Management Innovation - Report Example

Full Management Innovation (Creative and Productive Thinking) 26 May (estimated word count 472) Management Innovation Day One – our first day in class was pretty much a routine. We had an overview of what the class is all about and we also had to introduce ourselves individually to the class. It is the usual way of introduction except for a unique and fun way to do it, which was to throw a stuffed monkey around to a classmate and the one who caught it is to introduce himself after. It was an “ice breaker” of sorts but it broke the monotony of this usual first-day class exercise. It gave us the wonderful opportunity to know each other more, in terms of objectives in life and each students major subjects and their personal backgrounds. It helped to facilitate the process of knowing each person and to develop closer personal and professional relationships. Afterwards, we took the “Epstein Creativity Competencies Inventory for Individuals Test” which essentially measures four kinds of skills that people need to express creativity. It is a test that was appropriate since this is an “Innovation” course and heightened our interest to see what the test results say about you and your overall creative approach in life. The good professor later on had us work in pairs and asked us to come up with ten new ideas about how to improve the physical creativity levels at Suffolk University. The whole experience was generally pleasant and mostly enjoyable for most of us. It gave us the wonderful insight how useful it is to get out of our comfort zones once in a while. The idea was to challenge ourselves to try out something entirely new or something different. Our professor made the whole experiment a fun experience to prove that contrary to common wisdom, there is no harm in trying something difficult, unusual or out of the normal, perhaps even a bit deviant as what Walt Disney once said, “Its kind of fun to try the impossible.” Day Two – the topic we discussed was from Chapter One and it was an interesting subject entitled “Productive thinking is about freedom” which essentially meant that the time when we are free (from our worries, frustrations and other concerns) that we come up with the most creative and positive ideas. The power of positive and creative thinking was illustrated by the example of caterpillars. These little crawling insects always follow the one in front of it (leader of the pack) without much thought and a cute experiment was conducted to show how mindless caterpillars can be when they are made to crawl around in circles. This goes on and one until such time the caterpillars go hungry and starve themselves to death going in circles. The chain only broke down when some of the caterpillars were so hungry and starved that the hungry no longer followed the leader, maybe got confused or disoriented as to the direction. Another creative game we had was to come up with 3 different words containing the same word. As example, the word phone can be used in: phone-call, payphone and cellphone. At first these games seem kind of silly and naïve, but after awhile you realized they make you think in irregular and creative ways in which you struggle at first but end up enjoying. Above all, since this is an innovation course, this mental exercise is very relevant for active thinking. All these activities are designed to force people to think differently, perhaps for the very first time in their lives in a serious manner in order to solve some problem or dilemma. At this point, I am also reminded of the “Six Thinking Hats” by Edward de Bono. He pioneered the idea of using different mindsets in order to solve a perplexing problem which in most instances require creativity (Leonard 220). This idea is contained in his lateral thinking concept by which people can see things in a different perspective and come up with the right answers. He argued that ordinary thinking which is logical and linear puts severe limitations and advocates “thinking outside the box” which is similar to what the great Albert Einstein had in mind, “Problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them.” Day Three – lateral thinking advocated by de Bono is actually creative thinking. It is characterized by doing away with all prior assumptions, so a fresh look at a certain problem is encouraged that is devoid of any preconceived notions about it. It frees the mind to explore all possible options available; people can sometimes be likened to an elephant, which since birth is attached to its mother and refuses to leave its side. This tether prevents the elephant from going on its own way, and this precisely describes our minds when we have assumptions that may seem logical, rational and straightforward. People can get distressingly stubborn due to these wrong notions about what may work and what will not work, preventing them from the essential element of seeing things in an entirely new light or in a different perspective and try to attempt something new not previously tried before. People can lock their minds into certain patterns or routines of thinking, such that any disruption can be jarring but also creative. Most people are like that young elephant, even if the tether is removed, it will still not move away as it thinks it is still being tied although it is now entirely free to move around. We discussed Chapter Two on Day 3 and it was very enlightening for all of us. There were mental relaxation exercises, with the purpose of freeing the mind to incite new ideas. It is encouraged that people try this mental calisthenics often when they are stumped for answer to a problem. The idea is to generate all probable solutions, including those which may at first seem nonsense, but in reality offers the best solution. It is almost akin to heuristics, in which a good number of possible solutions are generated quickly and then find the best alternative. It was de Bono who showed creative thinking can actually be taught even to ordinary people; it was once previously thought only geniuses are capable of creative or lateral thinking. The big idea is to go beyond the usual, by removing our imaginary tethers (like that young elephant). “Its not what you don’t know that hurts you. Its what you know that aint so,” or as Aristotle famously said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Day Four – we discussed Chapter Three today and we got a few surprises. One of the great but pleasant surprise is that people tend to think quick, instead of being deliberate and in the process taking a long time to come up with something. Humans are highly-evolved specie but we somehow still retained that instinctive thinking response, not different from the fight or flight mentality of our early cave-dwelling ancestors. This startling insight has even found an application in the field of business marketing, in which people tend to respond to a new ad photo or a catchy slogan in rather quick reflective thinking and make split-second decisions. Malcolm Gladwell, the author of “The Tipping Point: How Little Things can Make a Big Difference” emphasized how people are influenced by other people they view as more or less influential in society, and so majority of people follow the herd (so-called herd mentality) without much thought. However, in his succeeding book entitled “Blink,” he talked on how in most instances, our thinking process happens quick, literally in the blink of an eye (Malcolm 5) in which a series of conclusions are arrived at in the first two seconds. The implication of this insight is that when one encounters a new idea, we immediately make value judgments on it whether to accept it or reject it outright which Gladwell termed as rapid cognition. Our professor divided us into groups so each group can discuss common problems. A group member talked about his former girlfriend, and we somehow have to relate it to random pages in a magazine. What we found on a certain page of that magazine was an advertisement for a camera. So, we have to connect these two seemingly unrelated events to try our power at creative thinking; and surprise, what we came up with was a “weird” idea of creating a sort of software application that detects the faces of people and allows the user to blur their faces but without completely erasing the entire photo. This apparently seems to solve this problem as it helps heartbroken lovers to forget their former boyfriends or girlfriends and get on with their lives. At any rate, the old adage still holds true, “First impressions are really lasting.” Works Cited Gladwell, Malcolm. Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking. New York, NY, USA: Penguin Books Limited, 2006. Print. Leonard, David C. Learning Theories, A-Z. Santa Barbara, CA, USA: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002. Print. Read More