archive: June, 2009

So how can we take these ideas about creativity (see previous blog entry) and apply them to a business setting?  If creativity is essentially what is responsible for most things in life that are important and interesting and it is one of the few things in life that fulfill us at an individual and personal level, then it must also be true that creativity can add tremendously to the success of a business.  After all, have you ever heard anyone say that, “there is just too much creativity and collaboration around here, we’re never going to be successful.” ?

The Summer 2009 issue of MITSloan Management Review has a feature section called “Design Thinking”, which looks at the creative processes that designers employ and contemplates how they may be beneficial to business management.  It looks at everything from the design around waiting at theme parks to Toyota’s creative problem solving process called the A3.  One article concludes that, “Managers and designers have to do the same things: embrace restraints, take risks, question everything and make sure that tools don’t get in the way of ideas.”  The mere fact that traditional management publications are looking more broadly for inspiration to solve today’s business problems is an example of creativity itself.

According to Dr. C (let’s not kid ourselves that we can actually pronounce his name), three elements must be present and interactive for creativity to produce results.

1.    A domain or culture that contains symbolic rules,
2.    A person to apply knowledge to creative thought, and
3.    A field of experts who recognize and validate the innovation.

Presumably, # 1 is taken care of because we are in the context of a business, which is, by definition, a part of at least one industry.

Number 2 implies that the person with knowledge is wiling to apply the knowledge to creative thought.  This is where things breakdown in most cases.  If the culture and environment are such that the person does not feel safe engaging in creative thought, then it will likely not occur.  Instead you hear things like, “That’s not in my job description.” or, “No body asked me to do that.”  Engaging in creative thought, brainstorming, and throwing out ideas, can be very vulnerable activities and people simply won’t engage in it if they associate it with risks of humiliation, a pay-cut, or job loss.  So, if your company is fraught with judgment and evaluation, then creative thinking will likely not occur on a regular basis.  Once the environment is conducive to creative thought, you will likely not be able to turn it off (good problem to have).  Creative environments generally embrace failure and realize that it is simply a part of success.

Number 3 is a bit of a challenge for a lot of companies, though if you get this one right, it helps take care of #2.  Your employees can have all the great ideas in the world, but unless the management team is intimately involved, and willing to take risks to implement creative solutions, it really amounts to nothing.  It doesn’t take long for people to figure out whether or not #3 exists and it is generally the biggest element that can either turn on or off creativity.  Number 3 also requires that the management team put aside their egos, because the reality is that, the best ideas are likely to come from the folks on the front lines.  When we can start promoting leaders more on their abilities to lead and less on their abilities to suck up, then perhaps #3 will have a chance.

I have found that there are two levels of creative culture.  One is setting up more formal constructs such as free time or cross departmental challenge task forces or electronic shared work spaces where people are encouraged to post questions and elicit ideas.  Those are all good, and in my opinion, will likely be very helpful in spurring creativity inside of organizations, and a fantastic place to start.

The other level is a much deeper and it starts inside of each person.  When people are fully aware of their innate well being, know they are of equal value to any other human on the planet, and realize that security is just an illusion of thought anyway, they are free to explore creative thinking regardless of what is happening in their environment or circumstances.  This is obviously a bit more squishy and may cause some of you to click away, but I can say, without question, that this tactic will work 100% of the time.

The distinction is whether or not you want to focus on the doing or the being of your company.  One will likely have short-term implications and the other will likely have both short-term and long-term implications. If you focus on the being of your company and the people inside of it, the creativity and the doing will come naturally and be exactly what is needed at the right time.

It’s not just the results of creativity and innovation that are desperately needed to increase productivity and ultimately economic activity, but the process by which we generate innovation and cultivate creativity that are just as important.  One can even make the argument that it is more important because sustainable creativity and sustainable innovation are what will smooth the edges of the next economic cycle.  That is where the real value lies.

