How Creative Organizations Develop Systematic Ways to Recognize and Select Novel Ideas

Abstract

The generative side of creativity has received much more attention than its evaluation and adoption sides. The objective of this work is to explore how and why organizations assess and select specific creative ideas for further implementation and what determines that actors within organizations recognize the creative potential of an idea generated versus another one. Our research shows how two highly creative organizations, elBulli restaurant lead by chef Ferran Adrià and the Italian Drama Academy Nico Pepe, developed several processes and routines to continuously evaluate the degree of novelty and finally select ideas for implementation. We show that the processes of ideas’ generation and evaluation simultaneously take place at the individual and the collective level and that they involve activities of two distinctive nature: cognitive processes and material practices. Furthermore, we show that by developing a classification system and by doing an effortful and selective use of artifacts, the members of the organization are able to evaluate and ensure continuously novel outcomes.