Creativity and the Role of the Leader
October 2nd, 2008 Posted in Helpful Hints
Harvard Business Review has a great article (albeit long) article Creativity and the the Role of the Leader. It’s a great read. Something that stood out:
On being open to “less efficient” processes early on:
Appreciate the different creative types among your people—and realize that some are better at certain phases than others. And be very tolerant of the subversive. Creative work must, like Mark Twain’s character Huck Finn, avoid all “sivilizing” influences.
Creativity is really about silencing the voices (inside or outside ourselves) that say “no.” Little annoying, evil voices that kill ideas before they’re fully hatched. Efficiency, profitability, and misplaced strategy are all enemies of creativity.
Certainly, creative-types shouldn’t be lazy, excuse-making slobs. (Some are) Because true creativity comes when your mind is fully engaged in something else, and something makes a connection. Your mind’s freedom (or your organization’s or your team members’) is important. I read that Steven Spielberg’s best ideas come in the car, while driving. His mind, fully engaged in the passive/reactive state of driving is allowed to drift into other places. Come on, we all do it. He just takes what he dreams up and makes blockbuster movies.
So what can you do to either be more creative yourself, or foster an environment of creativity in your workplace?
Be positive to ideas. Nothing kills ideas like a steady stream of “no.” Be open to rethinking yourself, your brand, and your goals.
Create a sandbox to play in. Create a place to execute ideas on a small level, before they must be canonized, and put into production for all the world to see. A test blog, a low-end video shoot, a sketch rendering.
Be prepared for failure. Many ideas lead nowhere, but they are great lessons, and lead to better ones.
Creativity can come from anywhere, and in an era of media and commercial saturation, it is only true and genunine personal creativity that resonates. Are you having problems standing out?
