Rating: 
Summary: "The Power of the Unexpected"
Review: "Most companies are aware that their creative 'potential' greatly exceeds their creative 'performance.' The problem is that they don't know what to do about it. We believe that this potential cannot be realized until people recognize where it actually lies. Consider this. Most creative acts, as they now occur in companies, are not planned for and come from where they are least expected. It is impossible to predict 'what' they will be, 'who' will be involved in them, and 'when' and 'how' they will happen. This is the true nature of corporate creativity, and it is here that a company's creative potential really lies. For corporate creativity, the real power is in the unexpected" (from the Introduction).In this context, in describing the corporate creativity, Alan G. Robinson and Sam Stern write that a company is creative when its employees do something new and potentially useful without being directly shown and taught. And they argue that in every unexpected creative act the following six essential elements are key to promoting consistent corporate creativity: 1. 'Alignment' is the degree to which the interests and actions of every employee support the organization's key goals. Strong alignment requires three things: *clarity about what the key goals of the organization are, *commitment to initiatives that promote the key goals, *accountability for actions that affect the key goals. 2. 'Self-initiated activity.' The majority of creative acts in companies are self-initiated, which explains why they are unanticipated by management. To promote it, companies only have to unleash what is already present. The key is an effective system for responding to employee ideas, which must have five characteristics. The system must: *reach everyone, *be easy to use, *have strong follow-through, *document ideas, *be based on intrinsic motivation. 3. 'Unofficial activity,' work done without direct official support, is what makes it possible for a company to go where it never expected to. Every unexpected creative act begins with a period of unofficial activity, which might be a matter of minutes or years. 4. 'Serendipity' combines a fortunate accident with sagacity. Fortunate accidents can be promoted through strategies that provoke and exploit accidents. Sagacity can be promoted by expanding the company's human potential beyond its immediate needs. 5. 'Diverse stimuli.' A stimulus can either push someone in a completely new direction or give that person fresh insight into what her or she has already set out to do. There are four strategies companies can use to promote diverse stimuli: *identify stimuli and provide them to employees, *rotate employees into every job they are capable of doing, *arrange for employees to interact with those outside the company who are likely to be the source of stimuli, *create opportunities for employees to bring into thr organization stimuli they get on their own. 6. 'Within-company communication.' Every company tries to ensure effective communication between employees who depend on each other to do their work. However, most organizations overlook the importance of unanticipated communication between employees who do not normally work together. And these exchanges of information often lead to unexpected creative acts. There are three ways a company can promote within-company communication: *provide opportunities for employees who do not normally interact with each other to meet, *ensure that every employee has a sufficient understanding of the organization's activities to be able to tap its resources and expertise, *create a new organizational priority: all employees should know the importance of being responsive to requests for information or help from other employees. Finally, Robinson and Stern write that "If the six elements are implemented in your organization, its overall level of creativity will certainly rise. Use them yourself and you may very well find yourself in the middle of a creative act...Our journey led us to 'discover' the power of the unexpected. Your journey will lead you to 'realize' it." Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining stories, but implementation is up to you
Review: "That was interesting, but I'm not clear how to put it to use." As with many business books, I suspect many readers will have this reaction to Corporate Creativity. The book does a marvelous job of entertaining the reader with stories and examples of creativity. The authors should be applauded for digging out the buried true details of corporate creativity. (The section on the Soviet Stakhanovite movement alone yields a historical lesson worth the price of the book.) On the negative side of the ledger, I found two major flaws: analytical weakness in discussions of some central concepts, and a relative neglect of how to apply the principles to your organization. The chapter on the relationship between creativity and intelligence exemplifies the book's analytical weakness. The authors cite research claiming to demonstrate the absence of any significant link between risk-taking and creativity. But they fail clearly to explain what they mean by "risk" and do not distinguish it from recklessness. Creativity does require taking risks, even if that means the psychological risks of being wrong, or feeling embarrassed. This chapter does include some surprising and important results. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are distinguished then several studies brought out to make the point that extrinsic motivation in the form of rewards encourages people to take the quickest and surest route to a goal, but not necessarily the most creative. While stimulating and important, this discussion of motivation is not entirely convincing. Clearly, intrinsic motivation is the gold standard, but the authors go too far in slighting extrinsic motivation (whether bonuses, stock options, prizes, etc.). The authors offer six principles of corporate creativity: Alignment, self-initiated activity, unofficial activity, serendipity, diverse stimuli, within-company communication. They illustrate each of these with numerous entertaining stories, but the lessons learned and how to apply them are relegated to a couple of pages at the end of each chapter. This book would provide much more value by trading off some story-telling for more implementation planning. Sometimes the authors provide at least a primer on implementing their six principles. For example, they briefly offer five characteristics of a system that promotes self-initiated activity: The system must reach everyone; the system must be easy to use; the system must have strong follow-through; the system must document ideas; and the system must be based on intrinsic motivation. Their first, and perhaps most crucial principle is alignment, defined as "the degree to which the interests and actions of every employee support the organization's key goals". Yet, despite numerous fascinating examples, the reader is left without much idea of how to ensure alignment. Other books, such as Geoffrey Moore's Living on the Fault Line, do a better job of showing how to align organizations and their cultures in ways specific to their marketplace. Overall, anyone concerned with corporate creativity will benefit by skimming the book, focusing on the end-of-chapter summaries and working out for themselves how to implement these principles.
