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Issue 00631 |
August 28 - September 3, 2010 |
issn 0856 - 9135 |
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Society |
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Creative Thinking
Sufficient in Quantity, Superior in Quality Leadership that must show itself with ideas and responsibilities must be such a one that produces creative thinking not only in sufficient quantity but with an equal match in superior thinking. One man whose brand is recognizable throughout the world said of thinking - not just doing or feeling, “I was beginning to think – or to try to. Till now my life had been one principally of doing or feeling. Any thinking I did was set in motion by an outer activity or need.” Until your thinking changes gear to a creative one, don’t expect too much progress. That is, a thinking pattern that is sufficient in quantity and superior in quality. I’d like us to look closely at how you can muster creative thinking especially when you find yourself in desperate straights or when working with people who need to make breakthroughs or turn-around – and specifically what tools can help you to radically shift your energy, understanding and output. Let it be at the back of your mind that to gain new insights or work in new ways, creativity isn’t just relevant – it is essential. Forget the misconceptions held in many organisations that creativity is the preserve of a small group of people in marketing or new product development. This isn’t so. Not only can everyone be creative, but creativity is a key skill for people as they work with their customers, solve problems and improve their personal effectiveness. Anna Muoio stated it this way, “The genuinely exciting news about the new world of business is that there is more room for creativity than ever. Smaller and smaller groups of smart people can do bigger and bigger things. Just ask the people who developed the first Netscape browser when they were kids just out of college, or the pair of Stanford graduate students who started Yahoo! as a way to postpone writing their PhD dissertations. Now the sobering news: You're only as good as your last great idea. The half-life of any innovation is shorter than ever. People, teams, and companies are feeling the heat to think up new products, services, and business models. What's the reward for one round of successful innovation? Even greater pressure to revisit your success, and to unleash yet another round of innovation.” I think managers must radically change how they build and interact with work groups. Also, being conscious of culture change is equally important for team leaders, managers and others who run businesses. Culture defines who we are and why we do what we do. Well defined business culture that is well articulated by business leaders will serve well to promote creativity and help to establish new, cross functional teams capable of stretching their imaginations and give them great latitude in terms of when, where, and how they approach their work. You must bear it in mind that if creativity is killed, an organization loses an important competitive weapon - new ideas Now, since individuals play peculiar roles in the success of business organizations, the way managers form teams and communicate with them, and support their work, enables them to create an organization in which creativity is continually stimulated. Therefore, managers must match team members to projects that have them working at the top of their competency levels, pushing the frontiers of their skills and developing new competencies. However, we must be quick to say that managers must be careful not to allow too big a gap to form between employee’s assignments and skills and collaborate with teams from the outset of a project to clarify goals. While the final goals must of necessity be set by managers, your people must be given real freedom around the implementation of the goals. As a leader, never punish team members for a creative effort that failed - instead there should be public laudation for consistently creative work. Such useless ‘inventions’ may ultimately turn out to be your cash cows. As a result, cross team support should be expected and recognized as a priority. These are just a few of the approaches you can begin to employ right away in managing creativity in your business. However, the important key to success is to ensure that creative ideas are considered properly. The easiest way to kill creativity and innovation is to say about a new idea ‘that will never work here’ or to evaluate it too quickly – in other words to allow ‘black hat’ thinking to dominate. In this respect, the issue of how to harvest ideas is critical. Creative ideas may not arrive fully formed – they may need shaping, strengthening, adapting and testing. It is up to you as the business leader to establish the environment in which such behaviours and thinking can take place so that real business benefit can be assured. In other words, you must allow for a constant flow of new and creative ideas since you really may not know which one will propel you to new heights.
GEORGE, an executive business Coach, author and speaker is based in
Arusha. |
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