Creativity in business

The design of the self-organising system of the brain allows us to adapt and adjust to a stable environment. The purpose of the brain is to make stable patterns for such an environment. This makes good sense - but it is the exact opposite of creativity.

Why should anyone seek to be creative? Creativity is full of risks and uncertainties. There is the risk of failure. There is the need to persuade others. There is a need for political skills. It is much better to sit quietly and do what you are supposed to do.

Managers are promoted on the basis of continuity and problem-solving. They are supposed to run things in the usual way and to overcome any problems that interfere with that continuity. Most organisations do not expect their executives to be creative - and do not appreciate it when they are creative.

In surveys I have done on executives attending my seminars, over 90% say that creativity is expected – but that nothing is done about it. There is a lot of lip-service to creativity but not much serious action.

All this is understandable.

If things are going well, who needs creativity?

If things are going badly, then there is no time for the uncertainties of creativity.

If you add up a column of figures you expect to get a definite result. We want our thinking to be as definite, and we call it logic. If you set out to be creative – and even if you use the powerful tools of lateral thinking - you cannot be sure of a result.

There is a further problem. Every valuable creative idea must always be logical in hindsight - otherwise it would have no value. So it is assumed that logic could have reached the idea in the first place. This is totally untrue in an asymmetric patterning system like the human brain. But how many people know about asymmetric systems? So executives expect only ‘blue sky ideas’ from creativity and these are then deemed impractical.

PERSONALITY

There are a few people who enjoy the challenge of creativity and the achievement of a new idea. There would be many more such people if education made a genuine effort to foster creativity. Most people are very good at learning ‘the rules of the game’ and then following those rules. The rules are all about doing things the way they should be done.

There are dangerous tests which set out to tell you whether you are creative or not. If you fall into the ‘not creative’ box, you give up and leave creativity to someone else.

Such tests are dangerous because they are all about ‘what is’ and not about ‘what can be’.

If we regard creativity as an inborn talent which some people have and others do not have, then we just look for creative people.

If we regard creativity as the ‘skill’ of using information in a patterning system like the brain, then everyone can develop the skill of creativity. To be sure, some people will achieve a higher degree of skill than others - as with any skill - but this is not the same as being naturally creative. People who are not naturally creative might develop a higher degree of skill than those who are naturally creative.

There is no mystery or mystique about creativity once we understand its basis in the way the brain handles information (see my book, The Mechanism of Mind, 1969).

CONFIDENCE

Confidence is a key factor in creative effort. Those who have succeeded in having creative ideas in the past are much more willing to make a creative effort. They know from experience that new ideas are possible. They have experienced the joy and achievement of having a new idea. This is a very powerful motivation. Sometimes it can even be too powerful, when people want to do everything in a new way!

How do you build up confidence if school does not encourage creativity, and the workplace does not expect it?

Art is a form of creativity because something new is produced and it has value. This is unfortunate, because people start to believe that artistic creativity is the same as idea creativity. It is enough to teach art, and you must be teaching creativity. Unfortunately, this is not true. Artists are not particularly good at idea creativity.

Language badly needs a new word to distinguish art creativity from idea creativity. The term ‘lateral thinking’ is a step in that direction.

EXPECTATION

Most people do what is expected of them. The rebellious few do not. That is why we usually associate creativity with a rebellious nature. But it does not have to be like that. Most people are good at understanding the game which they are expected to play. Those who do best at school understand that the game is ‘guessing what the teacher wants and giving this to the teacher’. If every child entering school was told that was the game, many more children would do better at school.

In the parallel thinking of the Six Hats method, the Green Hat stands for creativity. When the Green Hat is in use, everyone is expected to make a creative effort. If not, you keep quiet. People do not like keeping quiet so they make a creative effort. Often people who have never considered themselves to be creative make this creative effort - and surprise themselves as well as those around them with their creativity.

ACTION

To get creativity into an organisation you must make it an ‘expectation’. At the end of every meeting, the chairperson must allocate the last fifteen minutes to ‘anyone who is exploring a new idea’. If no one has anything to say, they are told they are not doing their job.

A creative ‘Hit List’ of areas which need new thinking is produced and made visible to everyone. Executives are expected to work on items from this list - either as individuals or as assigned teams.

It is usually up to the CEO or someone senior to set the tone of the expectation. It needs to become part of the corporate culture.

People who do develop new ideas are given ‘hero status’ (as is the case with DuPont). Having the idea is an achievement. Making it work , however, is a double achievement.

It is not a matter of putting new ideas into action. In the end this is what matters. But the effort to have ideas is key. It is important to be always exploring new ideas. If this is the attitude and the action is then usable, powerful ideas will be found. Having ideas must be acknowledged as an achievement and as a worthy ambition.

If new ideas are an expectation, if having new ideas is an expected part of the ‘game’, then people will make an effort to have new ideas. They will have new ideas.
Their confidence will grow and eventually there will be a creative organisation.

It is also important to learn how to be creative. Attitude is important, but it is not enough. To climb a mountain you need the intention and the right attitude - the belief that it can be done. But you also need to learn climbing skills. It is the same with creative thinking.

There is a need to learn the formal skills of lateral thinking which make creativity available to everyone.