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Measuring Creativity, DIY style

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Creativity measurement is often required in order to benchmark existing competencies, monitor improvement, increase output and generally provide tangible and useable processes and structures for clients.

Individuals can measure their own creativity, the creativity levels of their group, department or organisation.

However, a fundamental lack of understanding of creativity and innovation seems to make this a difficult task for many.

First, we need to define the difference between creativity and innovation. Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation. This reveals at least two issues:

a) Creative measurement requires isolation of problems and ideas.

b) Innovation measurement requires isolation of idea selection, development and commercialisation processes.

The above means that creativity can be measured without the production of a final, commercially successful product or service. We can simply measure how good an organization is at identifying problems and generating ideas. If an organization scores relatively high at this stage (and is not producing adequate commercial output), we can then look deeply at their innovation processes.

Second, we need a measurement system. A very simple and often used quantitative system is to list criteria and rate them on a scale. A rating before and after, say, a training session or activity, will indicate tangible levels of change.

Third, we need to discern the criteria we will measure.

There are in fact a number of definitions of creativity. One of the most useful is that it is:

a) The production of a quantity of ideas.

b) The production of a number of diverse ideas.

c) The production of a number of novel ideas.

Using all of the above, we can begin constructing a quantitative sheet that lists:

a) Problem identification

b) Generation of a number of ideas

c) Generation of a number of diverse ideas

d) Generation of a number of novel ideas.

For each criterion above, we can grade, for example, from 1 to 10, before and after a training session. We can also grade before and after an activity or an idea generating technique (lateral thinking, association, linking etc), in order to gauge the exact value of each tool.

All of the above is, in fact, not rocket science.

Going a bit deeper.

Each of the above criteria can be extrapolated to draw out the analysis (number of different perspectives used to analyse problem, number of dominant ideas basing the problem etc).

To construct a much more meaningful analysis, travel down the following path:

Each environment consists of a range of dimensions that affect creativity. On an organizational level, for example, we can measure attitudes, competency make-up, organizational structure, organizational culture, team structure, knowledge mix and so forth.

These and other topics are covered in depth in the MBA dissertation on Managing Creativity & Innovation, which can be purchased (along with a Creativity and Innovation DIY Audit, Good Idea Generator Software and Power Point Presentation) from http://www.managing-creativity.com

Kal Bishop, MBA

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You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made and the author's name and site URL are retained.

A girlfriend of mine called me up this weekend looking for a DVD copy of an older piece of software. She was rebuilding a computer for a family member who had the product key but no installation media. I’m sure many of you have similar stories trying to fix or repair computers for your family and friends.

One of the nice things about using software online or “in the cloud” so to speak is that if your computer goes belly up and you need to rebuild it, the software will be there waiting for you, as soon as you can get computer back online.

For businesses, using online services can give you greater flexibility to pursue projects or try out ideas without having large upfront costs as well as providing  foundational IT infrastructure without investing in your own data center.

While a post I wrote a little while ago outlined the basics of traditional software licensing, I figured I should follow up with how to license software in the cloud since online software subscriptions are becoming more prevalent. This short video does a good job at laying things out – like why you’d want to consider using online services and some of the advantages and cost-savings of licensing software this way:

Microsoft has several online services: Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, Windows Azure Platform, Windows Intune and others. Each service can be purchased through a volume licensing agreement or the Microsoft Online Subscription Program and then activated and managed managed through web portals:

• Online Services Customer Portal (Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Intune)
• Dynamics CRM Online Customer Portal (Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online)
• Windows Azure Customer Portal (Windows Azure Platform)
• Volume Licensing Service Center (other services)

One day I’d love there to just be one portal to manage all your online subscriptions (kind of like one ring to rule them all but much less evil) but consolidation takes time and so I make no promises but I trust this is the direction our Online Services folk are heading.

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