When you want to reinvent, rethink or transform everything, it is important to rely on safe values...

In 2017, we are promised that artificial intelligence will change the economy, our lives and our relationship with work... That technologies, ever more new, are turns that can be taken (and without negotiating). We are told that the world is changing very quickly and that you have to work hard to keep up.

What is certain is that in this “VUCA” world (in English, volatile - uncertain - complex - ambiguous), creativity offers very concrete contributions.

Building a creative group is both simple and very powerful.

What is a creativity group?

The “standard” creativity group is a team of 6 to 10 people. Depending on the issues, its mission may be to:

identify areas for progress, solve a problem through creative solutions, find new ideas, identify opportunities.

The ephemeral group meets only once, to solve a well-defined problem.

The permanent group is a great way to initiate a process of long-term progress! For example, a quality circle in the factory, a student council on a campus, a LinkedIn group... When you form a permanent group, the ideal is to start by training it during a seminar lasting several days. And appointments must be regular. Because creativity is like a muscle: it can be worked on!

But first, why form a group and not encourage individual creativity instead?

The benefits of group creativity: 1 + 1 = 3!

On this subject, I have to tell you some bad news, and some good news.

First, the bad news...

Social laziness is a real and well-known phenomenon.

In 1913, research showed that when a group pulled a rope, the total force was less than the sum of the forces observed when people were asked to pull alone... Well, in the search for ideas it's the same. The number of ideas produced by a group is less than the number produced by the sum of individuals, when they create individually. Did you follow me?

To put it more simply, the efforts made for a collective task are on average less than the efforts made for an individual task (Karau and Williams, 1993). Besides, who has never met the famous “stowaway” who is hidden in each group?

And now for all the good news.

Here are the benefits of group creativity over individual creativity:

• a group will have a better ability to assess and decide if they created together
• being exposed to the ideas of others promotes the association of ideas and increases creativity
• group creativity allows for the transfer of knowledge and skills
• and more fun! Group creativity sessions are preferred over isolated creativity sessions.

In addition, good animation makes it possible to fight against social laziness and the stowaway:

The “purge” of asking participants to write down their ideas on a piece of paper before the session allows for individual creativity to be taken advantage of.

Good animation can double the number of ideas produced (Parnes, 1974). Hence the interest of dynamic and “sinful” animation as we practice it at AlterMakers.

And all of this has been proven by science!

How to form the group?

The crucial point: the facilitator must ensure that the participants are genuinely volunteers. Pay attention to “designated volunteers"which is a very frequent phenomenon in organizations... Finally, group members should be able to communicate and be comfortable in groups.

In concrete terms, here is the simplest approach:

Talk to others about the project and inspire others: why a creativity group? Launch a call for applications. Meet the volunteers to make sure they are motivated

Form a balanced group: “experts” and “non-experts”, a few extroverted profiles but not only...

Finally, thank those who were not selected and promise to join them next time!