"Making Innovation Happen –
A Phase Model of the Innovation Process"

David Cropley is Deputy Director of the Defence and Systems Institute (DASI) at the University of South Australia in Adelaide (http://www.unisa.edu.au/dasi/) and holds degree in Applied Physics & Electronics, Engineering and Higher Education. He is a member of the Institute of Physics in London, and a Chartered Physicist, as well as a member of the IEEE.
DASI is one of the University’s eight research institutes, focusing on research and postgraduate education in the field of complex systems. DASI grew from an amalgamation of three smaller research centres. The largest of these was the Systems Engineering and Evaluation Centre (SEEC) of which Associate Professor Cropley was director from 2003-2007.
The Defence and System Institute works closely with industry, and in particular the Australian defence industry, to help address the problems that arise as the needs of customers, typically the Government, are translated into formal specifications for highly technical, highly complex, and costly systems. Typical examples of these systems include naval vessels, aircraft, command and control systems, business information systems, healthcare systems and the like. Throughout the lifecycle of complex systems, from the first expression of the need, through design and manufacture, to disposal, there are many challenges that arise that can only be dealt with through the innovative application of engineering knowledge, leadership and management, and systems thinking.
Associate Professor Cropley’s particular interests lie in the role that creativity plays as a driver of engineering innovation. The pervasiveness of technology in the modern world, coupled with the challenges of global warming, terrorism, food security, natural resources and developing economies means that creativity and innovation, now more than ever, have key roles to play in delivering the security and prosperity to which we all aspire.
Associate Professor Cropley has developed a concept of functional creativity – creativity with a purpose – to capture the factors that are important in the creation of novel, technological solutions to society’s challenges. These have been applied, for example, in the development of his Eleven Principles of Creativity and Terrorism, which describe how societies must tackle the creativity that is inherent in acts of terrorism.
Associate Professor Cropley has, most recently, developed an Innovation Phase Assessment Instrument (IPAI) to assess the innovative capacity of organisations across seven distinct phases of innovation, and against six elements of psychology and organisation. The result is a highly differentiated model of innovation that helps to resolve a paradox of innovation – namely that behaviours which favour innovation at one point in the process, may hinder innovation at another point.
Away from the work environment Associate Professor Cropley is a keen masters-level rower, both on and off the water, and has competed at national masters competitions, most recently winning medals at the 2007 Australasian Masters Games.