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As most of my clients sketched furiously, swirling
bright-colored magic markers across poster-sized white sheets of paper, my eyes
locked on Rhonda who kneeled on the floor in the middle of the seminar room,
unmoving. Body still, eyes staring distantly beyond the sheet of poster paper
spread out before her on the floor, she looked like she was refusing to
participate. She'd been somewhat resistant to the process all day, so it wasn't
an extreme thought. Was she simply refusing to do what I'd asked?
In my seminar called "Unlocking Your Creativity," Rhonda would have appeared to
be the last person to resist. She was, after all, a talented fine artist
skilled in many mediums, unlike most of the more logical, "left-brained"
management professionals who attended my seminars. So why was she unwilling to
give the exercise a chance?
I asked for volunteers when everyone else
had finished. "Who'd like to share their vision of the future?'" A financial
executive named Geroge raised his hand.
"Here's a boat on the ocean,"
George said, standing and holding up his "vision poster." "I'd love to retire
one day and just sail away! I love sailing. A dream life for me would be to get
out every day on the water and just feel the breeze."
We asked a few
questions, offered encouraging comments, then gave George a round of applause.
Marcie got up next, announcing she'd love to spend more time with her kids. A
self-portrait showed her standing with three small children, next to a house,
snow-capped mountains, the beach, even a supermarket. "It would be just lovely
to spend more time with them than I can right now," she said. "Maybe I could
work toward that."
Again, we asked questions, offered encouragement,
and acknowledged Marcie with applause. The intent of this exercise was to get
everyone believing that anything is possible. So often we get bogged down
trying to solve problems with our "logical" minds, searching for "realistic"
solutions, and in the process shutting down our creative thinking. By so doing,
ideas for solutions stop coming and we give up trying to resolve many problems,
tabling them, and letting hopes, wishes and dreams fade away.
By
expressing ourselves in unfamiliar media, however, such as illustrating our
thoughts in colors, acting them out in a skit, musing about problems while
listening to music or doing chores or communing with nature, lesser-used parts
of our brain rev up, stimulating us to "breakthrough" ideas. There have been
many incidents in history, especially business history, of this theory working.
Velcro, for example, came about when a Swiss engineer named Geoirge de Mestral
recognized a connection between the burrs that stuck on his pants when he hiked
through the woods and a new way to fasten things.
Similarly, the plate
glass industry was revolutionized after Albert Pilkington observed grease
forming in the dishwater as he was doing dishes. Something about the image led
him to invent a process for making glass, for the first time, perfectly smooth.
Other products originated in unfamiliar or "off-the-wall" environments or media
include Polaroid film, Post-It notes, tires for cars and trucks, and pocket
calculators. Creativity experts like myself also believe in such methods
because time and time again we have seen them work with our own eyes.
By now, four or five participants had shared their posters. To my surprise,
Rhonda raised a hand to go next, her pure, untouched poster paper still
stretched out ominously on the floor.
"Here's a vision of MY life in
the future," she said, picking up the blank sheet of paper. "It's a clean
slate. By leaving it blank I give myself freedom. Instead of coloring it in, I
want to live my life spontaneously from now on, no more worrying and being
'practical' all the time. I'll draw on the poster and insert things as I go
along."
Creative thinking today is often referred to as thinking "out
of the box," that is, beyond the conditioned boundaries of our mental
assumptions and preconceptions. By drawing absolutely nothing on her paper yet
still defining it as a "poster," Rhonda, a skilled artist who could have
dazzled us all with brilliant shapes and images, really drove my lesson home.
Ignoring both shoulds and "spozed-to's," she'd reached a completely different
place, stimulating her thinking dramatically and locating for her the right
answer.
In a high-speed global marketplace that reverberates daily
with quick-shifting customer expectations and demands from the marketplace to
immediately respond, companies may no longer rest on their laurels or keep
doing things the way they've traditionally been done. The smartest, most
successful companies, for example, take pains to pursue not only present
customer desires but anticipated, as-yet unexpressed, customers needs and
desires in the future. Such projections require both research and
imagination.
Take Toyota, for example, perennially ranked among the
top five sellers of cars and trucks in the US. Its management tinkers
constantly with fresh ideas for customizing its vehicles to meet customer
desires, each year introducing more models, lighterweight materials, faster
cruising speeds, even a first-of-its-kind hybrid engine utilizing electric as
well as gas fuel sources. Toyota managers search round-the-clock for ways to do
things better and different.
