subject: Creativity Is The No 1 Critical Success Factor of Business Leaders [print this page] Creativity Is The No 1 Critical Success Factor of Business Leaders
When we talk about creativity these days we are mainly referring to the process of innovation and creating value from existing products or services or by creating new and origonalscientific inventions or works of art.
A recent global survey of one thousand six hundred CEO's revealed that creativity was considered to be the number one most sought after leadership trait. Our more advanced knowledge age requires a constant stream of business innovation to maintain and grow margins against a backdrop of global competition and acceleration. A lack of continued innovation eventually leads to margin erosion, business decline and ultimatelydeath as other more agile, flexible players enter the market.
There are numerous creative professions these days from writing, art, design, theatre, media, motion pictures to scientific research and development, product development, marketing and strategy.
Daniel Pink in his book' A Whole New Mind' 2005 highlights the importance of creativity in the knowledge era suggesting that businesses need to foster right-directed thinking (creativity and emotion) over left-directed thinking (logical,analytical critical thinking).
So where does creative thinking come from?
Highly creative people tend to differ from others in 3 ways;
They have a high level of specialised knowledge.
They are capable of divergent thinking mediated by the frontal lobe of the brain.
They are able to modulate neurotransmitters such as norepinephrine in their frontal lobe.
Creative thinking is whole brain thinking but everything starts with imagination and we access this higher intelligence through our right-brain. The left brain is linear,thinking in sequence used for activities like proof reading etcand the right brain is where more intuitive thinking takes place, where we recognise colour and shapes and feel a rhythm.
So stress, anxiety and high pressure poor moraleenvironments with large instances of executive burn-out are not conducive incubators for creative ideas. Depression and fatigue inhibit free form thinking whilst heightened emotions and positive moods aid creative exploration and expression.
In many ways we have been taught since childhood to practise critical thinking skills, all left brain activity at the expense of creative thinking. Our children grow up fast these days with limited chance for playful exploration .This is further re-enforced within the workplace as employees everywhere are forced to fit in andconform. Efficiency drives in many wayscrucify great ideas due to time and money pressures.Company restructuring programmes often unintentionally create low-trust cultures where communication, collaboration and brainstorming sessions diminish.The consequences of this is great people and great ideas leave companies.
Personality (curiousity and tolerance of ambiguity)
Motivation (intrinsic,extrinsic and achievement)
Confidence (producing,sharing and implementation)
So for new ideas and business innovation to take shape you need to have 3 components;
Creative thinking needs to be encouraged. The idea that there is flexibility and imagination to find novels solutions to problems. This kind of thinking needs to be nurtured through structural set-up, encouragement and the freedom to express and execute new ideaswithout ridicule.
Expertise across technical, procedural and intellectual areas.Expertise brings insight and insight brings breakthroughs in thinking.However, sometimes that breakthrough often comes from innocent collaboration and explorationwith another person , for example, a question asked or a statement made.
Motivation-essentially intrinsic motivation which is a love for one's job and the enjoyment of one's workis far more important than a preoccupation with extrinsic factors such as bonus.
For motivation to be encouraged within the workplace there needs to be the freedom and autonomy within the role. There needs to be access to resources such as time and money and space to cultivate and grow great ideas.There should be adiversity of opinions and skills and backgrounds to support and share a culture of innovation and finally plenty of encouragement , recognition and praise for those who are not frightened to think differently.
