may entail, for example, standing inside a chalked circle say on the factory floor, or retail shop space, or contact centre for a time and ‘simply’ observing. Consider how this deliberate activity can bring together the various factors that promote creativity – mindfulness, curiosity, fun, divergent thinking and imagination. In addition, listening to customer stories and metaphors, using stories to inspire and motivate the group to respond using radically different thinking is advocated by Steve Jobs. 12

graphic capturing of clusters of ideas and connections between these clusters, in order to form and reframe shared mental models that emerge during the process – say with the use of a hexagon on a magnetic board. It thus goes far beyond typical brainstorming and mind-mapping – the Kinetics aspect being a reference to getting the mind to move around the subject, challenge or an object of scrutiny instead of staying in one place. This way you gain different perspectives, a new overview, and an opportunity to re-map it according to new insights – in the same way as we gain perspective and overview by viewing a building from all angles, above, below, within. And this applies to stories too. We interpret them differently on different days – for we are not standing in the same place.

Selection, testing All of the generated ideas need to go through a funneling process, a process of selecting, testing and prioritisation. This may entail making an assessment of their probable value to the organisation and its objectives, and piloting them to prove their validity in practice.

Innovation outcomes Once piloting is completed, with any necessary adjustments made, the innovation can be rolled out. This may be a product, a service, a business process, or a technological innovation. Based on my experiences with organisations,

Fostering Group Synergy De Bono’s six-hats method is a way of enabling a group to look at a situation jointly from 6 different vantage points (information gathering, feelings and intuitions, critique, values and benefits uncovering, generating or brainstorming) and filtering productive ideas and possibilities, keeping perspective by focusing on content and process. We love Cognitive Kinetics.13

This is the visible,

Dorian Haarhoff, co-author of The Halo and the Noose, is a poet, writer and mentor who is steeped in story. He is a former professor of English and acts as a writing coach for local and international clients. He is also a speaker and entertainer. rks Fly HBSP, Boston 1999. 3. Johnson, Steven Where good ideas come from Penguin, 2010. 4. Naomi Stanford Organisation Culture: getting it right The Economist in association with Profile Books Ltd 2010. 5. Haque, Umair Making Room for Reflection is a Strategic Imperative http://blogs.hbr. org/2010/11/reflection_ items_not_action_it.html

6. Kabat-Zinn, Jon Full Catastrophe Living Piatkus, 2003. 7. Jonsen, Karsten & Maznevski, Martha What’s the Future for International Business Research: introducing the concept of scientific

mindfulness http://imd.ch/ research/challenges/TC063-10. cfm?MRK_CMPG_ SOURCE=webletter-sep-10

my firm contention is that innovation is for everyone, and that with a relatively small amount of attention to training and process needs, a culture of innovation can be triggered.

References 42 Management Today | September 2011

2010/09/15 8. Osho Creativity – unleashing the forces within. St