Design Dialogue Groups as a Source of Innovation: Factors behind Group Creativity

Abstract

Sif – a Swedish national trade union for white‐collar workers in Industry – has recognized the importance of enhancing its service innovation processes through careful listening to its members. This article will discuss the Design Dialogue Group (DDG) methodology that has been developed through collaborative research between Sif and the Fenix Research Program, in order to enhance group creativity and organizational learning. The emphasis of this paper is restricted to the issue of enhancing group creativity, and literature and empirical data will be used in order to discuss the factors enabling and restraining creativity. The major assumption behind this study is that many factors behind group creativity can be controlled. Thus, a careful design of the group creativity process would increase the likelihood for success since measures to enhance creative behaviours and to avoid pitfalls can be planned and/or taken by a group moderator. In short, the aims of this study are twofold: (1) to relate prior research contributions to DDG experiences in order to augment our understanding concerning factors enhancing and threatening creativity in DDG settings and (2) to systematize these findings into a set of proposed design principles related to domain‐relevant skills, creativity‐related processes, and task motivation. These propositions concern the recruitment of participants, group characteristics, and group processes.