Igniting creativity to transform corporate culture: Catherine Courage at TEDxKyoto 2012

[Music] if I was to ask you what is CEOs view as the most crucial factor for business success what would you say some of you might think business rigor perhaps vision maybe even manager discipline but you'd be mistaken according to a study by IBM the number one factor identified for business success believe it or not is creativity but we have a problem these leaders say that creativity is core to business success however they're unknowingly choking it out of the business environment so how do we bridge this gap as a design leader in Silicon Valley for a dozen years I've been spending some time thinking about this problem and I believe we have a fundamental misunderstanding of creativity we need to start by rejecting the notion that creativity belongs to a select few that it's owned by the creative right brain thinkers the painters the playwrights the poets and that it's unavailable to the more logical left brain thinkers the mathematicians computer scientists engineers I'm here to tell you today we all have the capacity for creative thinking in fact creativity is a birthright available to all but used by few once we come to accept and acknowledge the fact that we can all be creative thinkers we can focus on its development so how do we ignite creativity the answer is in our past Picasso once said every child is an artist the problem is staying an artist when you grow up I'd like to invite you all to take a moment step back to your childhood we questioned the world we were curious about everything and we were naturally observant did you know the average preschooler asked 100 questions a day we can draw a lot of inspiration about creativity our childhood it starts by opening our minds looking for new possibilities and challenging the status quo just like parents foster creativity and their children we must do the same in the workplace so how do we change I'd like to share three strategies three strategies I believe everyone in this room can use to bring creativity to their workplace let's start by talking about environments environments are the foundation for creative thinking if you look at most business environments today this is what they look like not very inspiring boring bland rows of cubes equally boring and uninspiring meeting rooms and the tools that we use generic computers wine notebooks black pins one of the core aspects of creative thinking is ideation exploring a variety of ideas collaborating and these kinds of spaces and tools just don't foster that behavior but think back to your childhood these are the kinds of spaces you've worked and played in a variety of different locations for different kinds of activities bold bright colorful energetic and the tools we used blank paper colored pencils pens paint markers everything we needed for imagination and creation the good news companies are catching on and they're recognizing the importance of the environment Microsoft Google Lego just to name a few are investing in spaces like these they're getting the importance of creating a variety of spaces for employees at Citrix where I work we opened a design collaboration space inspired by the design school at Stanford it's 2,000 square feet of wide open space filled with whiteboards tables fools it's easily configurable so you can create any kind of unique working environment creative supplies are everywhere at your fingertips the room is available at all times designed for spontaneous collaboration a radical change happened when we open this space it was pretty incredible instead of preaching about the merits of collaboration and ideation we started seeing it happen real time every day and even better employees are telling us they love this new way of working and they are coming up with better ideas that are impacting our products environment is the foundation for creative thinking a second way that we can all ignite creativity in our workplace is through experiments but the problem we have is we are so laser focused on execution on process on efficiency that we're missing the opportunity for innovation we create cultures where we are afraid to fail and as a result we do the same thing again and again and again because it's what we know and it feels safe but we aren't able to innovate by repeating the same thing we get trapped in this cycle of micro improvements of incremental ism and missing out on that great opportunity for creative innovation go back to your childhood there was no one way to build a tower of blocks or to make a fantastic creation from play-doh to build a snowman after a snowfall and if we failed it was okay it was part of the process we need to bring this mindset back to the workplace Thomas Edison made a thousand unsuccessful attempts before inventing the light bulb but he saw this as part of the process he said the light bulb was an invention with a thousand step we need to embrace this mindset of experimenting we need to learn to fail fast and fail early we need to take our ideas and improve them and iterate them this is how ideas go from good to spectacular a really great way to do this is through prototypes prototypes are models created cheaply and quickly using everyday items you can take these prototypes and you can show them to customers you can explore a broad array of ideas with prototypes throw away the ones that don't work and continue to refine the ones that do it's the best way to experiment and fail fast fail early a really famous example of prototyping comes from IDEO a design agency in Silicon Valley they used this prototype made from a marker a film canister and a clothespin and they brought it to surgeons this prototype resonated so well with the surgeons that they were able to come up with a whole host of ideas of how to improve this surgical device and bring it to life idea was able to use this great information and feedback to refine the idea and ultimately generate a real surgical device that tripled the clients revenue in this product space so although experimenting and prototyping may in some way seem like child's play it's actually driving real innovation and business success a third way that you can all ignite creativity in the workplace is through storytelling ted is the most fantastic example of storytelling spreading ideas through stories that touch people but in the business environment we have just lost the art of storytelling I think we've all sat through this presentation a stack of cold boring bullets on a screen no emotion no context what have we done stories have the ability to inspire and persuade like these kinds of presentations never will like fax reports and charts just can't rewind a childhood we were all natural storytellers we told stories through roleplay we empathized with our characters and captured the hearts minds and imagination of our audience we need to bring this back to the work environment stories have a really powerful ability to package information context and emotion there are a few things that I believe makes stories really really successful first of all they start with passion and emotion and vision they're not at all about constraints and timelines they make your customer the hero someone that your audience wants to invent for they're hanging on every word they want to see that customer succeed and lastly stories drive conversations they're not just one-way monologues they leave the audience wanting more they want to understand they want to help bring your idea to life one of my favorite examples of story LED innovation comes from GE Healthcare Doug Dietz an industrial designer for 20 years decided he was going to go out and see his MRIs being used in the hospital and he made a really unexpected discovery this experience of a child receiving an MRI the child was crying in the hallway and the father leaned down and said remember I told you you have to be brave Doug was so moved by this experience that he wanted to learn more he discovered that many children have to be sedated because this experience of an MRI is so terrifying this increased risk cost and stress on the family and the child doug was so determined to solve this problem he went back to GE health care and told this story a group of people were so inspired that they wanted to work with him they wanted to change the ending of this story and the results is pretty incredible they developed the adventure series of scanners this one is actually called the cosy camp experience and as soon as the child opens the door they're off on a camping adventure they snuggle into a sleeping bag and when they go into the MRI machine it's now an adventure in a tent he and his team completely transformed this experience from one of Terror risk and cost to one of complete joy pretty incredible the good news is lots of companies are getting the importance of stories these are pictures from my workplace people are telling stories with their ideas using prototypes and bringing them to life creativity has the power for invention and ultimate success environments experiments and storytelling are just a few of the ways that I believe you can inject it into your workplace but remember creativity is a birthright it's available to all but used by few so I ask you to embrace empower and insist on creativity in your workplace and watch the ideas unfold thank you take [Applause] you [Applause]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 207,804

Keywords: tedx, ted, tedx talk, tedx talks, ted talk, ted talks, ted x, Design, Japan, TEDxKyoto, English

Id: 01Y7qlPFpqw

Length: 13min 49sec (829 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 17 2012