When Sparks Fly: Igniting Creativity in Groups [Hardcover]

Want to fire up creativity in your company? When Sparks Fly just might be the fuel you're looking for. Dorothy Leonard and Walter Swap describe a method that can help people become more innovative and better at teamwork. "Whether you lead a group of three in a non- profit foundation or 300,000 in a Fortune 500 business, the basic process of creativity is the same," writes Leonard, a Harvard Business School professor, and Swap, a Tufts University dean. The process involves five steps: Selecting the right mix of people to spark creativity; identifying the problem needing novel ideas; developing alternatives; taking time to consider choices, and selecting one option.

Leonard and Swap bolster their ideas with real-life examples of corporate creativity and analysis of dozens of psychological studies about human innovation. The Xerox Palo Alto Research Centre (PARC), for instance, generates breakthrough ideas by teaming up such diverse people as artists, anthropologists and computer scientists. And to support diversity's role in creativity, they cite a 1992 study of 199 bank CEOs. The research found that top management teams are more innovative if they include people with different expertise. Each of the book's chapters begins with a fictional management scenario and concludes with a summary of key points. It also includes chapters on designing the best physical and psychological environments for igniting new ideas. When Sparks Fly is a good tool for managers and others interested in fanning the flames of creativity. --Dan Ring, Amazon.com

Where do the best creative ideas come from? Most managers assume that gifted individuals -- readily identifiable "creative types" -- offer the quickest route to out-of-the-box, breakthrough thinking, and if you don't have an eccentric genius on your team, your group is doomed to mediocrity. Yet, say Dorothy Leonard and Walter Swap. most innovations today spring from well-led group interactions. In "When Sparks Fly, " the authors sweep aside the conventional thinking about creativity to reveal that any group -- if designed and managed effectively -- can produce more innovative services, products, and processes.

Unlike most books on creativity, "When Sparks Fly" focuses on the process as it applies to groups of people who may not fit the stereotype of right-brained "creatives." Leonard and Swap offer managers proven strategies for generating the group dynamics that lie at the heart of innovative thinking, including specific techniques for re-channeling the tensions of conflicting points of view into new ideas and alternative options. They show how forward-looking companies such as Fisher Price, Intel, and Hewlett-Packard use group situations to maximize their creative potential.

"When Sparks Fly" explores how all aspects of the work environment, from leadership style to the use of space, sound, even smell, can enhance innovation. It will help managers motivate and lead groups of people in ways that ignite their full creative potential.

A thoroughly enjoyable and thought provoking read.
This is a lovely book! At least it is a book that accords perfectly with a strong personal belief - that is, that creativity isn't a 'precious' something limited to a special few but rather something that can be developed, something that can be grown in both individual and groups. The authors (Leonard, a professor of business administration, and Swap, a professor of psychology) argue that managers of groups can actively influence group/team processes in order to increase creativity.

What is so engaging about the book is that it is not in the slightest 'airy-fairy'; it is very down to earth. It offers tried-and-tested stratergies for stimulating the dynamics in a group which lead to and inform creative thinking.

Ther are six chapters or sections: What is a group creativity?; Creative abrasion; Generating creative options; Converging on the best options; Designing the physical environment; and Designing the psychological environment. The first of these chapters starts with the identification and debunking of seven myths about creativity. There is also a definition on which the book is based:'Creativity is a process of developing and expressing novel ideas which are likely to be useful'. Accepting that creativity is inherently messy, the authors offer a five-step process (preparation; innovation opportunity; divergence - generating options; incubation; convergence - selecting options) for capturing and managing it in a structured way. They also state very convincingly that while creative people can be important to an organisation, group creativity depends more on managing the creative process than on a few creative individuals.

The theories propounded by the authors are thought-provoking and in some instances almost extreme. However, the theories are supported, explained and developed by examples from a very wide range of organisations including both small and mega large national outfits. Some of the comparisons are delightfully down to earth. Company, kitchens, coffee machines and post rooms are described as 'organisational waterholes' - that is, places where diverse people/groups are drawn into proximity only by their shared need.

I found the book unputdownable, and the language is easy, despite complexity and sophistication of many of the concepts. Passionate commitment to the core idea erupts from each page and carried me along at breakneck speed. A thoroughly enjoyable and thought provoking read, packed with useful ideas and examples worth pondering on.

RATINGS:

INNOVATION **** READABILITY **** CLARITY **** USABILITY *** VALUE ***

TRAINING JOURNAL - MARCH 2000

Dorothy Leonard is the William J. Abernathy Professor of Business Administration, Emerita, at Harvard Business School.

Walter Swap is the former Dean of The Colleges and Professor of Psychology at Tufts University.
They are co-authors of Wellsprings of Knowledge (HBSP, 1998, 10,726 std) and the forthcoming Deep Smarts and are respected experts on innovation. Their books have been well-reviewed. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.