Jolt!, Phil Cooke [reading women txt] 📗

for where the organization could go, and then opened it up for discussion.

They started politely—they alway s star t politely—but it didn’t take long for their frustrations to vent. It was like pulling a sheet off their problems so we could all see just how ugly it was under there. I wrote down a list of all the reasons they felt that their work wasn’t more creative. Since that meeting, the same list has been consistently true with nearly ever y organization with which I’ve worked. There are different challenges in many organizations, but the list I wrote down that day has become a guide as I work with other creative teams.

Here’s the list of reasons (starting with the most serious) they felt they weren’t more creative:

1. We’ve always done it this way.

2. We’re not encouraged to be creative.

3. The organization doesn’t foster an attitude of creativity.

4. There are too many rules and sacred cows in the organization that restrict our thinking.

5. We’re just not talented enough.

I’ll bet that at least one or more of those reasons for a lack of creativity can be found at any organization that’s struggling with innovation and creative thinking. They create obstacles to productivity, form barriers to originality, and put the brakes on momentum. I believe every organization and every person can benefit from more creative thinking, but to make that happen, we must first remove the barriers.

Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything.

—GEORGE LOIS, ADVERTISING EXECUTIVE

Let’s look at each of those issues and see how you can change your thinking about creativity.

1. WE’VE ALWAYS DONE IT THIS WAY.

No question, this is the single most frustrating sentence in the English language. I hear it over and over, to the point that I’ve almost begun to ignore it. When you hear someone say, “We’ve always done it this way,” know that he or she is on creative life support. If Dante had written his classic epic poem Inferno on creativity, these would be the people in the lowest possible level of hell.

“We’ve always done it this way” people are usually people who have long ago stopped really thinking and have just become automatons. They are putting in their time, waiting for a check, and going home at the end of the day without thinking, reflecting, or even considering change.

If you’re one of these people, forgive me for being so harsh, but it’s time you woke up and started looking around at life. Routine is the cancer of creativity. Doing anything simply because it was done that way before is not only wrong thinking, it’s bad business.

If someone does business the same way every day, that routine is opening that individual up to mistakes because, chances are, the habit has caused him to lose the ability to think critically and question his methods.

If you’re doing your job the same way as always, then you’re probably already behind. The changing nature of business is making routine approaches to anything a thing of the past.

Creative thinking coach Tom Monahan said, “The information age is now the imagination age.” Creativity has pervaded every area of our lives, and to be successful both personally and in business, we need to put away our past fears and embrace a future filled with creativity and innovation.

Tom Kelley, general manager of IDEO, one of the most creative product design firms on the planet, wrote in The Art of Innovation: “The biggest single trend that we’ve observed is the growing acknowledgment of innovation as a centerpiece of corporate strategies and initiatives. What’s more, we’ve noticed that the more senior the executives, the more likely they are to frame their companies’ needs in the context of innovation” (3).

Business writer Gary Hamel responded with an interesting but challenging prediction: “Out there in some garage is an entrepreneur who’s forging a bullet with your company’s name on it. You’ve got one option now—to shoot first. You’ve got to out-innovate the innovators.”

There is no other choice, in either our personal lives or in our business lives. This is the age of innovation and imagination, and the old ways just don’t work anymore.

It doesn’t matter that we’ve always done it this way.

It doesn’t matter that it’s always been company policy.

It doesn’t matter that it’s the way the boss likes it.

Organizations are being outthought, outsold, outproduced, and out-manned because their people are stuck thinking they’ve “always done it this way.” Until we can change that thinking, those companies will always be on the losing end of innovation.

How do we get past that thinking?

Start asking questions about everything. Stop taking anything at face value and question policies, techniques, forms, rules, paperwork—anything that has become routine. Why do we do that? Is it even necessary? Can we do it better? On the farm of success, there are no sacred cows. Which leads me to the second issue on the list.

2. WE’RE NOT ENCOURAGED TO BE CREATIVE.

Encouragement is the oxygen of creativity. No individual can creatively function long in an atmosphere where people are taken for granted, go unrewarded, or are ignored. When you encourage and reward people, you’re fanning the flames of creativity.

One of the workshops I led recently at a national conference was called “How to Be Creative in a Non-Creative Environment.” I have to admit it was depressing to even think there was a need for such a workshop, but the truth is, many very creative individuals suffer by working in companies that don’t value innovation. One of my first admonitions at the workshop was: “Get out!” Get out of companies that don’t value your gifts and talents. Someone told me: “Go where you are celebrated, not just tolerated.” Find a place where your creativity is not only welcomed but also encouraged and rewarded.

If you’re in a leadership position, begin today to encourage every person on your staff—especially those who are particularly creative. Which leads me to number three.

3. THE