Boosting CREATIVITY in the Office

ADAM TURNER bemoans the death of creativity and explains how to rekindle ideas that add value

AREN’T KIDS

creatively adventurous. An old toothpaste tube, a couple of squiggly lines, a splash of red – and there you have it, a space rocket. The question is, to where does that creative freedom disappear? What replaces it? And can we get it back?

At school, we consider the brightest pupils those who achieve in maths and science. If you focused on the humanities, you have done okay. And then there are arts students, who are fun to have around, but not really serious. In general, education systems systematically and progressively develop the left side of the brain. I’m curious as to who decided mathematicians are more intelligent than mime artists!

If creativity is slightly stigmatised from our early days, what replaces it? Perhaps a form of fear? A primary theme in education is the concept of right and wrong. This is manifested in the being highly desirable and the being bad. In the creative realm, this line is blurred. Young children feel free and, crucially, they are safe to experiment. But this creative intelligence is then slowly conditioned out of a child, and by the time that individual receives their first promotion in the office, they generally lack any freedom, desire or real capability to explore and express their creative thoughts.

The paradox is that if we aren’t prepared to be wrong, then we will never have an original thought.

Does this lack of creativity matter? In the 1800s, at the dawn of industrialisation, maths, physics and other sciences were critical to the development of humanity, so we created effective education systems to supply this need. Today our velocity of change accelerates. Prior to 1903, man had not flown an aircraft. The first flight covered 36.5m. Sixty-five years later, Apollo 11 travelled over 1.5 million km. Within 30 years, 40 million Furbies were sold, and each had more computing power and memory than the lunar lander on Apollo 11.

My point is, that to maintain the velocity of change and solve our challenges we need creativity. But how do we create the right conditions for it?

Firstly, we must create an environment of trust. Once our team knows it’s free ready for creativity.

How might we create trust in this environment? Firstly, the leader needs to be in the game, fully present and prepared to be a little vulnerable. Rewarding a little madness can be fun too and our ‘dodgyidea’ banker won an award for the mere suggestion. We might also set ground rules, suspending critical analysis for a period of intense creative productivity.

In addition, we might alter the medium of communication. In the offices of the world, we normally talk and write. During a window of creativity, we might only allow drawings, storyboards or even acting.

During this playtime, the critic is banned for a given period. Quantity is our hero – we want ideas, ideas, ideas.

Once we have this delivered, then we can revert to more traditional behaviours, to evaluate, delete and refine our ‘imagineering’ into thought and work streams and, ultimately, exciting and productive new projects and programmes.

Gather your team, present them with the project, and ask, “Are you coming out to play?”

Creative Ideas Across the Board

Customer service experience: Arrange a couple of groups to present on the same theme. Then bring your bright young employees into this arena, it’s a great learning environment.

Staff retention issues: The collage is a great tool for this kind of issue. People can be charged with articulating, ‘how are we now’, while other groups can work on, ‘what and how would we do what we do if we were the best at it in the market’.

Re-organisation: The post-it note harvest – everyone gets a pack and they just write down all their ideas as fast as they come. When the creative spurt starts to dry up, start to analyse, cluster, critique and delete.

Based in Singapore, Choice Dynamics MD Adam Turner supports clients mainly in the pharmaceutical, utilities, banking and FMCG sectors across Asia. Adam delivers outcome-focused coaching interventions for individuals and teams and can be contacted at adam.turner@choicedynamics.biz; www. choicedynamics.biz