Ideawork

In Idea Work the main questions are:

1. How do practices for idea work look like when at its best?
2. What can we learn when comparing practices for extraordinary idea work across all partners in Idea Work?
3. How can we support and/or accelerate processes of idea work?

We want to understand and professionalise the collective idea work in Norwegian companies and challenge the unproductive myths about creativity. We do this together with leading companies like Statoil, Snøhetta, Point Carbon, Thommessen and Sparebank 1 Alliansen. Over a period of 3,5 years these companies will further develop their own practice for idea work, learn from each other’s experiences and contribute with research-based insight and new methods, in cooperation with SINTEF Technology and Society.

The concept of ‘Drivers’ sums up our main findings. So far we have identified 10 families of drivers. Read a summary of them in Norwegian and English.

Or visit each of the drivers own site:

Zooming Out

Generative Resistance

Rapid Prototyping

Liberating Laughter

Craving Wonder

Getting Physical

Fueling the Fire: Courage

Prep Work

Trusting Presence

Punk Production

On this website you will also find everything from methods for improve idea work practices, the Creative driver fortune teller, giving you a taste of what drives extraordinary idea work, to Idea Assist; providing you with practices for informal collegial support in idea work, and the best ways to kill and unleash creativity.

Are you interested in more information? Contact us!

See also

• Research approach
• Some of the questions we pursue
• Idea work – What’s that?
• Why is Idea Work important?
• How to Unleash/Kill Creativity

In this book, over 40 new and seasoned scholars from all over the world are contributing short stories of moments in their research practice that brought a sense of aliveness, energy, transition, breakthrough or opening up. The stories cover the full arc of the research process, from initial idea conception to publication and other forms of interaction with users of research. The book provide readers with insights about the micro-moments that compose the doing of qualitative research, that are typically invisible, not discussed and yet are wellsprings of motivation and insight.

The drivers of qualitative research resemble those of extraordinary idea work in practie firms (link til de generiske driverne), for example in terms of the importance of seeing with new eyes, preparing and perspective-taking, playing with artifacts, the relational aspects of creation, embracing a sense of wonder and the daring to face the unknown.

See table of contents and read the introduction chapter:

Carlsen, A. and Dutton, J. (eds.) 2011. Research Alive. Exploring Generative Moments in Doing Qualitative Research. Copenhagen Business School Press

Buy the book here.

Stewart Clegg, Kjersti Bjørkeng and Tyrone Pitsis have written the chapter “Innovating the Practice of Normative Control in Project Management Contractual Relations” in the Oxford Handbook of Project Management, edited by Peter W. G. Morris, Jeffrey K. Pinto and Jonas Soderlund.

Daring to imagine and the power of ideas: Idea Work has a track at APROS14 Asia-Pacific Researchers in Organization Studies 14th biennial conference (Auckland, New Zealand).
It is still possible to submit an Abstract.

The experience of wonder underpins extraordinary idea work in many ways. Architects talk about the importance of attention to beauty, seeing ‘pearls in the sand’, noticing what ‘feels right’ and pursuing ‘bare-naked honesty’ in discussions. Bankers talk about openness to ideas, impulses and needs of others and ‘daring to be in a state of not knowing’. Lawyers highlight the ability to ‘genuinely care for the client’ and imagine consequences of choices and strategies in their world. Entrepreneurial trade analysts emphasize the generation of fundamental new questions as a prerequisite to keep ideas flowing and imagine new demand. Exploration geologists express deep reverence for nature and exhilarating joy of finding out how the natural worlds works – pursuing freedom of thinking and ‘fly with the birds’. Said an explorer considered the key person in a 700 million barrels of oil discovery:

Enchanted and powerful inquiry begins in wonder, proceeds by means of a series of moments of wonder and ends with an explanation that produces when first seen or heard, a new and powerful experience of wonder.

“The curious mind is constantly alert and exploring, seeking material for thought, as a vigorous and healthy body is on the qui vive for nutriment. Eagerness for experience, for new and varied contacts, is found where wonder is found. Such curiosity is the only sure guarantee of the acquisition of the primary facts upon which inference must base itself.”
John Dewey (1910:31) How we think

TIPS FOR GOOD PRACTICE

Wonder cannot be controlled at the level of one specific activity. One can however cultivate habits of working that increases the chance that wonder will happen.

