Creativity. It’s a feel good term that has gotten a lot of traction recently. Like a song on the radio, it has gotten a little too much play and is now obscured by usage. What is creativity? And on that note, what is innovation? What is creative innovation?
Many organizations use these terms to describe their practice, their approach, their philosophy, but do they actually have a clear sense of what each or both mean?
I have a hunch that many of them don’t, and if they do, then it’s a narrow conception of creativity that doesn’t begin to cover the manifold experiences and perspectives that one might consider creative.
This isn’t just a matter of semantics. Not being clear on what creativity and innovation are has practical consequences on business structures, product and service offerings, and the very people we bring into our teams.
I wrote this article to address the ambiguity latent in present day usage, and to specify how we can incorporate creativity into our teams and organizations.
What Is Creativity?
Teresa Amabile is the Edsel Bryant Ford professor of business administration in the entrepreneurial management unit at Harvard Business School, and a director of research there. According to Amabile, creativity is not necessarily an eccentric personality or a lover of art, nor is it a sign of intelligence. And even if it were, she infers, it isn’t necessarily good either.
To some this might be controversial, but it highlights an important point. There are myriad opinions about what creativity is, and not all of them are good. In fact, some may be conspicuously pernicious misperceptions that could lead organizations in the wrong direction or prevent you from integrating creativity into your organization altogether.
The point is that misperceptions abound and they might be hampering our betterment in some way.
Let’s plot out common misperceptions to start with.
Perception: You have to be born with creativity.
Reality: Most creators and innovators have learned how to be creative.
Perception: Creative ideas come from eureka moments.
Reality: Creative moments are usually the culmination of a creative problem-solving progression.
Perception: You have to work in a heralded innovative organization in order to be creative.
Reality: Any organization can adopt innovative practices, and any individual can use creative methods independently.
Perception: Creativity doesn't apply to business.
Reality: Creativity wins a lot more than it loses.
Perception: Creativity is creativity; it's all the same.
Reality: All creativity is not created equal.
The demystification doesn’t clear up a crucial point though. What is creativity? Part of the problem is the question. Creativity isn’t a single thing. There are types of creativity.
There is artistic creativity, functional creativity, linguistic creativity, spatial creativity, etc. The idea that there is a creative disposition is also fraught. Many people are capable of operating within rigid constraints and still exercise their creativity. For some, this runs contrary to what creativity is. I think that has more to do with your stereotypes about creative personalities than anything else.
In the case of innovation, learning to work within constraints to then remake or break them is important. You can’t have at it ad hoc. You should at least be targeted. Lawyers are familiar with this kind of creativity. They need to think openly about the law, working within constraints by looking for alternatives: be that interpretations, clauses, language, possibilities, etc. That’s creativity right here. And in a business context, this kind of creativity is key.
For some, this kind of constraint creativity makes sense. For others, it might seem like a paradox.
I have six principles that might bring the conversation down to Earth for the skeptics.
Six Principles of Business Creativity
Pattern: Look for patterns in your life, in your projects, in your tasks. Start with the most obvious patterns and expand from there. Often we want to see big, overarching trends, but that isn’t the best way to get your mind accustomed to this sort of thinking.
Solution: A solution can take many forms. There doesn’t even need to be a problem to provide a solution. A solution can be alternative, pure and simple. Someone wants options, possibilities, and each possibility you conceive is a solution to that desire. This is a mindset. Be solution-oriented. Believe that there are alternatives all around you. It’ll free your mind to play.
Trial-and-Error: One major downfall of large companies with defined and rigid work distribution is the near impossibility of trial-and-error. You may recognize that an alternative exists based on a pattern you’ve identified, but have no means of testing it. That’s a problem. Nevertheless, you won’t know if something truly works until you try it and that’s okay. We can’t anticipate everything.
Combine: A stonewall to innovation is specialization. I know this is polemical. Some would say the opposite. Well, I think that learning to think liberally about how ideas can coalesce to create new alternatives based on existing patterns is a sure-fire path to innovation, and it helps us create bridges where they didn’t exist. Bridges are good.
Variety: Keep your repository of ideas varied. Explore different fields and different perspectives. It is possible for our minds to stagnate. Stagnation impedes our ability to combine, find solutions, test ideas, and find patterns other than those that predominate in our mind. When you expose yourself to a variety of ideas, you can truly flourish and innovate.