The edge between knowing and not knowing.  ~ I heard this on the radio, but for the life of me I cannot remember who said it.  I love this definition because it implies a certain amount of courage necessary to venture into the unknown with one foot firmly planted in the known (for safety reasons of course).

The ability to think and act beyond the boundaries that limit our effectiveness. ~ Center for Creative Leadership

A mental and social process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts, or new associations of the creative mind between existing ideas or concepts.  Creativity is fueled by the process of either conscious or unconscious insight.  Simply the act of making something new. ~ Wikipedia

Pick any definition you like.  The important thing to note is that creativity isn’t reserved just for artists and designers and people who create things that are pleasing to the eye.  Creativity can be a big part of any business or industry, even those traditionally seen as stuffy and boring.  In fact, survival of the fittest in the new economic reality will prove that creativity is a necessary and significant part of a sound business model in today’s environment.

True leadership, the kind that automatically kicks into high gear during times of stress and hardship and focuses everyone toward the same goals, requires a lot of creativity.  Employees are scared and things are changing as fast as lightening, and if left to fester, that fear will eat right through your organization.  It takes a real leader to unite the team, change the course of action based on where things stand today, and find new and innovative ways to serve customers.  Creative leadership can be the difference between make or break for many companies.

Things change and people change over time.  People are the consumers of the world and when they change, business needs to change with them in order to keep the cycles of progress, prosperity, and growth going. There is now talk of new areas of primary focus beyond the better, cheaper, faster motto that we all learned in business school.  We are talking of connectivity between humans and creating meaning behind products and services.

As we move up Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, we seek more experiences that relate to meaning and connection.  As this evolution continues (and it will), consumers will seek out products and services that can somehow relate to those unmet needs.  Buying a toothbrush may not directly meet our needs for connection to other human beings, but buying a toothbrush from a company that helps promote the availability of clean water (for safely brushing ones teeth) in developing countries does. I might even pay a little bit more for a toothbrush that indirectly helps a fellow human on the other side of the world.

How Can I Promote Creativity In My Business?

The most important thing to know is that your business is already full of creative minds, including your own.  I don’t care if you were told growing up that you are brilliant at math and science but not so much on creativity.  That’s the way half of us grew up.  The other half grew up believing they were creative but suck at anything to do with numbers or business.  It’s as though the Creativity Police were out there insisting that we must be good at either math and science or arts and literature and never both.  Most of us, me included, that ended up in business came from the math/science category and have labeled ourselves as “un-creative” since the beginning of 3rd Grade.  Let me tell you, IT’S ALL A LIE!!  They were simply unquestioned thoughts that we all believed.

Sure, some of us may tend to solve problems more from the left side of our brains than the right, but that doesn’t mean that we can only solve problems analytically and are incapably of solving a problem creatively.  It simply means that the time has come for all of us to recognize that we are capable of different kinds of thinking and outlandish creativity.  It is simply a matter of accessing different parts of our brains and having the courage to try something new.  It also means that if we haven’t spent a lot of time fostering our own creative juices then we only need practice in order to get good at it again.

If there are things in your company that aren’t working well and dreams that aren’t being fulfilled, I guarantee the people inside of your company today have ideas and answers, it is simply a matter of asking.  The good news is that once you are committed to creating a culture of trust, well-being, passion, and success, the creative solutions to any business challenge will start to flow almost immediately.

A business without creativity is like a life without a soul or a painting without a canvas . . . meaningless.

According to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the former chairman of the Department of Psychology at the University of Chicago and a best selling author of Flow, The Evolving Self, and Creativity, creativity is a central source of meaning in our lives.  He explains that this meaning comes from two places.  The first is the recognition that most things that are interesting, important, and human are the results of creativity. The second is the fact that when we are involved in creativity we feel more alive, fulfilled and a part of something bigger than ourselves.  The outcome of which is adding to the richness of the world even after we are gone.

Stay tuned for Part 2 on Creativity to learn how to get more of it integrated into your business.