Many people believe business is all about rationality; logic – so called – left brain thinking. There is a wide spread notion there is no room for creativity, or, that those who are creative are the advertising and marketing people only.
People conjure up images of grey suit-wearing-accountants, with horned rimmed glasses who say, “Computer says no.”
This definitely isn’t true.
The complicated issues that any given manager must wrestle with from day-to-day require enormous creative and thinking powers. Managers must constantly fight to reduce waste, find ways to improve sales, and throughput.
They must solve complicated problems for customers, or solving billing problems in complicated corporations that employee tens of thousands of people. This requires extraordinary creativity, deft political and communications skills.
Then there are the engineering businesses such as Apple who come up with unique products. OK, so that’s an easy example you say. What about the commodities businesses who mine say, salt? Well they have complicated supply chain problems, how to avoid stock outs for the clients, how to maintain production while reducing inventory.
This all requires enormous creativity and ingenuity.
So how is creativity fostered. Here is a 5 step process I use in all of my problem solving work as a consultant every day:
- Articulate the purpose. Here you set out in broad terms the goal, or the problem intended to be solved. Don’t jump to solution mode to early though you may have a hypothesis in mind. Keep an active and curious mind about what the problem or goal is. Once again this a broad goal. The probability is at best 50% here.
- Total Immersion. Step 2 is all about collecting facts and figures about the current reality, here your only intent is to remain non-judgemental, and collect data. Keep collecting until you sense that you have a complete map of territory that is your goal or problem.
- Deep Dive. Now is the time to start piecing the data together to draw inferences about the root cause of the problem, or the key drivers that will help you reach you goal. Keeping asking why here, be certain there is a causal link between the problems. If at this point you are not coming up with any clear inferences about the solutions, go back to steps 2 to collect more data. Or if that is not the problem go back to step 1, and redefine the problem. Many problems can be solved by rethinking the problem from a different perspective at this stage.
- Design. Though your process of discovery, you will have ideas on the direction of the solution, they should leap out at you. If they don’t consider involving others in a brainstorming process. Here you will be designing an hypothesis that the problem will be solved through the potential solution. remember your idea is just that, it still needs to be tested in reality, and refined. Now is the time to do that.
- Roll it out. Once you have confirmed the solution works, roll it out. Poor the coals to it. Make it habit, set up procedures so that it becomes part of business as usual.
This process works for all problem solving, and can be used for all creativity.
Another objection I here, thats all good for people who are process orientated, what about artists. Let us think about something considered purely creative. I play guitar, used to play in a band and wrote the songs. This is how I went about the process. (Sure it was somewhat intuitive, but a process none the less.)
- Broadly speaking I had a goal to write a song, generally speaking I knew what type of music the set list needed, for example, upbeat rock-it-out song, or melancholy ballad.
- Next I would listen for days or weeks on end to the types of music I was trying to create looking for inspiration.
- I would think about the connections, that tied my common interest together between the music that I liked and was appealing to me.
- I’d start writing, starting with the riffs, and chord progression, and if it was working begin to write the lyrics. Take it to the band and get some feedback. Go back sharpen it up, begin the arrangements (collaborative step).
- Then work it into the set-list. Improve the arrangements over time. Record it.
So, now you have a process; get creative.
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