Which is the most successful company in your sector?
Depends what you mean by success of course. The chances are it’s the one that applies imagination and creativity to meet their customer needs.
Who is the most valuable person in your business?
It’s the girls or guys who actively think, and then helps others to think and provide solutions. Sometimes referred to as the mavericks, rebels, oddballs - they probably have a surfboard strung up over their desk. Sweeping stereotype there but my apologies. I just liked the image in my head.
And who is the happiest person you know?
Again what do we mean by happy? I'd venture that it is the one person you know who has found the point where their passions and talents meet.
What do all the three have in common? Well apart from feeling very proud of themselves, and so they should, you could say that each has found a way to plug into and use their creative power within themselves.
But, before we go on, let me tell you what creativity isn’t.
The word creativity has been hijacked somewhere along the line. Its use now is as a catchall, encompassing word, sometimes applied in a slightly derogatory way, especially when used by those who ‘don’t get it,’ to describe the slightly bohemian, hippyfied amongst us or those people who march to a different drum - It is used as both as an adjective and a verb to describe those that write paint, play, dance, sculpt, do stuff with their hands, generally hang around at Hobbycraft. It is often accompanied by a slight shaking of an exasperated head. We have a guy in Barnsley who wears shorts, knee high scarlet socks and a matching bobble hat every day of the year; He is just brilliant and you can see him marching proudly around our shopping centre almost everyday in any weather. Is he creative or just weird? Bit of both really but creative definitely.
So here is my view; It's so much broader than that - you just can't describe just how broad an impact creativity and innovation it has made and will continue to make in our World.
Creativity is what happens when imagination has focus; innovation is what happens when creativity has a bottom line; enterprise is what happens when innovation meets ability, entreprenurship is what happens when all the aforementioned are put on the same cart and passion becomes the fuel.
And, if you ask most entrapraneurs, which is what I do a lot in my innovator workshops ; after they get over the shock of realising that they can actually make money from something they love, most will say that it’s the fulfillment of creating something from nothing that makes them warm and fuzzy. And then it’s a compulsion to do it again and again. They like the money too, obviously. Now that is creativity. OK it’s a bit of simple analysis I grant you but at least it gets you thinking. And lets me move on a bit.
To this bit actually - There are roughly 6000 languages spoken in the World, ( although we have just lost Manx apparently) These weren’t dreamt up spontaneously by the dictionary compilers or an infinite number of blindfold monkeys with typewriters but all arrived at by humanity's inherent ability to create. There is a glorious bloke down my road who has some fantastic flower beds in his front garden. I see him everyday on my way to work. Bob at Number 48 is linked directly, in so many ways both genetically and spiritually, to another eminent biologist and current media flavour of the year, Charles Darwin - Why does it take an anniversary to remind us just how blooming remarkable people are. Each, in their own way, required a certain spark to illuminate, the ability to look at things in a different way, to see a new pattern.
But I am digressing slightly. Why is creativity or innovation so vital and especially now in our current economic and social conditions? Well some would say the current situation is largely the result of 'a distinct lack of innovation and a preponderance of 'karaoke' thinking in the banking industry; which became an exercise in jumping on bandwagon riding, in this case on the track that lead over the edge of a cliff. The fallout of of this Innovation Impotence will be felt for years. The old ways, methods and rule books are having to be torn up. The impact and success of companies will now depend on as much as the ethical way they do business, their CSR programmes and how they manage their customer relationships to establish trust and credibility as much as the value of product or service they market. Innovation and different thinking has never been so keenly needed to be enabled universally, not just by individuals but by every public and private organisation.
Innovative companies attract innovative thinkers who contribute to them becoming more innovative and attracts the….so the cycle goes on. What are you doing today to address the innovation gap?
You may like to reflect on this. ‘Creativity can be applied to any aspect of human endeavor and enterprise’. Well there is brassy and bold statement. Certainly it can be used to improve or change a process, or a product, or a service, or to improve a relationship.
For what its worth I believe that anyone can be creative. the label 'creativity' applies to just about any progressive thinking. The creative superstar starts to think where the others stop. They break out of pattern, they zig while the others zag. You both get there in the end but they go a different route. By doing so they uniquely separate themselves out from the rest. And, curiously they appear to have a hell of a lot more fun and fulfillment than the zaggers in doing so. The happiest person you know? Maybe, probably.
The really good news, and this is really, really good news, is that anyone and any organisation can learn to harness creativity in all its manifestations. Its not hard. Learning to unleash your creativity is like learning to play golf. We can all swing a club and hit a ball ( except my mum) but that every so often anyone can connect and hit that one beautiful shot. It is the promise of repeating that shot that keeps us coming back for more. Everyone has that in them, the possibility to hit a hole-in-one but…. not all of us can be Tiger Woods. Creativity requires practice and the more you practice the better you get. But somebody has to show you how to do it right to start off or help you so you can experience that feeling of the sweet sound of connection and power as the ball flies into the sky as often as possible.
Alternatively you and your colleagues can be (un)happy with your lot, and sit feeling sorry for yourself, quietly fermenting in the culture of mediocrity. Conformity and risk aversion has come home to roost and he is a big, big turkey with a bad attitude.
If you were to ask me, and I hope you are, embracing creativity and innovation, at its fundamental core, is the recognition of the fact that that we don’t know everything but it’s really fun trying to. Well that’s the answer I would give today, but I’m not sure about tomorrow. None of us are. That is the point. But what I am sure of is that the only people who will lead us out of this mess are those that can truly embrace change, and apply their creativity muscles.
Darwin was right on so many levels. We have before our own eyes proof that it is not the Survival of the Fattest. It is those that can adapt most quickly to opportunities that survive and flourish. And we have a tool that surpasses every other leaping, flying, jumping, seeing, skill. Our minds. An incredible tool that can visualise a Billion futures and a Billion solutions. We had better start learning how to use them again.