1. Stimulus: To cultivate openness and receptivity to the unusual, beautiful and monstruous; to train one’s senses of observation and appreciation in everyday work.
2. Expansion: To allow stimulus to be followed by free play of thought; tolerate uncertainty, bewilderment and ambiguity; to resist reaching for premature conclusions.
3. Immersion: To let go of self and seek imaginative participation in the phenomenon of investigation, getting on the inside, taking the eye perspective of the other.
4. Explanation: To learn to appreciate the feeling of wholeness and beauty associated with breakthrough explanations and ideas.

Readings for inspiration

Anderson, D. R. (2005) “The esthetic attitude of abduction”. Semiotica 153(1) 9–22.
Carlsen, A. and Sandelands, L. Forthcoming. “What would Martha do? Towards a theory of wonder in organizational inquiry”. Paper under editorial review.
Carlsen, A. and Dutton, J. (Eds.) (2011) Research Alive. Exploring Generative Moments in Doing Qualitative Research. Copenhagen: Copenhagen Business School Press.
Nussbaum, M. (2001) Upheavals of thought. The intelligence of emotions. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press
Rubinstein, M. (2008) Strange Wonder. The Closure of Metaphysics and the Opening of Awe. New York: Columbia University Press.

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TIPS FOR GOOD PRACTICE

1.    Make it physical (displays, diagrams, maps, brain maps, models, artifacts). Get your thinking into your hands together with your colleagues.

2.    Groups tend to concentrate on the knowledge they already share. Think of your problem in terms of a physical problem space. To enter each rabbit hole in a group, make a physical map of the problem space, and work systematically through all rabbit holes.

3.    Establish a context of producing ideas that are deliberately not shiny or polished. Remember that what runs smooth isn’t necessary true.

4.    Prime your idea work processes. There are certain primes for expansive ideas (for instance ‘good mood’, or remote analogues), and certain primes for relational ideas (for instance related analogues).

5.    Change your physical surroundings in accordance to the knowledge purpose. Walking, talking, sitting, standing, wandering, running, biking, golfing, etc.

6.    Establish low threshold environments for producing and documenting ideas on the fly, at the speed of imagination.

7.   Protect sacred spaces, and distinguish between places for (i) deep and prolonged concentration, (ii) intense interaction, (iii) places for serendipity, collision areas (iv) places for visualization of imaginations (iv) informal talking and walking

8.    Reinforce unplugged interaction

(more…)

This autumn a team of researchers in the Idea Work project are working together with architects in producing a book on the creative processes in Snøhetta. How are ideas created, developed, communicated and transformed into published and built projects?

The book is based on research done in and with Snøhetta on their work process. The key question throughout this period of interviewing, observing and participating in the architect’s reflections on their own work has been: When Snøhetta works at its best – what are you doing?

Some of Snøhetta’s best projects are well known, like the library of Alexandria and the Oslo opera house. Others are less famous, but still have qualities when it comes to the idea work, qualities that this book will present and discuss through informative text, anecdotes, images and interviews.

The Idea Work research is synthesized into a set of idea work drivers, all in some way contributing to the success of Snøhetta. Each creative driver will be followed by suggestions for further readings and practical tips on how to promote creativity in organisations.

The book is aimed at an international audience of practitioners, professionals and students who are interested in creative work processes. Our goal is to spur the reader’s curiosity and make them wonder about how things are in their own organisations – and inspire people to act and improve their own idea work.

On the 8th of September 2010, EDB Business Partner arranged a banking and finance seminar.

Eivind Winther, innovation and business development, in SpareBank1 Gruppen presented the Idea Work collaboration. In this project we facilitate events in which clients, partners and SpareBank 1 members in collaboration create rapid prototypes of future banking. The ability to generate, select and realize good ideas is enhanced through activating drama, achieved by heightening of risk involved in inviting in partners and clients and through a radical openness towards competitors and the general public.

More than 200 listened in on Eivind’s much applauded guide into the creation of future banking.

Lead geologist of Statoil, Morten Rye Larsen, states this in the main story in A-magasinet on Friday, 10th of September. The journalists from the Aftenposten weekend magazine joined several researchers in the Idea Work project at an Oil Exploration workshop with Statoil in Harstad. The story opens with the following statement: Norway’s future is dependent on good ideas – now it’s time to take creativity seriously.

- If you need to go away from your work place to achieve your best, something is wrong, according to Senior Scientist Arne Carlsen. In his opinion creativity first of all requires a foundation of solid knowledge of your discipline and tedious work in order to combine knowledge in new ways.

