Innovating with Creativity

In many sectors, innovation depends on a continuous search for novelty. This requires collaborative efforts between individuals and the interaction of individual and collective creativity. In this sense, innovation represents an “organized and organizational activity” that involves collective and collaborative forms.

“It’s precisely in the context of innovation that the main paradoxes involving creativity are emphasized,” highlights Professor Stefano Cirella. “According to one of these paradoxes, for example, the continuous creation of something new requires balance, as well as the combination of the freedom of the ‘creatives’ with stability and structure in the process. Rigidity can inhibit creativity, but unlimited freedom can also be counterproductive. Additionally, ‘creatives’ may sometimes find it challenging to naturally engage in creative interactions with others, such as dealing with different viewpoints or having their ideas criticized.”

What It Means to Foster Creativity

Supporting creativity, especially in creative industries, involves providing freedom to groups of creatives while also intentionally designing structures and routines at the collective level. In fact, most creative ideas result from exchanges in collective spaces where interactions, through dialogue and debate, trigger ideas.

Catmull notes that “in cinema and many other types of complex product development, creativity involves a large number of people from various disciplines working together effectively to solve many problems.” The way such groups are assembled, for instance concerning team composition and diversity, varies widely and has different impacts on collective creativity.

Many aspects of collective creativity are discussed in the literature, such as its outcomes and sense-making processes. However, a managerial perspective remains elusive and is largely absent from research on practices for developing collective creativity.

“A series of qualitative and quantitative studies have focused on identifying the organizational variables that support and facilitate collective creative processes occurring within groups and between teams,” continues the professor. “These variables concentrate on predicting stability and a balanced structure in the creative process. Therefore, the term ‘organizational variables’ (or more generally ‘variables’) specifically refers to organizational/managerial design.”

Organizational Variables

In terms of outcomes, five variables are proposed to support collective creativity:

• A structured process;
• Team diversity related to the nature of the work;
• The team’s openness to the outside;
• Adequate resources;
• Support from appropriate technology.

“These variables contribute to understanding how collective creativity can be managerially developed in innovation contexts, where tensions between creative ethics and the need for stability are particularly strong,” concludes Cirella. “It is interesting to note how these variables, in their mix of technical aspects (resources, technologies) and team aspects (diversity, team openness), along with the variable related to process structuring (including defining roles, phases, and goals), together represent a socio-technical view of creative processes. Therefore, even regarding creativity, understood as collective creativity, organizational design that jointly considers social and technical aspects remains fundamental.”