Innovative Thinking

We had an interesting discussion in my class tonight for “Innovative Business Thinking.” The discussion turned to whether people can learn to be creative and innovative thinkers, or if some people just have “it” and some don’t. Our instructor’s point was that in his work as an executive consultant and coach, he had seen people who were normally stoic and “un-innovative” surprise people with a creative burst. .

One person who had no artistic experience suddenly took up a paint brush and created an impressive work of art. Another person was straight-laced all year round, but at Halloween became very expressive and regularly won awards for his Halloween costumes. .

The point our instructor made is that some people may have a larger measure of creativity, and some people may be naturally innovative, but much of it has to do with our comfort level. He said that we tend to fall on the creative or conformist side depending on where we find safety. .

If we could never feel safe as a conformist, and find that our weirdness leads to better poetry or music, then we will tend to feel safer as an innovative person. On the other hand, if our creative thinking never led to a feeling of safety, we would tend to flee to conformity. .

The implication is that the enemy of innovation is fear. If people are afraid of the consequences of innovative thinking, then they will avoid it. Many of us have seen figures of authority squash good ideas because the innovativeness threatened their empire. We have also seen people stick their neck out with a crazy idea and get laughed at, ensuring that they would never voice their thoughts again. .

Eventually, this kind of despotism will scare people into policing their own innovative thoughts. Out of fear, we will proactively prevent creative thinking and make sure that our thoughts conform to the perceived standard. .

If your team needs a new idea, then give them freedom. Allow failure, encourage crazy ideas, and forget about measuring productivity for a second. We fail to plan and fail to brainstorm because we fear it will waste valuable time. .

There are two possible perceptions. Perhaps your lose two hours that you could have spent making a few thousand dollars. On the other hand, you may invest two hours leading to the million dollar idea. .

Every time you “sacrifice” productivity for creative thinking and brainstorming sessions, you will be building up your team’s innovative abilities. You will raise their natural ability to think creatively, and you will raise the odds of hitting on the big ideas.