3 complementary conferences for a complete and practical training of creativity

“I have no talent but passionate curiosity.” With modesty Albert Einstein gives to understand that creativity is a game for him, a way of being. And it is true that the creative person is by passion but today for the companies creativity has become a skill, a must of the know-being … any manager must be able to carry out a transformation and thus resort to the creative potential of its teams for their adaptation. The HR manager and the manager must answer these 3 questions about creativity: “Innovation is a key competence today but how to make it accessible to all? “” Innovator profile: how to identify innovation preferences and how to operate the different profiles together? “Creativity can help solve problems: how to do it? 3 formations

1st session: Understanding creativity to adopt it and want to develop its creative potential

Formerly a domain reserved for innovation professionals, creativity has entered the company through invention to R & D and brainstorming for new products and advertising to marketing. Like Steve jobs, for whom “innovation is a burning passion”, today, innovation has become a skill that every employee must develop to improve his or her know-how and contribution to the performance of the company.

To be creative is a proof of agility, commitment, initiative … so many attitudes that may be natural for some but very unusual for others. For the former it is a flexible and friendly environment that will allow them to release in confidence the creativity they naturally have in them; for the others, it will be necessary to develop this aptitude by formations that listen attentively, to let go … and allow them to apply their favorite role at the stage of the process of innovation best suited.

2nd Session: Identify your innovator profile to identify your creative preferences and complement your development program

Different tools allow to highlight the preferences of each one. The MBTI, which through “sensation-intuition” and “judgment-perception” dichotomies to identify the profiles of innovators. For information Steve Jobs and Bill Gates would be ENTJ !.

The Foursights © method developed by Gérard Puccio of the Buffalo School where the “Brainstorming” allows to identify 4 large profiles whose ideator that characterizes the more naturally creative. Who passes this simple test in a few minutes, if he favors rather the stage of analysis of the problem, a “clarifier”, the production phase of ideas a “Ideator”; the search for a “solution”, a “developer” or the transition to “action” a “Director”.

It is also possible to combine these different preferences and the ideal is to achieve the 4 to be a complete innovator!

3rd session: Knowing how to diverge and converge to solve problems through creativity

The Creative Problem Solving (SPC) method (*) that clarifies the problem , to find ideas and to apply solutions for action, uses during these 4 stages a phase of divergence or creativity has its place and a phase of convergence to decide ideas and solutions. This alternation between “I scan solutions” and “I focus for action”

Benefit from analytical and synthesis skills where everyone can find their place. So with the creativity that makes it possible to find solutions “any problem becomes a opportunity “.

“Creativity is fun intelligence” Einstein liked to say a joke … we imagine that combining intelligence and fun can only be a positive cocktail to overcome the most important tasks difficult. But transformation, whether individual or collective, is precisely one and it is a real headache for every leader. We know this rule of the 25% “early adopters”, 25% refractory and 50% who wait that the train passes to take it with everyone. Thus, for 75% of individuals, even minimal transformation, is assimilated to a risky change and is therefore negatively charged. Only 25% like things to move by having a positive a priori about what is changing. In these 3 cases, the transformation is to be approached in a different way, and it turns out that creativity is an effective key but with a differentiated purpose and use!

Eager early adopters: creativity to move forward

Those who love change are easily identified in a company. Without caricature, they generally have convictions around progress and especially on the positive side of progress. These followers of “change for change” are often in innovation functions or when they are in feudal functions volunteer to carry a project, agree to try experiments, take the risk of a pilot … You recognize them easily as a manager and they recognize each other as well, frequent and today create communities that Digital allows them via internal social networks. For those followers of change, creativity is a practice of good mental health, participating in a brainstorming is a must, imagining new solutions is second nature. On the other hand, since they are in a minority, they need to feel supported in their vision and their capacity to find solutions, to invite them to a reflection seminar upstream on the axes of the transformation plan and then to solutions of actions is a means of federating them. Easily able to project themselves, the Innovation Games type “Speed ​​Boat” or “Worst Nightmare” are perfectly indicated with them. Use their imagination and motivation through creativity and by making them “ambassadors” of your transformation program.

