The speed of change is increasing exponentially. Organisations struggle to determine which change is applicable and how to manage it to their benefit.  There’s a call for creativity and a shift in culture which will enable leaders and employees to optimise change.  Many see “innovation” as the solution.

INNOVATION is a Discipline

According to forbes.com, innovation needs to be seen as a discipline – learning to use the right methods, tools and approaches at the right times. In other words: learning to harness innovation.

Creativity is about individuals coming up with ideas. Innovation is about “bringing ideas to life.” For example, we use creativity in our project teams to come up with the ideas. Then we use innovation to move these ideas from vision to reality.

Enabling Creative Thinking

Project management often provides the ideal environment in which to harness innovation. It requires project managers’ skills sets to include the ability and know-how to encourage and develop creative thinking to achieve results within the parameters set by the project. It’s about developing the ability to marry the traditionally structured, output-driven project management approach with “out-of-the-box thinking.

Innovation is a collaborative process; where people in many fields contribute to the implementation of new ideas. This occurs throughout the execution of a project.

Method and Practice

This means learning, practising and honing innovation skills including what the various methods are and how they are applied in different contexts, as well as measuring the methods and their results, determining what works and what doesn’t.

Creative Project Management

According to Business Improvement Architects (bia.ca) creative Project Management requires that the Project Manager will create a project team. This will begin the process of engagement and commitment. The team will collectively develop their team’s roles and responsibilities – so that everyone knows who’s involved in project success and what skills, knowledge and experience each of them adds to the overall team.

The project team will scope out the project to ensure there is a common understanding and agreement of scope. By engaging the entire team in the process it will be done faster, with more comprehension and complete team buy-in. The project team will then develop a detailed project plan. Research has shown that by creating the entire plan with the full team, teams will get a plan that has four (4) times the detail. And they will accomplish this in about one-quarter of the amount of time it takes compared to the project manager creating the plan on their own.

Project Management South Africa National Conference

In South Africa, the PMSA is hosting the National 2016 Conference with the Theme: “Harnessing the Power of Innovation”.  The aim is to aid project managers in developing their own innovative skills which they can apply to their teams, as well as to intrinsically innovative projects that they have to manage.

The 2016 Conference Programme consist of keynote sessions, plenary sessions presented by experts and thought leaders, case studies, academic research presentations, master classes, an expo with interactive exhibits as well as plenty of networking opportunities.

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