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Order Chic Thompson's books
Book an Innovation/Creativity Seminar
Visit the What A Great Idea Website
Learn more about Chic Thompson
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LAVA Group provides comprehensive innovation services to a variety of companies. Our objective is to help our clients generate relevant, valuable and protectable ideas that they can implement immediately in their business. Chic Thompson, our Chief Creativity Officer, is a renowned expert in the areas of creativity and innovation. He has given over 2500 presentations worldwide on creativity to organizations ranging from Cirque de Soleil to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Chic now provides his services through LAVA Group as our Chief Creativity Officer. We work with clients to achieve this goal in a variety of manners:
The First Step: The Innovation Audit
In certain cases, it is appropriate to get an accurate and complete assessment of the current attitude and approach towards innovation within our client's business so we can approach any recommended changes strategically. An innovation audit enables us to gather necessary information for our analysis. Some of the key aspects of this step include:
- Communication: To ensure that the audit is viewed in the appropriate light, we communicate to the employees that we will be determining how to better leverage their creative genius.
Meetings: We conduct individual meetings with many of our client's employees. These meetings focus on the employees' perception of a variety of innovation factors including:
- Their attitude towards Innovation/Creativity (value, impact, etc.)
- Company's attitude towards innovation/creativity
- Employees' ability to create new ideas
- What to do with a new idea once created
- Ability to share new ideas with peers and supervisors
- What role creativity/innovation plays in their positions
- The importance of new ideas for the longevity of the division & company
Review of Division Policies & Approach: We analyze a variety of corporate factors to determine ways in which current policies, approaches and personalities may impede the innovation process.
Analysis of Processes: We analyze our findings from the meetings and review items to determine current challenges, prioritize those challenges and come up with appropriate solutions.
Deliverable: Upon completion of the audit and our analysis, we prepare a memorandum that outlines our factual findings, our analysis of these findings and our recommended next steps for correcting challenges and implementing a new approach to innovation.The Next Steps: Execution of Strategy
Next steps following the Innovation Audit are:
- Address the Challenges: We recommend making changes that help the client to execute on its current initiatives, while instilling a creative atmosphere. These objectives can and must live side-by-side for a successful effort. To instill an innovative environment, two things need to occur:
- Remove Innovation Blockers: Our clients must remove the innovation blockers. This can be accomplished through changing attitudes and perceptions. There may also be policies, technology challenges, and other elements that serve to block the creative process.
- Implement Innovation Facilitators: Part two of creating an innovative corporate environment is to provide employees with the tools, training and knowledge to be innovative. While it is difficult to transform a corporate environment overnight, huge strides can be made in a short period. This is accomplished through a combination of activities including:
- Communication: Employees must be aware that innovation is important throughout the company (including messaging from top management). Therefore, there needs to be repeated "advertising" about the importance of innovation within the client. Communicating a company's commitment to innovation is critical.
- Training: Basic creativity tools are needed to get the process moving and ensure that employees are keeping innovation in the forefront of their minds. Chic Thompson has trained hundreds of thousands of employees, managers and executives on critical creativity methods.
- Policies Implementation/Rewards: It's important that employees are rewarded professionally, emotionally and financially for their creativity. These are typically accomplished through a variety of methods including creation of new policies (e.g. making sure that employees' creativity is part of their job description, creating financial incentives for innovation).
- Tools: There are a variety of tools, from idea notepads, to idea suggestion software systems to techniques (outlined in the training) with which employees must be armed.
- Implement Best in Class Approach to Idea Generation. The generation of relevant ideas can happen randomly or strategically. Once the underpinnings of an innovative corporate environment are established, the next step is developing an "event-based" innovation process (a strategic innovation approach). Specific "idea initiatives" are commenced to generate ideas that are relevant and tied to specific challenges and opportunities within the organization. Ideas are then captured through a three-step process of brainstorming, mining and passive capture tools (e.g. idea management software). Each of these methods is intended to not only capture ideas, but also challenges and opportunities that should be explored for further ideation by a client. With adequate preparation for an event, the hopeful outcomes and related metrics will be present so generated ideas can be prioritized and analyzed. Also, a thoughtful approach upfront enables association of good ideas with idea champions – people that can execute on the ideas (and people whose job description includes executing on the ideas).
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