The undecided: the creativity to convince them by the co-construction of solutions

Those “waiting to see how it will happen”, “waiters” or “undecided” are generally in the majority. With this population, they must first of all be convinced of the need to change: first, to help them to accept to consider the problem, the purpose of the transformation but also the urgency; Help them find solutions, and in a third time provide them with evidence of early advances to see that “it is possible”. Creativity will be able to play a role in these 3 phases: to become aware by prospective projections so that they realize the threats and the opportunities, to find solutions using the method of the Creative Problem Solving ) (*) Which clarifies, finds ideas and applies solutions to act, and finally to draw inspiration from what works elsewhere to extrapolate for their own field or profession.

Refractories: creativity to limit inertia and toxic buzz

Those who hate to leave their comfort zone and instead support the stability, the advantages gained, the “no risk taking”, will be difficult to convince … Some will leave (retired or leave the company) but for those who They will still take time … When the transformation has passed the transition phase and will begin to bear fruit in reorganization and new resources … But it may take time.  It is therefore necessary to advance without them initially and plan to embark them to limit their capacity of inertia in the system. Again creativity can help to go faster by facilitating the expression of fears and by carrying out an emotional cleansing that will allow a gentle awareness and embark everyone at his pace in the transformation movement.

In the ever-changing era we are experiencing, if all sectors are concerned, energy is particularly engaged in change as reflected by the term “energy transition” that characterizes it. As soon as the transition begins, innovation is needed …

Innovation for all energy players… The new pioneers 

If for the pioneers of the black gold, the novelty was to discover new deposits and the innovation was geographical and geological, today the pioneers of energy are everywhere and seek to innovate all over the place.

The war on energy is played out on all fronts: new methods, new sources, new players Producers, who are the core business, continue to explore as they have always done, but are looking for new methods to produce by limiting carbon emissions. Four petroleum giants, Exxon, Shell, Total and BP Have just joined the plan to reduce carbon emissions presented a few months ago by a group of moderate American Republicans. By publishing their favorable opinion on the taxation of greenhouse gas emissions in the Wall Street Journal, they implicitly commit themselves to finding methods to produce otherwise or to find new types of energy.

Innovation for operational excellence and transformation of traditional actors 

 Innovation will therefore have to enter the established giants of energy, or develop even more strongly, as an indisputable necessity, integrated into the concept of operational excellence.

Since the crisis of 2014/15 with the price of the barrel, the spirit “problem solving” had to impose itself with all to re-examine their productivity and to function otherwise than with the means of the rich years past.

All have launched programs of change … to name but a few: Shell has stepped up its “Game Changer” extensive program of transformation through innovation BP has managed incremental innovation by focusing on shallower exploration at lower risk and Total whose innovation is part of DNA has been resolutely embarked on a transformation through innovation at all levels of the company translated by the reorganization of 2016.

From Black Gold to Green Gold… A 360 ° Innovation

Energy is an area undergoing profound change that is influenced by all the waves of transformation at the same time: environmental, of course, but also, regulatory and digital, with the arrival of NBIC (Nanotechnologies, Biotechnologies, Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Sciences).

It is played on all fronts of the company, marketing for products services but already upstream in production with industry 4.0. By prefiguring the tomorrow’s refining plant which allows the application of all forms of innovation, 360 ° innovation:

– incremental innovation or innovation that comes to improve existing products and services: ideas to improve quality, ideas to produce cheaper, ideas to produce low-carbon, ideas to produce by improving well-being at work… Type of innovation is the subject of internal challenges, operational mobilization and commitment in the implementation of projects. All energy companies have their internal systems of this type, Edf, Engie, Shell, Total… which form the basis of innovation

– radical innovation or innovation that brings change without questioning the business model; It allows to offer an additional service without compromising the existing balance; For example using a robot for drilling and releasing the workers from arduous stains; Disseminating solar energy lamps at service stations in Africa is an act of commitment in access to energy for all outside its core business while remaining within the scope of services of a station -services.

– the innovation of rupture or disruptive innovation is the innovation that rests on the creation of a use or a value different from the core business and that comes to question the existing business model; This type of innovation represents a risk for the usual revenues by proposing alternative sources of energy what the… representations are all necessary to go towards the “graal” of the clean and renewable energies.

Very dear innovation, innovation… Paid for very dearly

Renewable energies arouse interest… But it is true that their promises are enticing. Clean and abundant, they would both help  finally serve the billion people still without electricity, and cover the growing demand of emerging economies, with China leading, but without aggravating global warming.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Giec (the United Nations Climate Research Congress) are recommending that their share of world production should be jumped by 13% of the total today 48% in 2035 (IEA) and 77% in 2050 (Giec).