"The companies who are innovative ask
totally different questions from those who are not," says Jack Ricchiuto, a
creativity consultant based in Cleveland and author of Collaborative
Creativity: Unleashing the Power of Shared Thinking (Oakhill Press). "A
traditional set of management questions begins with 'How can we listen to our
market better?' and 'How can we meet customers' requirements?' But creative
companies like Toyota ask 'How can we SURPRISE our market?' Answering that one
requires a high level of commitment to management creativity."
For
such reasons, creative companies and managers continually re-evaluate, re-tool
and revise what they're doing. They're forever gazing beyond the horizon, eager
to glimpse what's to come. Their transition from traditional to creative rarely
proceeds easily, however, especially with managers and everyone else
conditioned since grade one to tow the line and think of themselves as LACKING
creativity.
Research in this area reveals, for example, that
differences in creative behavior between adults and children represents a very
wide gap indeed. One study found that only 2% of adults of any age level can be
accurately classified as "highly creative" while over 90% of children five
years old or younger can be classified this way. The huge drop-off begins at
ages 6 and 7 (only 10% in these age groups were found to be considered "highly
creative") and at age 8, adult levels begin. Only 2% of children aged 8 and
above test out as highly creative and this figure will not rise again for any
age group thereafter.
The researchers directing this study naturally
concluded that repeated instructions throughout our school years on how to do
things "right," and years of hearing such admonitions as "no," "bad," "wrong,"
and "incorrect" take their toll. Educational authorities' negative signals sear
little minds with an impression that there's only one way to do things and that
if we disagree, we're deficient.
With society officially downgrading
the idea of creativity so strongly, then, it becomes problematic for businesses
to get their managers and other employees thinking truly freely and "out of the
box." Also, genuine creativity, by definition, subverts the status quo as it
faces down long-held assumptions and uncorks new ways of doing things. Thus,
both employees and management together may resist attempts to uproot
established company traditions and begin fiddling with untried, risky
procedures. Their responses to creativity initiatives may in fact take shape
vigorously, adamantly and fearfully.
"I always ask my clients what
they're experimenting with," says Ricchiuto. "The scariest response I hear is,
'We don't like to experiment-it's messy and we don't like to fail.' Of course
that's just kidding yourself. Innovative companies understand that you've got
to put up with 'messiness' and failure in order to succeed.
"The truth
is if you want to learn to do it better, you've got to try a lot of things,
many of which won't work. Most artists I interviewed for my book told me the
biggest item in their studios was their dumpster. A leading design firm uses
the motto 'Fail often to succeed sooner.' That's how successful companies and
individuals truly employing their natural creativity think."
Rick
Harriman, President of Synectics Inc., based in Cambridge, Massachusetts,
perhaps the world's leading creativity consulting firm, agrees, especially when
it comes to managers who believe their company can survive in today's climate
without ongoing, abundant creative thinking in its ranks. "It's a very
dangerous thing for companies to feel they're sitting pretty the way things are
happening today," he explains. "Our clients' perspective is that when you're
faced with the kind of continual market and product changes we see today,
you've got to get ahead of the curve. That demands utilizing creativity."
Harriman's firm reaches all over the world to train managers in innovative
thinking skills. In fact, it was the first such firm to do so, some 40 years
ago. But change need not signal crisis, he insists, as "non-creative" managers
might suppose. Instead, it could be just as readily viewed as opportunity. "Not
long ago there were separate industries for computers, telecommunications and
electronics, whereas today we speculate across all those areas since the
rapidity of change has caused all three to overlap. To stay ahead today, you
look for opportunities not previously available and you do this by keeping your
mind open and recognizing that since factors are constantly changing, so must
you."
Harriman points to research conducted by Synectics surveying 700
senior managers from 150 companies in 1993. Its report found "a powerful and
consistent connection between a company's commitment to innovation and its
success in the marketplace." Synectics admits its study could not conclude
definitively that creativity CAUSES success, but it does suggest a correlaton,
pinpointing high-performing companies it calls "Stars" that outshone companies
in two other categories, called "Seekers" and "Spectators." With success
defined as increasing revenues and profits, retaining employees, maintaining
high morale, and consistently producing high-quality products and services, the
Stars led in all categories. Their numbers for market share, volume of sales,
employee morale and retension, and outside ratings of product or service
quality were all higher than those of the less creative Seekers and the
steadfastly traditional Spectators. Synectics contends, of course, the Stars
come out on top by committing themselves to infrastructres, policies and
practices that promote creativity and innovation.
