Print this pageStrategy is Based on Distinctive Capabilities Applied in a Specific Context.
The objective of the creating art stage is to formulate a strategy and its associated business design. Strategy implies a business design and an innovative business design stimulates the formation of strategy. The particular approach used here is business design innovation oriented. Business design encompasses all forms of innovation which produces a competitive advantage, including management, business model, offering, technology, process, and so forth. The name, creating art, refers to the activities which stimulate creativity and harness it to develop the innovative solutions. Design in this stage is design in the artistic sense, as in creating something new in defining the objective of the strategy.
Divergence and Development of Alternatives
This stage begins with exploration. This is unbounded exploration of possibilities informed by the business design construct, or business model. This is the divergent thinking which stimulates the formation of creative thoughts and new ideas. This divergent thinking is molded into alternative business designs using iterative inquiry for the design development. These alternatives further explore the possible strategies and advantages. These alternatives are screened to preserve the best candidates for further convergent design and validation. Ultimately, one business design is chosen. This design is refined, tested for completeness, and expected performance results. The theory of business of this design is made explicit as well as the hypotheses which will test the theory. The gap between this newly created design and the current-projected state of the business is defined and characterized. This gap to be closed to achieve the new design is the starting point for and the basis for the problem solving in the next stage, applying science.
Unencumbered Design
The business design which is produced is an idealized design. It is called "idealized" because it is unencumbered by the current culture, trajectory, and solutions to put the design in place, not because it is unrealistic. This design must be technologically feasible and operationally viable in the business's environment. There are multiple alternatives of the idealized design produced in reaching the final design. Versions are produced to explore different business models in the existing environment and opportunities for the business in new environments. The exploration of new environments is especially important if the current environment is toxic and cannot be changed. The final design from this stage, whose implementation is planned in the next stage, is a complete integrated design.
Protecting the Integrity of the Process
Specifically excluded from the creating art stage activities are influences and activities that might limit imagination and inventiveness. Specifically avoided are existing cultural influences, incrementalism, innovation squashing pragmatism, predefined solutions bias, and the analytical activities which can become overly burdensome to the design process. It is especially important to avoid the existing cultural influences in the design process. If they are allowed to play a major role in the design, they will tend to produce design that looks a lot like the current business with the same strengths and weaknesses of the current business. Culture is not called "organizational DNA" for nothing. In the creation of the new design, which is the existing business organization re-created, the existing DNA is removed and new DNA developed.
The other subtle but powerful force to shield both the problem definition and the design process from is the predefined solution syndrome. This is where design team members, especially those having had strong success in the past with a particular approach, consciously or unconsciously leap over the process steps, because they know what the solution is. This tendency is captured in the saying, "if you have a hammer everything looks like a nail," especially if you are good with a hammer and it has served you well in the past. This tendency may blind you to the fact that there are no longer nails to be pounded.
Creativity, Design, and Innovation
Specifically included in the creating art stage activities are activities that develop, unleash, and capture the imagination and creativity of the organization. Idea management, which has broad participation, is rewarded, objective, and unbiased, leads to the generation of more and better ideas. Ideas are given a "healthy home to grow-up in." Brainstorming is a key part of the overall process. It is guided by the business model construct and informed by the prior knowledge, understanding, and wisdom generated.
Explorations of business model possibilities are pursued, using extensive thought stimulating exercises and leading questions, pattern recognition training, pattern searches, and experiences out of the ordinary stimulate creative and strategic thinking, a power combination.
Design activities based on iterative inquiry stimulate and generate higher order thinking and design solutions as the aspects of the model are successively designed and integrated through multiple cycles. The opportunity to rapidly go beyond invention to innovation, testing and putting the new strategy to work, inspires commitment and dedication.
Pragmatic Design Unencumbered by Problem Solving
The creating art stage, with its stimulating, creative, and innovation producing exercises is shielded from creativity dampening tendencies and biases. This is done by deferring problem solving of how to accomplish the idealized design until the next stage. Creating this explicitly creative environment unleashes the full talents of the innovators, pathfinders, holistic thinkers, and entrepreneurs to produce powerful innovative business design. The division of labor enables the right type of thinking to flourish at the right time.
