Ok, to start a few questions for you.
Which is the most successful company or organisation in your sector?
Depends what you mean by success of course. May I suggest that the chances are that 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 help others to think and provide solutions. Sometimes referred to as the mavericks, the rebels, the oddballs, the revolutionaries - they would probably have a surfboard strung up over their desk if they could and are bellringers or bungee jumpers, bullfigthers or role players in their spare time.
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, first 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, 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, or 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. Our definition of Creativity It's so much broader than that - you just can't begin describe the immesnity of the impact creativity and innovation has made and will continue to make in our World, but here is a sound bite.
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, entrepreneurship is what happens when all the aforementioned are put on the same cart and passion becomes the fuel.
If you ask most entrapraneurs, which is what I do a lot in my creativity workshops and 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 feel warm and fuzzy. And then it’s a compulsion to do it again and again. They like the money too, obviously. but not as much as you would think.
But it's not just the entrepreneurs but the intrapreneursthe ones inside an organisation who have the same drive and passion; the ones inside an organisation who disrupt the status quo. Who want to build something splendid too, who want to change a process not just for the sake of change but to make it work better. Becuase they can. Now that is creativity. OK, it’s a bit of over simple
analysis I grant you but at least it may get you thinking. Let me move on a
bit.
To this bit actually. Something we take for granted. 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 immortal blindfold monkeys with typewriters but all were arrived at by humanity's inherent ability to create. It is like storytelling, hardwired into all of us, in-grained into everyone us. We just forgot how to use it.
To this bit actually. Something we take for granted. 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 immortal blindfold monkeys with typewriters but all were arrived at by humanity's inherent ability to create. It is like storytelling, hardwired into all of us, in-grained into everyone us. We just forgot how to use it.
And we can see it everyday, if we were only to look.
There is a glorious bloke down my road who has some fabulous flower
beds in his front garden. Juts a year round chaos of colour.I see him everyday on my way to work. He is a retired bus driver who drove the same route for 34 years; arrived at the same point within seconds day in day out, a world of timetable and turnarounds. A working life constrained in ways few of us could ever understand or tolerate. But he is proof positive that everyone has that certain spark to illuminate, the ability
to look at things in a different way, to see a new pattern. And it's not just his garden. On his last day of work 65 year Bill, steady Bill, the Bill who had three days of sick in his life, kidnapped his own bus, took his number 14 home and then loaded up all his neighbours and family and and took them for a picnic to the seaside 80 miles away. As he said 'what where they going to do, fire him?'
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 me included, that the current situation is largely the result of 'a distinct lack of innovation and a preponderance of 'karaoke' thinking in the banking and public sector industries; which largely became an exercise in jumping on bandwagons, in this case on the track that lead over the edge of a cliff. The fallout of this age of Innovation Impotence will be felt for years. The old ways, management techniques, 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 or provide. Innovation and different thinking has never been so keenly needed to be enabled and empowered universally, not just by individuals but by every public and private organisation.
Innovative organisations 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 others stop. They break out of pattern, they zig while the others zag. You both get there in the end but they go via a different route and sometimes fail. Bit often suceed superbly. 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. It's not as hard as you may think. Learning to unleash your creativity is like learning to play golf. We can all swing a club and hit a ball, the excpetion being my mum, and every so often anyone, even my mum, 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 Rory McIlroy everyday. 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 you 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. Finding new stories to tell isn't just great, its astonishing in its power to amplificy. Well that’s the answer I would give today, but I’m not sure about tomorrow.I may have found a new story to explaining it. 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 and that she who tells the best story will be the winner.
My own hero Darwin was right on so many levels. We have before our own eyes proof that it is not the Survival of the Fattest that will prevail. It is those that can adapt most quickly to opportunities that survive and flourish. And to help su do that we have a tool that surpasses every other leaping, flying, jumping, seeing, skill. Our creative minds. An incredible tool that can visualise a Billion futures and a Billion solutions. We had better start learning how to use them again.
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 me included, that the current situation is largely the result of 'a distinct lack of innovation and a preponderance of 'karaoke' thinking in the banking and public sector industries; which largely became an exercise in jumping on bandwagons, in this case on the track that lead over the edge of a cliff. The fallout of this age of Innovation Impotence will be felt for years. The old ways, management techniques, 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 or provide. Innovation and different thinking has never been so keenly needed to be enabled and empowered universally, not just by individuals but by every public and private organisation.
Innovative organisations 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 others stop. They break out of pattern, they zig while the others zag. You both get there in the end but they go via a different route and sometimes fail. Bit often suceed superbly. 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. It's not as hard as you may think. Learning to unleash your creativity is like learning to play golf. We can all swing a club and hit a ball, the excpetion being my mum, and every so often anyone, even my mum, 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 Rory McIlroy everyday. 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 you 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. Finding new stories to tell isn't just great, its astonishing in its power to amplificy. Well that’s the answer I would give today, but I’m not sure about tomorrow.I may have found a new story to explaining it. 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 and that she who tells the best story will be the winner.
My own hero Darwin was right on so many levels. We have before our own eyes proof that it is not the Survival of the Fattest that will prevail. It is those that can adapt most quickly to opportunities that survive and flourish. And to help su do that we have a tool that surpasses every other leaping, flying, jumping, seeing, skill. Our creative minds. An incredible tool that can visualise a Billion futures and a Billion solutions. We had better start learning how to use them again.
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