The geologists at Statoil are working with creative drivers like ‘Questioning the given’, ‘Building belief’ and ‘Zooming out’ when they are studying seismic data in the search for oil and gas.

- Maybe we need to zoom out a little, says one of the group leaders when his group has only 33 minutes left before presenting their ideas.

The researchers in Idea Work, a project sponsored by The Research Council of Norway, have identified seven creative drivers that are common for all the organisations involved in the project. After two intense days of working in groups, the geologists present their ideas to each other. There is talk about a scent of oil.  With a growing smile, Geir Richardsen, the exploration manager of Halten Nordland, is busy noting everything down. These newly developed ideas are not ending their life in a desk drawer.

- The principle is fairly simple. We put words on what works well in an organisation and build on that, by giving our reflections back to the company. Then we test the insights in practice. The goal is to develop more and better ideas, says Carlsen to A-magasinet.

Kjersti, Stewart and Tyrone received the award for their co-authored paper ‘Becoming (a) Practice’ in the journal Management Learning.

Their paper was judged by independent reviewers as one of the Top 50 articles out of 15,000 articles published across all organization theory and the business disciplines in 2009. The award recognizes the world’s best literature in management across such outlets as Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Sicence Quarterly, Academy of Management Review and Organization Science and all other top journals in the field.

Professor Stewart Clegg and Dr. Tyrone Pitsis, University of Technology, Sydney.

Kjersti Bjørkeng says: “I am honored and overwhelmed to receive this award. So are my co-authors Stewart Clegg and Tyrone Pitsis. The paper is an empirical paper exploring alliancing in construction management. We show how an alliance project develops a common sense of purpose. As a result the partners practice a collaborative normative control, thus achieving far fewer deviations and variations than traditional design and construction contracts. We greatly appreciate the recognition of our work and our findings that this award entail.”

“It is quite rare for a qualitative paper on a single case study to acieve such recognition”, says Arne Carlsen, Project Leader of Idea Work. “This is a truly magnificent accomplishment that demonstrates the value of the extensive international collaboration in Idea Work- and a great inspiration to all of us for the many articles and books  now underway.”

a) Seek lightness (Calvino 1985): Facilitate emergence from immersion in data and rigorous analysis by playing with simplifying forms, like metaphors and sketching.

b) Facilitate high-level comparisons with other concepts/models; what class of models is your idea an example of or different from?

c) Introduce zooming out moments in meetings where you pause, step back, summarize and ask for the big picture.

d) Feed forward by asking about potential consequences of the idea: what is the largest context in which this will have an effect? What does a future perfect situation look like of this idea succeeds?

e) Appreciate feelings of beauty in creative efforts; like feeling the pieces of a puzzle coming together, the harmonies of conflicting demands being met or the excitement of something oddly new.

f) Facilitate movement away from details by taking people off computers and out of the office.

g) Cultivate T-shaped competence profiles where people attain broad understanding of many specialized fields, and hire specialists with attitudes of openness and curiosity towards others’ disciplines and specialties.

h) Train newcomers to work with big picture issues (e.g. regional work in exploration, strategy issues elsewhere) simultaneously before they work on specific prospects.

Disablers

Ignoring the big picture; never shifting attention or looking up from the computer or outside one’s designated turf; obsessing with details, never letting people in on the whole process from beginning to end.

In this book, over 40 scholars from all over the world are contributing short stories of moments in their research practice that brought a sense of aliveness, energy, transition, breakthrough or opening up. The drivers of qualitative research resemble those of extraordinary idea work, for example in terms of the importance of seeing with new eyes, preparing and perspective-taking, playing with artifacts, the relational aspects of creation, embracing a sense of wonder and the daring to face the unknown.

Carlsen, A. and Dutton, J. (eds.) forthcoming 2011. Research Alive. Exploring Generative Moments in Doing Qualitative Research. Copenhagen Business School Press

Read the article

Tips for good practice

a) Encourage bantering, puns, riddles and practical jokes in everyday team work to facilitate team spirit and release from seriousness.

b) Bi-sociate (Koestler 1967): Seek reversal of logic and inversions of concepts and assumptions by identifying and exploring seemingly incompatible models or frames of reference.

c) Play with words by exploring metaphors, games of association and inventing new word combinations for new services, products or ways of working.

d) Explore peculiar & strange ideas that break with normality and have no other apparent quality than that they seem beautiful and interesting.

e) Conduct ritual cleansing (Bakthin 1984) of undiscussables and bad habits by exposing them, taking them to the gutter and replenish their meaning anew. Examples include introducing antinarratives that exaggerates habits of complaint or staging ritual burying of old ideas/methods/habits.

f) Create and mark space for play, e.g. by ritualizing creative sessions and using objects as social markers for untamed exploration, e.g. a piece of chocolate for informal sparring (see ‘Ping pong with a twist’) or a green flag or hat for free associations.

