Creativity in management

At last people are coming to realise that the collection of data and the analysis of that data are not enough. There is a real need to develop new ideas and new concepts. So there is the intention to apply creativity to defined areas - excellent, but not enough. Lip-service is not enough.

Most people’s idea of creative action is to sit around and brainstorm. This is the traditional approach and was developed for advertising. It has some value, but it is a rather weak approach.

POWERFUL

There are much more powerful methods of deliberate, systematic and formal creativity. Creativity is not just a flash of inspiration as you sit on a river bank playing baroque music. There are tools and methods, and they can be very powerful. One afternoon a group of workshops using just one of the formal tools of lateral thinking generated over 21,000 ideas for a steel company.

Most people do not know much about creativity. They do not believe that ideas can be produced to order. They think that creativity is a sort of divine inspiration which happens predominantly to specially talented individuals.

There is no mystery about creativity. Creativity is the behaviour of information in a self-organising system that makes asymmetric patterns. It is from this basis that the deliberate tools of lateral thinking were derived.

In 1969 I wrote a book called The Mechanism of Mind. That book was read by the leading physicist in the world, who told me that I had ‘stumbled’ upon chaos and complexity 10 years before mathematicians worked on these matters.

He also commissioned a team of computer experts to simulate what I wrote in the book. He told me that the system worked exactly as predicted.

All this is very different from the approach of either philosophy or psychology. That approach tries to derive principles from observation of what is happening. The results have been very disappointing, because such descriptions cannot be turned into formal tools.

MISCONCEPTIONS

What is remarkable is the gap between the growing realisation that creativity is essential and knowledge of what can be done about it.

There is the traditional, almost dogmatic belief that since creativity is different from normal (pattern recognition) thinking, nothing can be done about it except to wait for inspiration and to rely on ‘crazy’ talented individuals.

In practice, idea creativity - not artistic creativity – can be taught in as formal a way as mathematics. I have a network of 1,200 trainers worldwide who are doing just that.

If creativity is needed, then there is also a need to do something about it. The two should go together, but rarely do.

PROVOCATION

In any self-organising system, provocation is a mathematical necessity: otherwise we get stuck in local equilibria. A provocation is very different from traditional thinking because we are allowed to say things which we know to be wrong and contrary to experience.

For example, we might say: ‘Po cars have square wheels’. This leads to an interesting idea about suspensions. We might say: ‘Po planes land upside down’. This leads to an interesting idea that might avoid a number of plane accidents.

‘Po’ is a word I invented to signal a provocation. With provocation you do not use judgment, but a new mental operation called ‘movement’. You move forward from the idea and on towards possibility and value.

REVERSAL

There are formal ways of setting up a provocation. One of them is ‘reversal’. You take the normal direction of action and you simply ‘reverse’ it. So planes land upside down. There may be many types of reversal: the plane might land backwards, etc.

Using the new mental operation called ‘movement’, you move forward from the idea to something interesting or of value.

There are several formal ways of getting movement. One of them is ‘moment to moment’. You imagine the provocation in action, and you see what happens moment to moment. With the cars with square wheels, the suspension would need to react ‘in anticipation’. From this movement comes an interesting idea.

In traditional brainstorming, you rely on someone else to provoke your thinking. So forming a group is essential. With provocation in lateral thinking, you set up the provocation and so provoke your own thinking. There is no need for a group. You can be creative on your own.

WISHFUL THINKING

Creativity does not just happen because you have the intention to be creative. Nor is it enough to rely on so called creative people.

Over the years I have had many letters from highly creative people telling me that they found the techniques of lateral thinking very useful in their work – even though they regarded themselves as ‘naturally’ creative.

What happens is that a person who has the habits and motivation needed for being creative makes even better use of the tools, such as provocation, than someone who is not so creative.

IMPORTANT

My point is that it is no longer enough to sit around and say that ‘creativity is important’. What are you going to do about it?

SKILL

The skill of creative thinking can be developed like any other skill. It is a matter of learning the skill, followed by practice and confidence. Creativity is no longer a mystery and should not be treated as such.