[BB32] Creativity, defined

Creativity, defined:
Dr. Detlef Reis structuralises the method of creativity and talks about modern teaching
 
The interview was conducted in a rainy evening. Instead of the image of an efficient and disciplined German (where he is from), Dr. Detlef Reis rather resembles an outspoken, happy-go-lucky Australian.
 
“If you ask me, I think I’m an inventor, an entrepreneur and an ideator. For all my years working in Deutsche Bank, it was more apparent day by day that the job does not suit me. Banking is all about big system, regulations and procedures, and my personality belongs to being a change agent. I like to think differently, dress differently. That’s why I got out.” Dr. Reis, or better known as Dr. D, gave an interesting account of his journey to become what he is today.
 
“Working in the university setting gives me a lot of room for development of my own innovation methods, and as a matter of fact, one of my major motivations in work is to identify talents and develop them. The current setting is perfect for that.”
 

To be creative systematically
“With the background from the banking industry, plus the years of interaction with clients and students at Mahidol University and commercial sector through Thinkergy, I’ve invented and fine-tuned a method called X-IDEA, which guides systematic innovation in project/class through five stages (Xploration, Ideation, Development, Evaluation, and Action). At each stage, you get to adopt a different mindset, do different things, and produce different kinds of target outputs.”
 
“Results are usually amazing; all the way from students to high-level officials had wonderful post-activity sharing. One of them includes Sir David K. P. Li of Bank of East Asia.”
 
On the entrepreneurial trend
“It is an interesting decision of HKBU to take on the subject of entrepreneurship in its bachelor education. In my opinion, the world is moving from managerial society into an entrepreneurial society, as more and more people are forced to become entrepreneurs because they lose their jobs or they are retiring. Of another interesting trend, nowadays traditional “systematic” corporations like banks that I used to work are engaging Thinkergy for entrepreneurship training, to encourage entrepreneurship spirits amongst employees, so that they can be geared for innovating new services/ business models and can recognise opportunities around them.”
 
“I used to teach similar courses at Helsinki School of Creative Entrepreneurship in Finland, where students do not have exams. Instead, they graduate when they are able to come up with a business plan that convinced a number of senior advisory entrepreneurs to fund their project with real money. The students then become real entrepreneurs when they graduate.”
 

BUS7450 Business Creativity @ HKBU 
Dr. D’s class is full of fun and movement. In a highly interactive 5-day intensive workshop, MScBM students had a lively encounter. “This year the class changed to five conservative days, and I’m able to implement the TIPS Innovation Profiling Method. In this method, we track the ‘energy’ that motivates students in class using a questionnaire, which will determine their position within a TIPS map (‘TIPS’: ‘T’ - theories, testimony & truth; ‘I’ - ideas, imagination & innovation; ‘P’ - people, play & party; and ‘S’ - system, structure & status quo) to further identify them in 11 innovator profiles that describes their personal styles and basic energies best.”
 
Using the proven Thinkergy method, Dr. D gave the students a journey to rediscover their creativity, through which initially reserved and shy students warmed up to contribute ideas and finally presented their thinking in an interactive way. The actions, the laugher, the fun, make education so much alive again.
 

Profile of Dr. Detlef Reis
Dr. Detlef Reis (aka “Dr. D”) is the Founder and Chief Ideator of Thinkergy Limited (www.thinkergy.com), a think tank offering corporate training and other innovative solutions. After a long successful career of over 16 years with Deutsche Bank, Dr. D is currently a lecturer for Business Creativity and Creative Leadership at the College of Management, Mahidol University in Bangkok since August 2004. He is also an Adjunct Associate Professor at HKBU School of Business, where he has taught as a Visiting Lecturer since April 2007.

 
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