Creativity

The ability to generate new ideas and approaches to solve problems, improve processes, or seize opportunities. This competency involves thinking beyond traditional solutions, encouraging experimentation, and drawing on diverse perspectives to drive innovation and adaptability in a changing environment.

“Creativity is not a talent. It is a way of operating.” – John Cleese

Barriers to creativity

Stuck in the past: Leaders may rely heavily on past experiences and solutions, resisting new ideas and innovations.

Excessively cautious: Fear of failure and risk aversion prevents some leaders from exploring creative and unconventional approaches.

Lack of understanding: Leaders may not fully grasp what creativity entails or how to foster it within their teams.

Limited thinking: Some leaders thought processes are often constrained to traditional methods and established practices.

Narrow perspective: A limited and narrow outlook, possibly due to a narrow background, may restricts a leader’s ability to see beyond the obvious.

Overly practical: A strong focus on practicality can lead leaders to dismiss creative ideas as impractical or fanciful.

Reject creativity: Some leaders might perceive creative thinking as unimportant or irrelevant, preferring tried-and-true methods.

Restrained: Personal or organizational constraints can make some leaders hesitant to pursue creative endeavours.

Overly focused: A high level of focus on specific tasks or goals can limit a leaders ability to think broadly or creatively.

Excellent Problem Solver: Being too good at solving problems with existing methods can hinder a leaders openness to new and innovative solutions.

“Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way.” – Edward de Bono

Enablers of creativity

Remove restraints: Identify what is holding back your creativity—whether it’s perfectionism, caution, or practicality. Challenge yourself to step out of your comfort zone, question habitual approaches, and be open to new and impractical ideas.

Pause and explore: Dedicate time to deeply understand the problem by talking to diverse people and examining parallels outside your field. Discuss your thoughts out loud with others to clarify your understanding and uncover new perspectives.

Break rules and invent new ones: Creative thinking often involves breaking away from traditional logic. Challenge existing concepts, generate ideas without judgment, and seek out unusual or distant parallels to foster innovative thinking.

Apply tools: Enhance creativity by asking more questions and visualizing complex problems. Use techniques like storyboarding, fishbone diagrams, and rich pictures to explore different solutions.

Define the problem clearly: Spend significant time defining the problem before jumping to solutions. Understanding the root causes and organizing information into patterns increases the chances of finding creative solutions.

Diversify your input: Assemble a team with diverse backgrounds and perspectives to approach problems in new ways. Involve people from different functions, levels, and even unrelated fields to bring fresh ideas to the table.

Brainstorm freely: Encourage open brainstorming sessions where all ideas are welcomed without judgment. Ensure the problem is well-defined first, and challenge assumptions to explore a wide range of potential solutions.

Facilitate group processes: Don’t feel you need to be the creative hero always. Engage others in small groups to ideate. Record all ideas, analyse them for positives and negatives, and explore interesting aspects to refine the solutions.

Fail fast: Embrace quick experiments and trials to test new ideas. Recognize that many successful innovations come from unexpected places and failures. Small, inexpensive experiments can lead to valuable insights and breakthroughs.

Keep testing: After generating creative ideas, apply rigorous testing and evaluation to select the best solution. Creativity thrives on freedom in the ideation phase but requires structured analysis to implement effective solutions.

“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while.” – Steve Jobs

Reflection questions on creativity

Can you recall a recent instance where you used an unconventional approach to solve a problem? What was the outcome? How can you do more of this?

When was the last time you intentionally stepped out of your comfort zone to explore a new way of thinking?

What strategies do you use to carve out time for creative thinking amidst your busy schedule?

How often do you seek input from people outside your field or with different backgrounds when tackling a problem?

Do you allocate sufficient time to understanding the root causes of issues, or do you tend to jump to solutions quickly? How can you empower yourself to slow down and explore?

What is your approach to brainstorming sessions? How do you ensure a free flow of ideas without premature judgment?

What is your process for conducting quick and inexpensive experiments to test new ideas? What are recent examples? What are current opportunities?

Have you explored techniques like mind mapping, rich pictured, or lateral thinking to boost your creativity? What is blocking you from using these types of techniques more?

How do you foster a culture of creativity within your team or organisation?

What steps could you take to continuously improve your creative skills and encourage the same in your team/department or organisation?

“The enterprise that does not innovate ages and declines. And in a period of rapid change such as the present, the decline will be fast.” – Peter Drucker

“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.”- Scott Adams

“There is no such thing as a new idea. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope.” – Mark Twain

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