Rating:
Summary: Pleasant read, Useful insights, Not too Practical.
Review: A well written book with lots (maybe even too many) examples of unexpected creativity. Boils down to 6 areas which you need to boost to increase creativity: corporate alignment, self-initiated activity, unofficial activity, serendipity, diverse stimuli, and within-company communication The chapter on serendipity is not really convincing. The book is rather short on practical advice. Provides a list of questions to help you 'start unleashing corporate creativity'. This is where the book is a bit of a let down. Overall a pleasant read with useful insights.
Rating:
Summary: Well written with interesting examples
Review: Corporate Creativity is not an oxymoron. Robinson and Stern have written a good book that explores the key concepts that based on their work differentiate a creative organization from those that are not. The key steps the book expands on are that corporate creativity stems from: 1-Allignment 2-Self initiated activity 3-Unofficial activity 4-Serendipity 5-Deverse Stimuli 6-Within-company communication While the book does a great job at exploring these concepts and gives excellent examples, what I found lacking was the "how-to" compontent. As the author of Aha! - 10 Ways To Free Your Creative Spirit and Find Your Great Ideas, I am always looking for good books on the topic I am most passionate about. As far as creativity books, this one takes a unique perspective, the corporate rather than the individual. I applaud their work in this regard. Their examples are well-researched, and from a variety of industries. If you are looking to dig deep into the field of organizational creativity, this is an excellent addition to your library.
Rating:
Summary: Well written with interesting examples
Review: Corporate Creativity is not an oxymoron. Robinson and Stern have written a good book that explores the key concepts that based on their work differentiate a creative organization from those that are not. The key steps the book expands on are that corporate creativity stems from: 1-Allignment 2-Self initiated activity 3-Unofficial activity 4-Serendipity 5-Deverse Stimuli 6-Within-company communication While the book does a great job at exploring these concepts and gives excellent examples, what I found lacking was the "how-to" compontent. As the author of Aha! - 10 Ways To Free Your Creative Spirit and Find Your Great Ideas, I am always looking for good books on the topic I am most passionate about. As far as creativity books, this one takes a unique perspective, the corporate rather than the individual. I applaud their work in this regard. Their examples are well-researched, and from a variety of industries. If you are looking to dig deep into the field of organizational creativity, this is an excellent addition to your library.
Rating:
Summary: A clear look at where creative ideas come from!
Review: Creativity is critical to a company's long term survival. Without the development of creative thought within the organization, companies will be trapped within the paradigm of their existing business and will not be able to adapt to the needs and changes in the world around them. In Corporate Creativity, Robinson and Stern develop a clear definition of the attributes necessary for successful corporate creativity with strategies to help develop these attributes. I found the real world stories illustrating the necessity for corporate creativity to make the points clear as the authors discussed the need for corporate alignment, self-initiated activity, unofficial activity, serendipity, diverse stimuli, and within-company communication to be informative and enjoyable. Learning some of the history behind the invention of Nutrasweet, Teflon, and barcodes made the creative process come to life. This book is a must read for anyone who believes that their company is not doing everything possible to develop creative thought within the organization.
Rating:
Summary: hi
Review: hi. i liked this book. guys. ok. hi. again. books. shorts. bye. jerky
Rating:
Summary: hi
Review: hi. i liked this book. guys. ok. hi. again. books. shorts. bye. jerky
Rating: 
Summary: Kind of disappointing
Review: I was disappointed at the lack of practical suggestions and techniques. This book seems to want to inspire without giving specific practical tools and techniques on how to do it. This is not the book for me. I'll keep looking.
Rating:
Summary: Triple Crown!
Review: Outstanding work by Robinson & Stern! This book wins the Triple Crown. The first crown is for bringing in academic research, the second for real-world experience, the third for practical application. The numerous backgrounds that reference specific studies and research add credibility and initiate construction on the framework for most of Robinson & Stern's (R&S) points. References to the JMA's work is also noteworthy. These hard numbers give R&S the data to back their points, and gave me the *data* I needed to make my case. In more traditional "business book" fashion, copious references to real-world business experiences bring the researcher's statistics onto the shop floor, and into the office. The pages devoted to American Airlines are especially good. The work here reflected a consultant's-eye-view, with many high level surveys of situations. Last, the practical application method is a good start, and is probably the best approach given R&S's audience. I think, if a creativity strategy is to work, there are broader cultural issues that need more attention, and there are interpersonal issues that need to drive training. I'm new to the topic, with only a smidgen of experience, and a few books under my belt, but five minutes into this book I was saying to myself, "Ah ha, this is what I wanted!".
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