CREATIVITY

For me creativity stems from different sources. For instance, you may trigger it through “a new way of connecting the dots” exercise: you need to stay open-minded, seize different perspectives and next put them together in a bold and novel way. Inspiration may come from various sources and the trick is to know how to induce the linkage and exchange between stakeholders to integrate them into a simple solution, i.e. a creative idea…

Sometimes it is not necessarily about revolution or disruptive technology, but more about continuous evolution based on the new pieces of knowledge gained through the incremental effort of asking questions and making improvements. One of the ways for such incremental innovation process underling the above is ”the lesson learned method”. I believe that this is a wonderful exercise for a team to build trust and foster improvements.

Lessons learned – learnings gained throughout project execution. It is an element of quality, a basis for reflection and a good habit to launch each new project from a different and better starting point.

Kaizen – never rest on your laurels, and make the first step instead, otherwise everything will collapse. Kaizen is a Japanese word for ”improvement” or ”change for better”. It refers to the philosophy or practices focused on continuous improvement of processes in manufacturing, engineering and business management.

PDCA – Edwards Deming placed great importance and responsibility on the management team, at the individual and at the corporate level. In fact, he claimed that the management was behind 94% of all quality issues. His fourteen-point plan represents a comprehensive philosophy of management applicable to large or small organizations in the public, private or service sectors. Deming believed that by adopting these fourteen points and acting on them, the management sends a message that they intend to stay in business. He also advanced a systematic approach to problem solving and promoted the widely known Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA) cycle. The PDCA cycle is also known as the Deming cycle, although it was actually developed by one of his colleagues, Dr. Shewhart. The cycle defines a universal methodology of improvement: the idea is that with on-going improvements you will reduce the gap between customers’ requirements and process performance. The cycle is rooted in learning and on-going improvement, and drawing systematic conclusions about what works and what does not work. It is self-perpetuating: the end of each cycle triggers another one.