Creativity is essential to competing and winning.
This is a question I’m often asked by leaders.
Why? A truly competitive organisation needs creativity and ideas to survive, thrive and win.
But ideas aren’t enough. Creativity requires an environment where ideas are encouraged, nurtured and explored.
(I’ll leave execution to the side for now. Most creative ideas don’t get that far).
Ideas are usually birthed into a hostile environment. Common responses I’ve heard that kill ideas and creativity straight up:
- “that’s a distraction” (discarded at first glance)
- “yeah, it’s interesting but [insert redirection]” (politely discarded at first glance)
- “but this is the task…” (discarded because of task orientation, not outcome orientation)
- “this is the way we do it here” (discarded because new)
- “no, these are the things that matter” (discarded as irrelevant)
Sometimes these responses are valid. Focus is essential and distractions are friction. And leaders need to keep things on track to progress – that’s the leader’s job.
But leaders also need to keep an open mind to find new paths that are more productive, less risky, avoid barriers that hadn’t previously been seen, and deliver outcomes faster. That’s part of strategy.
Unintended consequences, bad ones
Frequent responses like those above when new ideas are presented, particularly in group settings, have unintended consequences:
- They’re received as signal that creativity isn’t welcome.
- Baby ideas die in the minds of creative people with insight into your organisation’s challenges.
- The people who can help you most become less engaged (or worse, disengaged and depart to your competitors).
Exemplars of creative excellence
What do great leaders and competitive organisations do?
- They encourage creativity of their people.
- They put innovation at the core of strategy.
- They create space and internal budget for creativity and ideas to be explored.
- The use language and incentives that reinforce creative behaviours that align with and support progress.
Who does this well?
My first job was in advertising, and the best creative agencies work like this.
They have to: they’re only as good as their last idea, and it’s survival of the fittest [creative]. They don’t wait for a client to pay to turn the creativity on. They generate prolifically, and widely collect ideas and inspiration to provide differentiation. Even if an idea isn’t immediately applicable, they have a repertoire that can be played when different opportunities arise. That’s engineered serendipity.
And they’re match fit. They can respond quickly to outperform competition or challenges as they arise.
Creativity: thinking patterns, feelings and behaviours
What steps can you take as a leader?
- Be humble. No one can tell the future or has all the answers.
- Value diversity. The value is in diversity of perspectives. Encourage insights from your people to help find ways to improve your approach. Create space for safe sharing of ideas.
- Watch your language. What signals are you sending?
- Listen. If someone wants to present their baby idea, don’t straight up tell them it’s ugly. It’s their baby! Even though it might look ugly on first glance, it may be an ugly duckling that lays golden eggs. Give it a chance to develop.
- Borrow from the best. Copy what creative agencies do.
- Check yourself. If you think you’re already doing this, look at your revenue and EBITDA and ask what is from new ideas and insights (I’ll bet it’s low). And in the expense line: you aren’t serious if you don’t have budget and time allocated for innovation.
- Nurture creative talent. They can be your greatest asset. Their brains work differently, and the mental work they do can’t be seen. If they feel constrained or unheard, they’ll go where they feel they are heard and their ideas are valued… your competition.
Here’s another take: butterfly ideas.