Idea Generation: Your ideas don’t need to be complete when you pump them out. It’s okay to toss around just words, images, potential plans, and other such fragments. I suggest putting them on an idea board or the like. It’ll help you visualize your ideas and perform the abovementioned techniques more easily. Just generate ideas and as you go, they will surely take shape.
Remove: Once you’ve let your mind fly with all these possibilities, associations, and analogies, start paring away at the idea board. Remove the non-essential, the impractical, and the farfetched. Don’t toss them in the trash though. Just set those ideas aside for future reference. What doesn’t work within current constraints may fit perfectly within future ones.
Unity: Ultimately what you seek is unity or harmony. Not perfection. Nothing will be perfect, but it can be unified and harmonious, even if varied and imperfect. Make sure that your ideas flow logically, align feasibly, and propose a different albeit possibly unfinished solution to a present dilemma or uncertainty.
Roadblocks to Creativity in the Workplace
All this is wonderful to consider and imagine in a vacuum, but some of our jobs don’t allow for all the approaches I outlined above. That’s precisely why innovation is extolled as such a virtue and why creativity has been regarded as revolutionary. It forces us to rail against established power structure, institutionalized practices, and ornery people. If you decide to embark on that journey in a context that demands obedience, it’ll take you down a road of self-exploration and tribulation.
Some roadblocks to creativity in a workplace are:
Lack of collective will. A lack of purpose in the group can hinder movement, creativity, and productivity.
Individual and group bias. Be aware of the assumptions and stereotypes that predominate in your workplace. They may be difficult to navigate but not doing so can seriously stymie your efforts toward innovation.
Self-fulfilling prophecy. The worst thing you can do is to hold yourself back. If you assume you will fail from the get-go then you are dooming yourself to failure. To innovate or rail against habit, you must recognize your ability to do so by galvanizing the people around you.
Operational practices and procedural practices. There is a big difference. Operational practices are those that ensure and direct the overall function of a department or company. Procedural practices dictate protocol within a specific department and at the individual level. Identify which one you want to approach creatively. It can make presenting your ideas easier, so you don’t scare people away or make them nervous about backlash.
Accepted truths. There must be accepted truths for things to work. Some are less favorable than others though. Identify what the accepted truths are, whether they need to be revised or eliminated, to what end, and why. In a business, revision geared toward the bottom-line and productivity tends to gain more traction and acceptance.
Lack of time. You are just too busy. Then get a group of people to help you. In fact, whenever possible you should start a team effort: solidarity is the wellspring of motivation when times get tough. By identifying and delegating tasks, you can make great things happen.
Intolerance to questions. Some people do not like being questioned or having questions lodged at them about work related to them. In other words, they take it personally. A way around this is to frame questions impersonally or to specify that questions about operations and procedures hinge less so on the individual and more so on systemic functions.
Circumvent the Roadblocks
In general, the way you present the products of your creative scrutiny has an impact on reception. A way around the roadblocks I described is to be clear, concrete, and systematic about the problem you’d like to approach creatively.
Define the challenge. Spend a considerable amount of time identifying what, exactly, you want to reconsider or analyze. The more concrete, clear, and systematic you can be, the more likely you are to garner support and hold attention.
Brainstorm. Open up to brainstorming with other people. You can be the catalyst for change and not necessarily have to lead it. Often times, good ideas gain momentum independent of the originator because they resonate with enough people that unify.
Discovery. If you realize you feel lost after brainstorming, that’s a good sign. It probably means that there are real questions that don’t have answers which represent holes in your operations, procedures, or business model. The disorientation is a good thing in the long run.
Broader context. This is one way to get past the discovery phase. When you realize that you don’t have the answer or that the resources at your disposal are insufficient to resolve the emergent uncertainties, seek out for pieces to cobble together the bigger picture: customers, industry trends, new experts, history, speculation, etc., can all help you glean the bigger picture.
Conclusion
Creativity in a business context can bring up all sorts of issues, but it can also be conducive to wide scale innovation that can skyrocket a company. The Internet has shown us the benefits of open collaboration, of being receptive to the ideas of others, of trial-and-error, of collective will and brainstorming, of being uncertain yet willing to try, and in an organization, those practices can yield great value.
Google and Apple have premised their business models on this creative exploration. No matter the business, you can too.