Infectious creativity

Does your business benefit from the C-factor? And, as companies consider how to balance workforce skills and technology, should you be thinking about this more right now?

When an orchestra plays together, their brains synchronise. Oxytocin and other hormones are stimulated giving a sense of flow and feelgood. The more the artists play, so their long-term neural responses change – practice making perfect. Most remarkably the group becomes more than the sum of its parts. Humans demonstrate collective intelligence – sometimes referred to as the “c-factor”.

The science behind inter-brain synchrony and collective intelligence has become more compelling with recent research and advances in brain-scanning technology. 

Humans are advanced social learners. We discover, learn and create in groups. Soldiers in battalions, footballers in teams. Film makers, office workers and musicians alike. The very word ensemble, that we inherit from the French, derives from the Latin, in simul – “at the same time together”.  

Some years back, I had pause to consider an ensemble project called Design Bugs Out. The pause came as I sat by my father’s bedside at the Whittington Hospital in North London. He had fallen head-first down a spiral marble staircase. Amazingly and thankfully, he survived. 

A few hours into my visit, as Dad dozed on painkillers and shock, a nurse passed by and quietly cleared and cleaned around the bedside. It was then I noticed. The bedside area was intentionally and recently designed to reduce hospital acquired infections (HAIs), such as MRSA and C. difficile. These are the stubborn bugs that loiter in nooks and crannies and, sadly, can prove deadly – particularly for already vulnerable patients.

The cost is counted in the billions of pounds to the taxpayer and, more to the point, in tens of thousands of lives lost. I can cite the numbers as I was head of the Design Council, when we ran Design Bugs Out for the UK’s Department of Health, to seek out innovation on this knotty problem.

Here at the Whittington, with my frail-looking father, were real-life outcomes from that project. Here was the bedside table made with its easy-wipe surfaces and anti-static properties. Over in the corner was the commode that won awards for simplifying a humble essential piece of kit – eradicating nuts and bolts and making it easy to disassemble, stack and fit in a washer-disinfector.

I wouldn’t be human if I hadn’t taken a moment’s satisfaction. I recalled the Treasury-led evaluation showing the positive impact of the approach we’d taken. As I observed the bustle of hospital staff, the feeling was of pride at having played even a small role in this life-saving hospital environment.

Reflecting on what made the project work, it’s clear this was all about the ensemble. There was the forceful Chief Nurse who had to gamble her budget on a design-led approach. The Public Health Minister who put herself on the line. Nurses, porters, and medics who worked with our researchers to hunt down fresh fixes to stubborn old problems. A Health Official in the legal department who helped us re-write the Crown IP agreement to incentivise enterprise and innovation. Designers and makers who went on to manufacture and sell their ideas into the NHS and into global markets.

The project not only affected the NHS, in different ways it changed the ensemble who made it happen. The notion that engagement in a rich design collaboration changes the participants is a thesis my good friend Prof. Jeanne Liedtka expands on with compelling evidence from a decade of research in her excellent book, Experiencing Design.

In a practical sense, Design Bugs Out benefitted everyone by association. The industrial designers behind the commode were Pearson Lloyd. At the time they were known as the team behind the ground-breaking Virgin Atlantic airline sleep seat. They credited work on Design Bugs Out for launching their successful healthcare division. The brilliant young project manager at the Design Council, Chris Howroyd, went on to become an award-winning health innovator. He is now a founding CEO of SH:24, the UK’s most widely commissioned provider of digital sexual health services.

At a group level, colleagues bonded and emerged as a more capable, synchronous team. Implementation methods became second nature. Proof came in series of similar and impactful design-led projects for the Department of Health, the Home Office and other agencies. I recall recounting my father’s story to Alan Johnson (Secretary of State for Health 2007-09) and Lord Darzi (Health Minister 2007-09) who together went on to commission us to work on Dignity in Health.

As business leaders, wrestle with planning their workforce and debate how to balance skills and technology to sustain innovation, there are lessons we can learn from our understanding of the human ensemble:

1. Efficiencies – such as momentum and speed of a project 

2. Acceptance – alignment of sponsors, stakeholders and users 

3. Discovery – the space and place to uncover new ideas 

4. Culture – deeper ties between colleagues and with shared values 

5. Skills – keeping pace with change and make innovation a default state 

From a growth perspective, there is added urgency as there is a notable shift of companies looking to AI as a panacea, reducing intakes of young talent. Teams are more atomised, with individual knowledge workers based from home.

Human vs AI? AI may win out on many tasks. But the human ensemble transcends the individual and delivers the unique creative force of connected humans. It’s what makes the experience of the live concert irreplaceable. Or a design sprint for that matter!

If you’re interested in building a high-performance innovation culture in your business Optimistic Futures runs diagnostics, training and coaching. You can read our courses prospectus here or book a chat here to discuss your needs or to find out about our Co-Lab programme.