When Sparks Fly: Harnessing the Power of Group Creativity

by Dorothy Leonard-Barton, Walter C. Swap

Where do the best creative ideas come from? Most managers assume that it's the readily identifiable "creative types" that offer the quickest route to out-of-the-box thinking. Yet, say Dorothy Leonard and Walter Swap, most innovations spring from well-led group interactions. The authors sweep aside conventional thinking about creativity and offer proven strategies for stimulating and directing the group dynamics that lie at the heart of innovative thinking. When Sparks Fly outlines and analyzes each step in the creative process and gives practical suggestions for managing teams. According to Fortune , "The insights in the lively book could turbocharge your team (and maybe even your career)."

Genres: Business

256 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1999

Reviews

[Paulo Reimann · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a rereading from 2012 or so. Bunch of good insights are provided. Sometimes sounds of obviously content but ain't. Harnessing creativity is a task of pantagrueli size.

[Shari · Rating 4 out of 5]

While taking up the topic of creativity, these authors reveal as much about group composition and mediating change. Essentially the revelation is to value a group of unlike individuals if each are well matched to their tasks. After reading it may become obvious that any group convened to accomplish a complex task will also be composed of experts in differing areas brought to the table exactly for their expertise. This group of individuals with distinct skill set is unsurprisingly a group of different personalities, with differing work habits, and points of view that create friction. The opposite would be a group trained in the same skill set, same area of expertise, similar education, and the friction found there would likely be more personal than productive. In groups that seem hopelessly different, however this friction is quite productive, and as argued here, the essential component of complex problem solving (i.e. creativity or managing change). How to tell the difference? Is each group member well suited in personality to their task, and exemplary in one component of the complex problem? If so, the strategies presented here in When Sparks Fly, demonstrate ways to value and engage the very friction which it might otherwise be tempting to avoid, reduce, or design away when composing a work group. From this a manager learns to identify valuable friction brought about by intersecting expertise, and personal frustration, especially that which arises from not valuing the methodologies of varying disciplines of study. Complex problem solving which calls for intersections of expertise, interdisciplinary studies, and solutions which marry innovation, theory and reducing ideas to practice, requires this essential management skill.

The drawback here is the over reliance on emerging technology, and tech manufacturing companies for examples, conditions which brought about the book in the 1990's.

[Sean Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the strangest books around the design and innovation processes I've read.

The book is clearly targeted at client side managers who are looking to better manage creative teams around evolutionary or revolutionary innovation.

So it took me a LOT of devotion to get past the corny client-side team meeting scenarios at the start of every chapter. The gems of the book are worth it. And once you hit chapter four, it's a living document on many of the approaches for generating insight and bridging this insight into innovation with a team.