This will require massive investment of some $ 6 trillion to meet the IEA target by switching to clean electricity and a new generation of biofuels. And the share of public funds will be decisive: annual subsidies to the sector, currently $ 57 billion, would exceed $ 200 billion in twenty-five years.

The States are worried and question their role and energy companies will have to tap into their “treasures of war” to finance these new business.

Innovation in all its forms… Reconciling safety and creativity

To achieve this great movement of disruptive transformation, there is another area that will require investment… of the Human variety.

The field of energy, traditionally oriented towards safety for obvious reasons linked to the dangerousness of the activity, must today manage the paradox of security and creativity, allow to reconcile strict compliance with instructions and capacity of to imagine new modes of operation.

This great cultural gap is not easy and will require a significant amount of investment in the human.  

All the actors of the energy of today  will have to accomplish these adaptations, voluntarily for the most enterprising or forced by the movement for others, question their habits, their professions (40% of the today trades  should disappear by 2030), their behavior.

One of the other ways of disruption is the contribution of innovative start-ups through venture capital. Again, it will be necessary to manage “risk” and “security”… Financial, to reconcile processes of large organizations without hindering the agility of the start ups acquired.

Energy innovation programs will have to train new methods, agility, recruit new skills on new trades, integrate new skills to integrate the start-up spirit and its agility, unleash the creative spirit and His ability to imagine “out of the box” to invent the energy of tomorrow

All sectors are today impacted by digital transformation, and the health and social sector is particularly affected. This is the subject of innovation conferences for which I am invited.

“The man who is enhanced” in the sense of the man who will see the limits of life rejected, the vanquished disease and therefore the end of death is at the heart of the prospective reflections of the health field.

The effective and massive arrival of the NBIC is accelerating the change

The first impact studies of nanotechnology against the tumor of the cancer have just been presented at the Congress of Oncology of Boston (ASCO) thanks to Nanobiotix, a French startup moreover! Biotechnologies are now entering the industrial warfare phase if we consider the 600 million invested annually announced by Sanofi. Artificial Intelligence with its ultra-sophisticated robots is revolutionizing surgery and Cognitive Science is just beginning, but already promising, with research on artificial empathy. 

The arrival of new players in the field of health

For the first time an actor outside academic research will launch a study on the health of 10,000 people. Who? Google… and all of the GAFAM (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft) is on “The Death of Death” for business and on behalf of a worldview illustrated by the current of “transhumanism”.

Patient 4.0… an impatient patient

At the same time there is a service revolution in all sectors of life and health is still one of the areas that will have to accelerate. The younger generations, Internet enthusiasts, are beginning to get into the few services that prefigure medical uberization : take his appointments, consult his analytical results… and dream of buying drugs (which is not a Buying pleasure when we have 40 fever!) On the internet. How far will regulations be able to keep up with requests for uses? 

From the myth of the “doctor” to that of “Doctor 4.0”

Today the average age of the medical staff is 54 years in France… We can indeed ask ourselves the question of “numerus clausus” to ensure the renewal and an “Order of Physicians” that dates from the Vichy regime ! To deal with the inevitable transformation of the health field, the medical professions will have to evolve… Can they escape the prediction of the 40% of trades that will disappear? Younger generations of doctors seem to be well on this path, considering at 71% the “uberization of medicine” as a progress and ready to take up the challenge of health renewal through innovation.

Which Women leadership for innovation?

“It was on this note that the idea of ​​creating a women’s innovation club, Pink Innov came to Helene (Campourcy), the other Sylvie (Borzakian) and me: we were the only 3 women in this session of the Club of Innovation Directors, which brought together nearly a hundred… and to question us about our taste for innovation and our femininity yet assumed, all 3 of us in pink that day!

This question I had already posed when I was a leader in innovation entities of big groups, I was often with some women in minority, and sometimes even, only woman in meeting. And I was lucky enough to benefit from a female leadership coaching that was a revelation both on women’s power and on a job, personal development, which I have now adopted, conveying to other women and To men these precious achievements. “

This is how my contribution to the collective work of Pink Innov will start in May …

Today Pink Innov is more than a hundred women who share:

• A spirit of mutual help and professional enrichment, by incorporating in the mix of experiences, conviviality and solidarity.
• Reflection on innovation, sharing of experiences and expertise, know-how and methods to boost innovation and to undertake.
• Meetings organized around a variety of formats (visits, events, conferences, workshops …).