 

change your consumer frame…. User engagement (UE) is the new creative competence for the future. Think about aura — the things that beckon you and keep you interested — and design it into your products and services as Apple and Nike have done. 

Most corporations with decades of building a culture of efficiency can't organically transform themselves into a den of creativity. They shouldn't try. The odds of success are pretty low. IBM did it. P&G is still trying. GE may make it. But most others won't. Established companies can, however, be a platform for creativity. They can learn to go outside their own walls to identify creativity they can leverage, buy and then scale.