Disablers

Seriousness without laughter. Laughter without seriousness: the irony trap or believing that laughter without deep knowledge leads to innovation. Laughing of people instead of with them.

Readings for inspiration

Koestler, A (1966). The Act of Creation. Pan Books Ltd

Bakhtin, M. M. (1986) Speech Genres and Other Late Essays. University of Texas Press.

Idea It! is a new multimedia tool developed in collaboration with Agens for sharing ideas, facilitating process support and logging of ongoing efforts of idea work. By utilising a customised web-based platform, it allows for co-generation of text-based experience samples and illustrative photos, as well as various ways of feeding this in parts and in whole back to participating organisations.

The tool is now being tested and further developed at Thommessen, SpareBank1 and Snøhetta.

• Idea Work Drivers
• Idea Work Shop
• Idea Assist
• Idea It!
• Future Perfect
• Unplugged
• Ghost Buster

Bjørkeng and Clegg’s Becoming Dragon Bankers: Constructing practice through processes of socially situated learning has been published in the latest issue of Society and Business Review. Bjørkeng, Clegg and Pitsis’ Becoming (a) Practice has also been included in Management Learning. Read more

Kicking off with the 5th International Conference on Organizational Learning (OLKC) at The Northeastern University in Boston (June 3 through June 6), Rudningen and Bygdås will be presenting their paper A plea for promotion: Organisational practices supporting collective creativity.

Following up with the 26th EGOS Colloquium on Organizational Ethnography: Assessing its Impact in Lisbon from  June 28-July 3, Hagen and Rudningen are contributing with their paper Smoke on the water: Explaining the inexplicable by using film-elicitation on architects in Oslo and New York.

Two idea work papers have also been accepted to the 28th Standing Conference on
Organizational Symbolism (SCOS) in Lille – France, July 7-10, 2010, including Coldevin, G. H. and Rudningen, G. (2010) Same but different: Customized creation of visual texts to inspire critical reflection.

And finally, the 70th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management have accepted three idea work papers for their 2010 conference in Montréal, August 6-10, 2010.

Read more

Thougths about creativity are often filled with clichés and myths. What do Snøhetta’s architects, Point Carbon’s analysts and StatoilHydro’s geologists do when they are at their best? The Idea Work project investigates what Norway’s most successful companies are doing in their daily work.

What is driving good ideas forward?

Representatives from each of these internationally leading companies presented their idea work and drivers for innovative practices at the BIA day for user-driven research-based innovation, 28th of April 2009.

Astrid Renata Van Veen, Project Manager, Snøhetta

Atle Christiansen, Founder/Business Development Manager, Point Carbon

Pål Haremo, Head of Geologists, StatoilHydro

READ MORE

The main theme for EGOS 2009 conference was «Passion for creativity and innovation − Energizing the study of organizations and organizing». The session on Idea Work was convened by Stewart Clegg, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia and Elena Antonacopoulou, University of Liverpool Management School, UK, together with Arne Carlsen, SINTEF Technology and Society, Norway.

Researchers in Idea Work presented these papers at the conference:

• Bygdås, A.L., Lundberg, M and Rudningen, G. «Studying Organisational Creativity in Everyday Practices – mysteries, methods and multiplicities»

• Gjerstad, R. and Haugstad, B. «Idea Work and Types of Activity Systems»

• Hagen, A.L., Mortensen, T. and Rudningen, G. «How to recognize a point in a turning stream of ideas − and what’s keeping the ideas alive?»

• Haugstad, B., Bjørkeng, K. and Håkonsen G. «Creative Inquiries in Collaborative Action Research»

• Bjørkeng, K. «Business and Pleasure – On Integrating Diversities in Organizational Practices»

The conference was held from July 2-4 at ESADE Business School in Barcelona, Spain. Read more about the 25th EGOS Colloquium here.

We have a track on EGOS 2009 Colloquium, Barcelona.

Read more here.

About the book: Exploring Positive Identities and Organizations

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