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.
