It’s not something you’d encourage the kids to try at home! Internationally-renowned organisational creativity and innovation expert Dr David Cropley (pictured above) appeared on ABC Television a few years ago poking a plastic bag in a toaster to mould into a knife that he then used to cut a tomato.
Cropley - an Associate Professor of Engineering Innovation at the University of South Australia (UniSA) - was a scientific consultant to the episode of Redesign My Brain, a 2013 documentary series following advertising executive Todd Sampson’s quest to expand the boundaries of his grey matter.
And now at the Australian Engineering Conference in November, attendees will get the opportunity to discover more about Cropley’s creative and outside-the-square divergent thinking and apply it to their own firms, by attending his workshop “How to measure organisational innovation capacity”.
The workshop will build on Cropley’s decades teaching innovation and creativity at UniSA and facilitating creative problem-solving workshops for organisations such as defence contractor BAE Systems and the Australian Defence Department’s Defence Science and Technology Group. He has also authored four books on creativity.
Cropley suggests in the current competitive and rapidly changing global economy his Australian Engineering Conference workshop is a session engineering executives cannot afford to miss; put simply, if firms stand still they’ll get left behind.
“When change occurs, it throws up new technological problems in society,” he says. “And you can’t solve these problems unless you have new and innovative solutions.”
Cropley points to Climate Change as an example. “At the starkest level, if we continue to increase carbon emissions into the atmosphere and continue with coal-fired power stations, we are not solving the problem,” he says.
“We need a new and effective solution and innovation equals doing something different; cut emissions and look at other energy models that are less polluting.”
In his workshop Cropley will introduce his scientifically-validated Innovation Phase Assessment Instrument which he created to measure an organisation’s potential and future ability to deliver creative and innovative results.
Cropley will explain how his i2p consulting (formed last July) uses this instrument to assess the strengths and weaknesses of an engineering firm’s people, press (organisational climate), process, and products.
“To be innovative, a firm needs people who are divergent thinkers, who have the personal qualities to take risks and be motivated,” he says. “This should start during the hiring process.”
While some firms (especially tech companies) provide their employees with scooters or ping pong tables in the office, Cropley says this is window dressing and in itself doesn’t really nurture an innovative environment.
Instead, the underlying culture should focus on fostering problem solving. “If management provides a supportive environment with adequate time and resources to find an answer, this will facilitate creativity,” he says.
At the same time, a firm should have flexible and agile operating processes in place: “This will enable them to do the right thing at the right time quickly; make a diagnosis, a ‘heat map’ and act immediately,” he says.
The final element is a firm’s product, which Cropley says must provide a tangible service or outcome, be effective and have a novel or original take on a problem.
After assessing all these elements, Cropley then has a rich picture of how an organisation operates in its current culture. “We take a snapshot that I liken to entering the emergency department at a hospital,” he says. “You may arrive in pain but we’ll do a blood analysis and refer you to an orthopaedic or brain surgeon and get you whatever specialist help you need.”
He also points out that it is important to determine what stage a company has reached in it maturation process, because steps that foster innovation at one stage might hinder it at another.
“We conduct a diagnosis and address your organisational strengths and weaknesses. We look at the low performing pockets versus the areas you are good at. We fix the weaknesses and build on the strengths and maximise your problem-solving ability,” he says. “Innovation is only sustainable if it is integrated into an organisation’s operations.”
To learn more, secure your spot at the Australian Engineering Conference where Dr David Cropley will conduct an Innovation Workshop - How to Measure Organisational Innovation Capacity.