How to Generate Creative Ideas in Changing Contexts

During these months I have been working on very important strategic proposals that have prompted me to think on how to come up with more creative ideas.

The world crisis we are facing requires that leaders think differently. Instead of sitting down to be creative, we have to create an atmosphere in our organization so our teams can be creative. Instead of imposing creative ideas from the top, we need to do just the opposite.

However, sometimes this is not easy. Our organizations are often inflexible, because there is little communication among different functions and our teams are too isolated in their work. Being connected to each other seems to be an unheard of practice in some organizations. Individual work results in a loss of group creativity.

Recently I found two books that have prompted me to reflect more on the creativity of persons and organizations, and they are helping me in the task I am involved in. Out of Minds: Learning to be Creative and The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything have revolutionized my way of looking at creativity.

The author, Sir Ken Robinson, thinks that creativity is not something exotic and optional, but rather a strategic issue. He knows what he is talking about because he is one of the key thinkers in the world with regard to the area of creativity and innovation. He has dedicated much of his professional life to helping governments (starting with the British government where he worked for many years), educational systems, and businesses understand that creativity is not an extravagant luxury.

These are some of Robinson’s thoughts:

• All businesses depend on ideas and ingenuity.
• The principles of creative leadership can be applied everywhere; they are the same for an advertising company as for a hospital.
• We all have immense natural talents. We do not know what they are and we have to discover them.
• Creativity is the process of having original, valuable ideas and it arises as part of a process; it is not produced at random.
• Many employees abandon their creativity when they go to work because the environment does not foster its use.
• If you want innovation and creativity in your organization, you have to take advantage of your team’s feelings, perceptions, ideas, energy and passion.
• The role of a creative leader is not having all the ideas, but rather creating a culture where everyone can have ideas and feel valued.

Some examples:

IBM the expert on creativity published a report last fall entitled “Capitalizing on Complexity.” The study was based on a survey of 3,000 executives of commercial companies, non-profit organizations, and the public sector from all over the world. Researchers asked them what was on their minds. These CEOs said they had three general priorities:

1. Encourage creativity in their organization.
2. Direct the organization so they could respond to complexity in an increasingly more complicated world.
3. Lead the organization so it could be adaptable and resilient to these changes.

Ken thinks that in order to implement these three priorities a leader has to think differently about people and return to leadership.

In the book Out of Minds: Learning to be Creative, the author cites the example of John Chambers, President and CEO of Cisco. Chambers told Robinson how he went from leading the organization from the front to leading it from its very center.
Consequently, at Cisco:

• Now there is a much more distributed, active management and leadership that are more responsive to needs.
• People at different levels of the organization are given much more liberty to take initiative.
• There is greater collaboration and communication among them.
• People take proposals to their bosses instead of waiting to receive orders from the top where the administration “orders and controls.”

What is needed in order to be more creative?

The author believes that the key is having confidence in what we can do. Often people are not confident that they can do something and consequently, they think they are not capable.
There is a very big difference between not knowing how to do something and being incapable of doing it. At some moment in our life we did not know how to drive a car, but that did not mean we were incapable of driving.

Conclusion

In the midst of this process of writing proposals, I am learning the importance of listening and encouraging the creativity of others in order to search for the creative strategies that can help us face the changing world in which we live.

The most important thing is not only to be creative, but rather to be creative with a purpose. The purpose of a non-profit organization is to fulfill a mission.

Therefore, any creative strategy has to aim at improving what we do and taking advantage of new possibilities and opportunities.

In conclusion, this can only be achieved if we undertake to create an atmosphere where people are developing the creative ideas that will keep us in the forefront.