Ch. 4 Summary: Think creatively: Defy the conventional


With all the hype about innovation as the path to corporate survival, a person might think that the response to creativity would be uniformly positive in most companies. Not so. Paradoxically, creativity is highly valued, but also a tough sell. This chapter has one critical brainware revelation: Creative thinking may not be easy, but it’s doable. Creativity is not nearly as uncommon or enigmatic as most people think, nor is it limited by a so-called lack of genius. With these scientific findings, employees can gain confidence and an understanding of their own creative potential. Whoever takes organizational cultures seriously, however, must define creativity not only as the difficult task of designing, but also selling novel, workable solutions to problems. Selling your idea can be just as tough as creating your innovation.

 

Developing creative ideas is a craft that can only be learned in a slow and sometimes painful trial-and-error process. Studies show that neither the internet nor free telecommunications has had much impact on business creativity. Instead, the creative process requires face-to-face conversations, the ability to stitch your ideas together with those of experts who form an intelligence network.

 

Network creativity is as much a decision that one is willing to use the ideas of others and challenge the status quo of an organization, as it is about ability. Furthermore, original ideas tend to come in bits and pieces, sometimes through mistakes, and usually by means of collaboration, so creativity often rewards the ability to accommodate ambiguity. Yet, many workers shy from ambiguity. That does not go unnoticed. Executives often tend to evaluate their subordinates on the basis of their perceived ability to deal with ambiguity. Thus, a productive network will include people who have original insights and thrive on ambiguity, as well as influential managers with the political savvy for assessing ideas, navigating corporate barriers, standing up to vested interests, even defying the crowd. The problem with creative thinking is that it can get you into trouble, which necessitates the network of street-smart thinkers.

 

In spite of highly creative firms such as Apple, 3M, and the well-known design firm, Ideo—organizations that have mapped creativity--creativity is a gift that does not lend itself to analysis or even definition for the majority of employees. Their perspective differs little from that of the Greeks, who more than thirty centuries ago, thought that creativity was the gift of the gods. Dirk Karthus, an architect whose school project has been limited by property size as well as the conflicting desires of the school superintendent and his faculty, portrays the common strategies of creativity in a telling narrative. Here, Karthus reveals the processes of designing and selling his proposal. Displaying lessons culled from this experience, I show how these rather artistic, yet incremental gains, apply directly to business settings. Albin Jasper, a software expert, designs clinical software for gastro-intestinal physicians through the application of the same creative processes.

 

Because entrepreneurialism is such an important part of creative thinking, I will illumine the basic selling approach to creative ideas. Struggles between efficiency and creativity make executives and stockholders very nervous, and those struggles must be bridged. Selling is the business many employees despise, largely because they are ignorant of the process, yet without it, simple and great ideas come to naught. Desirous of changing a formula for a profitable line of animal foods, Hilary Cox, a research manager at an animal food company, faces executive resistance in spite of her research showing that the additive could impact animal longevity. The story emphasizes how sales failure can sabotage creativity, but also stresses the know-how for selling into one’s business context.

 

This chapter will also include numerous, accessible anecdotes that illustrate how employees and managers creatively impact business processes to develop better organizational expertise—and differentiate themselves as “talent.”

 

<< Previous     Next >>

 

Want to know more about Brainware or Dan's Management Development?

 

Ask Dan!

 

 

Stay informed about the latest Neuroscience research with Dan's Email List!

 

 

Read neuroscience book reviews written by Dan.