It's a wise move,
then, for a company to consider injecting innovative thinking and action into
its corporate atmosphere. However, taking into account that creativity, by
definition, knows no bounds, there's no absolute or guaranteed formula for
making the switch. However, creativity experts do agree on a number of vital
tenets that must be observed. Here are four:
Let "ideas" flow.
Our schools and workplaces have fostered for centuries intellect-dependent
relationships. "Right" answers are those in the minds of a teacher or boss, the
thinking goes, "wrong" answers are in the heads of everyone else. Variations of
course play themselves out in the workplace every day, especially during
meetings, i.e., someone volunteers an idea , then is quickly dismissed by the
manager, moderator or someone else at the table. Naturally, the effect will be
that all such volunteering soon stops.
Managers thus must resist a
temptation to blurt out, "No, no, that would never work!" The essence of
brainstorming, for example, is to let ALL ideas fly, no matter how wild,
impractical or outrageous. First spend a few minutes scribbling everyone's
ideas down on a topic before analyzing them for practicality. Even putting up
totally wacky ideas on a white board or flip chart, where all can see them,
could end up inspiring, by the end of the meeting, the most workable
solutiion.
Make failure OK. Many companies pay lip service to
the idea that it's OK to fail, make mistakes, get things wrong. But then,
whenever something really does go wrong, KA-BOOM! Yelling, recriminations,
weeping, wailing, probation and parole.
Instead, truly creative
managers invite open discussion of mistakes and failures on the theory there's
always a lesson to be learned from them. Risk-taking, after all, by definition,
means sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. Failure is understood as one
possible outcome in the overall game. Don't try playing without it!
When creative managers truly understand this, they exhibit their support of it
in extraordinary ways. One of Henry Ford's VPs once made a colossal inventory
error, for example, that cost the pioneering car company over one million
dollars, a lot of bread back in 1920. Assuming he would be fired anyway, the VP
wrote up his resignation and handed it over to his boss.
Henry Ford
the First looked at the piece of paper, then tore it up on the spot. "Do you
think I would fire you after what just happened?" he asked. "My boy, I've just
invested one million dollars in your education. Now get back to work!"
Mix in color and music. The first things to go when budgets get tight in
our schools, it seems, are "non-essentials" like art and music. Yet much brain
research in the last twenty years has concluded that creativity amplifies with
such traditionally "peripheral" educational activities. Along with drawing,
painting, singing and dancing, brain scientists also tout the high value of
taking breaks, relaxing, meditating, playing games (recess!) and
daydreaming.
Thus, creative companies find ways to add music to the
office or factory air, maintain colorful decors, sponsor company (fun) events
and reimburse for programs or seminars that allow employees to (as Covey says)
"sharpen the saw."
Travel down roads rarely taken. If a company
intends to truly transform itself into one that routinely practices high
creativity, it must take risks as a culture by choosing unknown directions,
attempting grand experiments, leaping off cliffs!
Has an ages-old
marketing approach been failing to produce results lately? Try something
dramatic, different, looney. A salesman I once knew named Jed, for example, had
terrible time getting a prospect to look at his marketing materials. Every time
he made his follow-up call, the prospect insisted he just wasn't interested in
Jed's service, so why should he look at Jed's stuff?
One day, out of
frustration, Jed did the total opposite of what he'd learned back in sales
training class by packing all his marketing materials in a big cardboard box
and writing over it warnings like, "Do NOT open this!" and "Do NOT look
inside!" and "Whatever you do, keep this sealed!" Then he mailed the box to his
prospect, with no return address.
You can guess what happened: The
prospect couldn't help looking inside, thus immediately encountering Jed's
lively marketing materials and before long he has read them all, called Jed up
and gave him his business. By taking a rarely-traveled road-- actually, a
NEVER-traveled road, in this case!-- Jed's pursuit of his prospect finally
succeeded.
An ability to be highly creative resides within us all. Despite
pressures and suggestions to the contrary, it arrived into the world the day we
did and, even if rarely used since that time, has never left. It can be
reactivated surprisingly quickly and managers who understand this truth can
employ their companies' creative abilities to extraordinary competitive
advantage. It may take time, it may take patience, it may take newly-acquired
skill but indeed it can be done. Smart companies, then, the winners, the
leaders, the "Stars," will make a firm commitment to do so, and bravely march
along. |
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