How to manage creativity while working with different stakeholders from different country ? A presentation also available in Video on Youtube http://youtu.be/7UVSr4mPyuA A presentation made by Viktor Scholtend, PhD and professor at TU Delft, Netherlands for the European project KARIM (www.karimnetwork.com)

1. Break barriers – Think creative
Brussels – 28 February 2013

2. We all know these games and tricks
Link the 9 dots with 4 straight lines without ever taking the pen off the paper.
1
2
3
4

3. And we also know these brain teasers that drive you crazy.

5. IDEO’s approah to creativity
Human Centred Design

6. 5

9. 8
Creative work atmosphere

10. A ‘low tack’ reusable
and pressure
sensitive adhesive.
Dr. Spence Silver

11. Responsible Innovation within SMEs
It seems if we want to be creative,
we need to break with the
dominant logic
• Escape existing mental models
• Decouple commitment to
allocated resources
• Flexible budgeting and allocation
• Installed-based customers?

12. Responsible Innovation within SMEs
Also some companies have provided
• Time to experiment within the
working hours
• Allow for trial, error and failure
• Developed incentive structures/
ownership of ideas
Gain control by giving up control

13. But maybe we can facilitate
creative behaviour, in the end
we need good ideas.
And where do good ideas
originate?
Strategic inflection points
• Leading customers
• Most advanced and demanding
• Not necessarily largest
• Leading suppliers
• Competitors
• New firms/ firms in related areas
• Research institutions/ academe
• … we need to bridge to others

14. • Learning that takes place continually within a single domain may be more
dependent on, and hence situated within, a single context than learning
which spans multiple domains.
• Learning in one domain (local search) provides little new knowledge and
improvements are mostly incremental, hence performance increase is likely
not to deviate much from current performance levels.
• To innovate, problem solvers must disentangle the extant knowledge
learned in the context of one domain in order to see how it could be
valuable in another.

15. • Bridging to other networks provides access to knowledge domains more
distant from current ones
• Especially for new ventures to succeed, entrepreneurs must attend to
building new ties that link others to these ventures for a discussion of the
differential advantages of bridging and building network ties
• These bridging ties change the network into more sparsely connected
networks with many weak ties that enjoy brokerage advantages based on
the ability to arbitrage nonredundant information exchanges, whereas
bonding ties reflect the strong and dense network ties that promote trust
and cooperation among its members.

16. • Bridging ties
• Connecting with people in
networks that are disconnected
from other networks
• Information benefits
• Time benefits
• Referral and scope benefits for
better evaluation
• Negotiation benefit
• Bonding ties
• Connecting the people within
existing networks
• Same information, same
experience, same cognitions,
same language
• Communication benefits
• Fast development
• But little new information, less
creativity

17. Networking and importance of bridging and bonding ties

18. Networks provide two things
1. They help you identify opportunities to be creative
2. They help you capture value from an opportunity
But if we only have bonding ties, it may speed up innovation but we
got stuck on an idea problem, having too many bridging ties
provides us with more novel information, a source to be creative,
but we may have an action problem
bonding ties
Bridging ties

19. #3. Search
Cannot find good help
# 4. Transfer
Cannot work together
“wrong chemistry”
Ability
#1. Not-invented here
Do not want to
reach out
# 2. Hoarding
Do not want to help
Motivation
Four barriers in network collaboration that limit creativity
and execution of creative ideas
Idea problem
Action problem

20. Problem to identify opportunities
Not invented here
- Rule 1: build outward, not inward
Search
- Rule 2: build diversity not size
- Rule 3: build bridges, don’t use familiar faces
- Rule 4: build weak ties not strong
Problem to capture value
Hoarding
- Rule 5: swarm target, do not go it alone
Transfer
- Rule 6: Switch to strong do not rely on weak

21. Step 1. Build your network outward, not inward
• Build a sizeable network outside of you own unit and country
Step 2. Build Network Diversity, not Size
• Build to different kinds of units, knowledge, demographics
(gender, nationality, age….), professions, life styles, interests….
• Many contacts to similar people less value

22. Step 3. Build weak ties, not strong
• Weak ties = infrequent contacts, less close
• Weak ties provide access to new knowledge and help search in large
companies
• Not part of cliques that circulate old news
Step 4. Use Bridges, don’t go it alone
• Networks run on intermediaries or bridges: people who help others
connect
• A good number of bridges needed: needs to be cultivated, known
and used

23. Step 5. In difficult network situations, need to influence other party
(swarming) so that they will help out —it is not automatic
• Influence tactics: what can you do?
Common Link. Enlist people you both know.
Common good. Appeal to the common good (“one company”)
Reciprocity. “You help me now, I help you later.”
Threaten. “Help me, or else….”
Escalate. Ask your boss to talk to his boss……
Step 6. Switch from weak to strong ties in tough project situations
• You need strong ties (frequent and close) for working together on
complicated things
• Invest in team-building ahead of time

24. Effective = Identify Opportunities X Capture Value
Network
for Creativity 1. Built outward 5. Swarming targets
2. Diverse network 6. Switching to strong ties
3. Many weak ties
4. Many Bridges

25. Our Current
Market
Our New
Market
Spin-offs
Licensing
Other firm’s
market
Internal Technology
External
Technology
Technology
Sourcing
Research DevelopmentBridging ties to
external information in
order to recombine
information for more
radical innovation
Bridging ties to
external information in
order to recombine
information for more
radical innovation
Bonding ties to speed
up the process of
incremental innovation
or to make the process
more efficient

26. Break barriers – Think creative