The Intersection of Creative Democracy, Generative AI, and Innovation in the Modern Workplace
Understanding the differences between creative democracy, creative confidence, and design thinking can be a challenge. Each concept was related to one another while also having its own unique focus and goals. Creative democracy encourages working together and the spread of ideas, while creative confidence is all about believing in yourself and your ability to make something new. Design thinking is a method of problem-solving that uses understanding, testing, and repeating. Let’s take a look at the differences between these three ideas and how they can work together to spark creativity and innovation.
Creative Democracy:
In the late 19th century, John Dewey put forth the idea of creative democracy. Dewey thought that democracy was more than just a political structure, but a lifestyle. He asserted that genuine democracy necessitated citizens to take part actively in decision-making processes. Citizens had to be equipped with the ability to think critically, solve problems, and show creativity.
It has been discovered that companies that adopt a creative democracy have a greater rate of employee engagement and innovation. It’s been found that companies that introduce creative democracy have more engaged and innovative employees. Gallup’s research showed companies with high employee engagement made 22% more than those with low.
Creative Confidence:
David and Tom Kelley from IDEO have come up with the phrase creative confidence — it means believing in your ability to make and invent. It’s daring to take a chance, experiment with something different, and challenge the status quo. Companies are getting that innovation is valuable and this idea is becoming more and more popular in the biz world.
One interesting example from the book “Creative Confidence” is the story of Doug Dietz, an industrial designer at GE Healthcare. Dietz created MRI machines for kids, but he quickly noticed they were too scary for kids who were already worried about being in the hospital.
To solve this problem, Dietz and his team used design thinking to reimagine the MRI experience for children. They created a pirate-themed room complete with a treasure chest, a “walk the plank” game, and a pirate ship that the kids could lay in while getting their MRI scan.
This redesign not only reduced children’s anxiety and fear, but it also improved the quality of the MRI scans because the kids were less likely to move around during the procedure. The pirate-themed MRI room was so successful that it has now been replicated in hospitals around the world, helping to make a stressful experience a little bit easier for children and their families.
Data has shown that companies that foster creative confidence have higher levels of innovation and financial success. For example, a study conducted by McKinsey found that companies with higher innovation rates had a 10% higher growth rate and a 20% higher total shareholder return than their less innovative counterparts.
Design Thinking:
Design thinking, on the other hand, is a problem-solving approach that involves empathizing with users, defining problems, ideating solutions, prototyping, and testing. Herbert A. Simon in the 1960s, Introduced and made available by David Kelley and Tim Brown of IDEO in the early 2000s.
Herbert A. Simon in the 1960s, and popularized by David Kelley and Tim Brown of IDEO in the early 2000s.
First computer mouse for Apple was designed by David Kelley during 1980s, which is a great example to demonstarte Design Thinking. At that point of time users interacted with machines through command lines or keyboard. Which used to be tedious. Later Kelly and his team from IDEO worked and designed intuitive Mac computer
Kelley, with his team used design thinking to create a prototype for pointing device accessed from hand with fingers to control the cursor movement. This was tested with real users to get their feedback and iterated multiple times. The final one was later introduced as a Compute Mouse, which revolutionised the way users interacted with computers. This created the base for graphical interface.
Based on the data, Design thinking can lead to significant and progressive improvements in the product development life cycle and customer satisfaction.
For example, a study conducted by IBM found that companies that adopted design thinking had 300% more success in meeting their business goals than those that did not.
Generative AI:
At this point of time 9th May 2023, Generative AI is still relatively new concept that uses artificial intelligence to generate new and innovative solutions for the problems which users requests to the system. It is built by feeding millions of data into algorithms that can later generate new ideas and solutions based on the data provided. This technology has shown significant promise in fields such as healthcare, finance, and transportation.
In the healthcare sector, Artificial Intelligence and machine learning have been utilized to find new treatments and medications by looking at large amounts of data and recognizing patterns that might not have been detected by human scientists.
In the finance industries, it has been employed to create new investment approaches and forecast market movements.
In transportation, it has helped to optimize the traffic patterns and reduce congestion based on previous data.
As an example, Los Angeles utilized SignalGuru, a generative AI model, to adjust traffic signals and cut down travel time by around 12%.
Research has shown that generative AI can lead to significant improvements in innovation and creativity. For example, a study conducted by Adobe found that 62% of creatives believed that AI and machine learning would help them become more creative in their work.
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At WongDoody, the team has added generative AI as part of their approach for resolving problems. By applying machine learning algorithms to large datasets, patterns can be detected and beneficial insights can be obtained which can be applied to create solutions.
At WongDoody, a Seattle-based advertising agency, Executive Creative Director Tracy Wong, President, Skyler Mattson, and CEO Ben Weiner have built a company culture that embodies the principles of creative democracy, creative confidence, design thinking, and generative AI. WongDoody has teamed up with Amazon, T-Mobile, ESPN, Microsoft and Google to come up with clever solutions to tricky problems. WongDoody’s success comes from their process. They start by getting a feel for their clients and users, nailing down the issue, and thinking of ideas to resolve it.
The secret behind WongDoody’s success is rooted in their process. They start by understanding their clients and users, pinpointing the issue, and coming up with ideas for solutions. They then proceed to prototype and evaluate their solutions, continually making adjustments until they reach the end result. Throughout the process, WongDoody emphasises the importance of collaboration, risk-taking, creativity, and the use of generative AI to spark.
In a rapidly changing world, where global problems such as sustainability and circular economy require innovative solutions, the evolution of design thinking, creative confidence, creative democracy, and generative AI are becoming increasingly important. The ability to empathise with users, define problems, ideate solutions, prototype, test, and incorporate new technologies is critical in creating solutions that meet the needs of today’s world. Companies like WongDoody, with their strong focus on these principles and their integration of generative AI, are at the forefront of this evolution, paving the way for a more innovative and sustainable future.
Democracy must be reborn anew every generation, and education is its midwife. — John Dewey
