The Opportunity
There is much to be said for being conservative and careful. Finding and emulating role models, developing repeatable processes, and designing every success into a template for similar future successes is a great way to capitalize on efforts. It has been proven over and over again that a great idea is not enough to have a great business. You must also capitalize on that idea better, faster and cheaper than the competition can find out about it.
Initiatives like ISO 9000 have shown the value of having repeatable, documented, standardized, measurable policies and procedures.
In our zeal to replicate and recreate, however, we sometimes lose sight of the fact that everything starts with the ideas, and everything grinds to a halt without them. “Idea People” are hard to find, and sometimes hard to foster in your organization.
The Solution
Business leaders can develop his or her own creative skills, create synergy (which is group creativity) and foster creative people in their organization without sacrificing the advantages and efficiency of repeatability. On all three levels (individual, team and leadership) creativity can be fostered and encouraged if it’s made a priority.
Environment
The first element of creativity on any level is to create an environment of emotional and intellectual safety. Popular wisdom says that “necessity is the mother of invention,” and people who faced with impossible situations often come up with remarkable solutions to problems, the vast majority of people are their most creative when motivated but “safe.” If you can build a buffer zone between yourself and the problem, it allows you the time and space to go through a creative process.
Fun, humor, trust, and warmth also foster emotional safety that encourages people to take creative risks and share ideas.
Individual
Many successful leaders build time into their schedule to think and plan. They shut their doors and forward their phones for as much as an hour a day to go through their biggest problems and brainstorm solutions. They may do this in conversation with a trusted colleague, or scribble drawings or outlines to develop later.
Although this seems a large investment that doesn’t always directly address the day-to-day directing traffic and putting out fires, this practice can be extremely productive and provide a constant supply of new, creative material that is essential to any business.
Teams or Groups
The most basic handbooks on meetings and brainstorming sessions include the admonition not to critique ideas (or idea submitters) in initial brainstorming sessions. The wider and deeper the group “stretches” from conventional thinking, the better the final solution is likely to be once it has gone through the critical processes of weeding, classifying, refining and implementing.
There are other ways that teams or groups can promote creativity among their ranks.
- Respect one another’s skills and contributions publicly (inside and outside the group)
- Seek feedback honestly, and don’t argue when it is given. (At least not in the same sitting in which it’s given. Thinking about it for a few hours allows you to get more out of it, and shows more respect for the person offering advice. Spend time together working on common tasks to build trust.
- Defend those absent (or the ideas of those absent.) – borrowed from Steven Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
- Assume everyone has good motives unless irrefutably proven otherwise.
Leadership
Select members of workgroups that are very diverse from one another. This will keep any one individual from being “singled out” as the different one, and will prevent groupthink and complacency.
Keep workgroups together for at least six months. This allows them to cement relationships and develop rhythms of working together.
Never publicly criticize an idea or a person offering one, no matter how wild it may seem. Even in private, respect the risk the person took to bring it to you.
Perception
One of the most powerful tools for promoting creative thought is to change one’s perspective of the problem. It has been said that if something appears to be impossible, one of the assumptions is wrong. Change the assumptions, and you will often find a workable solution. Change the frame of reference. Look at the problem from a wider lens of different angles.
Individual
Look at problems from several points of view or frames of reference. One excellent leader I know always encourages input from people. He asks questions and shows interest in the opinions of many people. I suspect that any decision he makes is based information from four or more opposing sources. He assumes that everyone is telling the truth as they see it, but that truth is very relative to the situation and that person’s frame of reference.
Teams or Groups
Often teams become so task- oriented that they narrow down their focus much too soon. In their rush to ‘get down to business,’ they drill down on the first likely solution and start planning execution before they have adequately investigated the situation and its possibilities. Keeping the inquiry open a shade longer will often reveal higher-quality, more creative solutions. One of the most valued and under-respected skills is the person on the team that asks questions that make everybody groan. Respect that person, and if it happens to be you, have the courage to avoid buckling under- ask that last question and keep them groaning. (“That which does not kill me will make me stronger”- Nietzche)
Leadership
Encourage workgroups and teams to take the time and energy up front to thoroughly research, understand, and plan. There is some risk in not demanding immediate results, but encouraging the “frontloading” process will ensure that the team is doing the right things, rather than simply doing things right. Support their inquiries, encourage questions, and remove roadblocks to obtaining information whenever possible.
Execution
This is the most difficult stage of the creative process- where ideas take tangible form and become a reality. Many people are good at implementation, fewer are good at the creative process, fewer still make the transition successfully and make a good idea a great implementation.
Individual
Once you’ve developed a wonderful idea or “future state,” put the idea on one end of a blank timeline and the current state on the other. Then develop the steps between. What needs to be done to make this happen? Who or what could stand in its way? How could they be convinced to support it? What bureaucratic or organizational elements would have to be changed? How much will it cost? How can you prove it will be worth it? How long will it take to implement?
Use tools that are comfortable for you and for the scale of the idea- a whiteboard may work well for a simple one, more complicated ideas may need a Gantt or Pertt chart.
Teams or Groups
We’ve successfully done this timeline process with groups of people using sticky notes. We pass out pads of sticky notes to each member of the team, and have them each write one task, obstacle or element on each and stick them on pieces of butcher paper on the walls. These can be classified into larger items and placed in chronological order on a Gantt chart at a later time.
This works wonderfully because the tasks are separated from the person submitting them. Even new groups are less inhibited to point out obstacles and items to be addressed.
Leadership
Implementation of creative ideas is probably the largest challenge to upper level management. Most business leaders have a fiduciary responsibility to their organization to ensure ideas are sound and money is not wasted. This has to be balanced with a respect for creativity and ideas that could improve the company over what may be a very productive status quo. In Teaching the Elephant to Dance, it is noted that many large and successful companies find a reluctance to introduce change is their biggest stumbling block, and often their downfall in competition with smaller, nimbler competitors.
Any change is a risk. The point is to commit only to good risks, but once committed, don’t look back. You have more to lose than the idea itself- you are sending a statement to anyone who may be considering forwarding a good idea.
Conclusion
Safety, perception and execution are the most important steps in honoring and encouraging the kind of creativity that keeps businesses alive in a changing economy. Following those steps also allows three points of balance for companies to employ standardization and efficiency to bring those ideas into reality better, cheaper and faster.
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