“Creativity” is a book providing “Express” information about creativity, such as definitions, a little bit of history and famous business gurus. The last part of the book also provides a roadmap for creativity.
According to the authors, creativity is to be treated as a collective force. It is not the sole job of a creative elite. When an environment is full of inspirational things anybody can be creative, as the authors argue that creativity is a product of environment. Alongside this, creativity is a collective process. Breakthroughs in products, services and ways of working may start with the insight or idea of an individual, but the process of making that idea “real” involves teamwork and project management. During the course of the project, contributions might be made by various people from different departments, suppliers, clients and consultants.
The authors believe that organizations should encourage creative processes, referring to a study conducted by the MIT. The research concludes that some people need freedom in order to be creative in the way they work, which includes allowing them to focus on issues they find particularly interesting, ask awkward questions and challenge norms. Therefore, managers should create space for devil’s advocates and provide an open environment in which people can express their thoughts. Sometimes there is a discussion of quality versus quantity. In terms of creativity, the quality of ideas is the direct result of quantity. When the number of ideas increases, the probability of an original idea surfacing increases in the same time. Organizations should therefore encourage people to express their ideas. Walking the walk, talking the talk and matching words with deeds is essential. Studies by Harvard Business School suggest that managers who give mixed signals, such as verbally encouraging experimentation while maintaining a reward system that punishes failure, create confusion and mistrust among their staff.
Using consultants, academics or experts as external sources of creativity is also important. Their background is different so they can bring new perspectives to the organization. However, adaptation of these new perspectives is also necessary: A business suit might be chic, but it needs to be the right size for you.
Protecting corporate memory is another challenge for corporations. People who have made a creative contribution to your organization often move on, for several reasons. Losing those people means losing part of the collective memory of creative approaches to problem solving. All members of staff should be involved in the creative process in order to mitigate this problem.
At some point, ideas-driven companies have to choose which ongoing projects to back and which to abandon. Creativity requires space to be made for new projects, which can mean the removal of obsolete and unsuccessful ones.
Traditionally, business and project leaders defined the problem and came up with the solution. Now they define the problem and let others come up with the solution, performing this task with a much lighter touch. The definition of the problem should not be seen as a straightjacket, it should be a starting point. Creativity is about change and problems are the stepping stones towards this change.
This book is not a comprehensive handbook for those involved in corporate innovation and creativity, but it is a good starting point.
