Mind Tools for Managers

Chapter 8Foster Creativity and Innovation

As a manager, you are always looking for ways to improve performance – for example, by making your products and services more attractive or by increasing internal efficiency. Many of the tools we discussed in previous chapters help you do this – they are ways of generating continuous improvements within an established framework. But sometimes you need or have an opportunity to move into uncharted territory – to innovate. This might mean creating a new product or service that hasn't been seen before, or it might mean trying out radically different ways of working.

This chapter introduces a range of tools that help you with creativity and innovation. For many managers, this is uncomfortable territory because, by definition, innovation means trying something new and accepting the risk that it may not work out. And there is often a feeling that innovation is someone else's job – the R&D department or the business development team.

Our view is that all managers can be creative and innovative and that they need to encourage people in their teams to be so as well. But we know this isn't easy. You need to develop strong social and political skills to sell your innovative ideas to others in the organization, a topic we address in Chapters 16 and 17. And you need frameworks and stimuli to help you think outside of the box – to come up with creative ideas that you can then explore in detail. That is what this chapter is all about.

The first two ...