creativity and management

For some time now, innovation has been the fashionable thing to talk about. It is very much easier to talk about than to act upon. Almost all major corporations claim to be innovative. Almost all of them claim that without innovation the company would die. Almost all of them do very little about innovation.

As a term, 'innovation' is preferred to creativity. Innovation implies action and things that work. Creativity implies fanciful and wacky ideas. Yet innovation is the easier part. Without ideas there is nothing to innovate. You can borrow ideas from elsewhere - and that can be valuable - but somewhere, some time the idea has to start.

Most managements use the strategy of 'maintenance and problem-solving'. In more direct terms, this merely means survival. In practical terms, this means to management 'keep going and avoid criticism'.

So why should any senior management be interested in creativity?

THINKING AHEAD
A man jumps off the top of a skyscraper. As he passes the fourth floor window, he is heard to mutter 'So far, so good'.

The argument that without innovation a corporation will eventually die (or be killed) is not very powerful. While many senior executives accept the validity of this 'in the longer term', they know that they will have moved on or retired by then. Quietly keeping the organisation going, day to day, is more important than the long term.

The use of creativity for cost-cutting, downsizing, mergers and acquisitions is more immediately attractive. Such matters are about 'today', not the long term.

There is this ship at sea. The engine keeps breaking down. The rudder is faulty. The lights keep going out. The crew are demoralised. The decks are dirty, etc. Then along comes this new captain. The morale rises because he treats his crew properly. The rudder is fixed. The lights stay on. The engine is repaired. Everything is now fine aboard this ship. But the ship is still heading in the wrong direction!

Far too often all management's time, attention and skill are spent on 'housekeeping'. In contrast, the fundamentals and strategy get little attention.

USES OF CREATIVITY
Creativity is of great use in housekeeping. Simplification requires a lot of creativity. Re-engineering requires creativity. Effective downsizing requires creativity.

Creativity is not just for problem-solving. Very often the most powerful effects of creativity are seen when we challenge existing ways of doing things which are very satisfactory.

In 1971 I suggested to Shell Oil that they should consider drilling oil wells which proceeded sideways when the right depth was reached. Today most oil-wells are drilled exactly like that. Such wells yield between three and six times as much oil. There had been nothing wrong with traditional oil wells. But it was a matter of challenging something that was not a problem.

I am not claiming that the change in drilling wells was a direct result of my suggestion - I have no way of proving that. It is a historical fact, however, that I made the suggestion in 1971.

MOTIVATION
If the above motivations are weak, then how do we motivate senior management to get seriously involved in creativity?

'If an organisation is competent and is not using creativity, then it is always underusing its assets.' That is a simple statement that is true.

Competence means 'a fitness to do things'. Competence is the baseline. If you are not competent, then you are not able to do things. If you are competent, then you should be doing things. And some of the things you should be doing are new.

Otherwise, it is like having a powerful car and then only using it for pottering around and shopping.

Shareholders should insist that management be innovative - otherwise their shareholding is being under-used. At the shareholders' annual meeting there should be a separate booklet (separate from the annual report) which details the innovations. The pages will be blank if there are no innovations. This simple device would put considerable pressure on senior management to perform. Maintenance and problem-solving would no longer be enough.

RISK OR EXPECTATION
In my experience, creativity in an organisation is either a risk or an expectation. If it is not an expectation, it is a risk. Being creative means time, work, political hassle and risk. Why should anyone want to be creative? Successes are great, but not every idea is a success. You are judged only on your last mistake. Prior successes tend to be ignored.

If creativity is set as an expectation, then people tend to play the creative game. If at every meeting there is time set aside specifically to consider new ideas, then people will put forward new ideas. If an executive is expected to do more than just keep within the budget, then that executive will set out to do more. People are very good at playing the game that they are supposed to be playing.

REWARDS
Should creativity be rewarded directly? This would not be at senior level, but at other levels. The idea is that rewards provide incentives. The rewards could be made as direct payments or as a percentage of savings or revenue produced.

The advantages of a reward system are obvious. There is endorsement of the value of creativity. There is 'hero' status for the originator of an idea. There are tangible rewards which others can see and also try to obtain. The name of a person, or team, is attached to the idea.

The disadvantages are not so obvious. The reward implies that creativity is not part of the normal job, but something 'extra' which has to be rewarded. Creativity ceases to be an expectation and becomes an extra task. Many will not wish to undertake this extra task.

Then, the rewards are usually given to big and successful ideas. Many people do not see themselves as having these 'big ideas', so they do not bother. What is the use of having a 'small idea'? Those who win the rewards tend to cluster into an elite 'creative group'. Others quickly assume that it is the business of this special group to be creative, and there is no need for anyone else to try.

There also arises competitiveness amongst ideas: 'my idea is greater than yours'. Some people do not want to compete and stay away from creativity.

DANGER IN REWARDS
Clearly there is value in rewards, but there is also danger. An in-between position might be to give the reward of recognition and hero status, but no financial reward. Creativity is promulgated as being 'part of the job'. There should also be an effort to reward small ideas as well as big ideas. Any person doing a job well should be recognised and praised. In the same way, active creativity should be recognised and praised.

Sometimes there is also a need to reward 'creative effort'. If people bother to put forward suggestions, they should be recognised for this effort - even if the ideas are not very valuable. If everyone gets into the habit of making a creative effort, then, from time to time, there will be valuable ideas.

Creativity in practice is not just the production of wonderful ideas - it is the motivation and effort to produce new ideas. Some of these may prove to be wonderful.

QUALITY OF IDEAS
As people get better and better at creativity, through practice, the quality of ideas will improve. But if you only acknowledge wonderful ideas, then people will not make the effort, will not get the practice and will not produce wonderful ideas.

Creativity is a mix of motivation, time, effort and skill. Included under the skill element are the formal and systematic techniques of lateral thinking.

The advantage of the formal techniques of lateral thinking is that they allow everyone to get going. It is no longer a matter of sitting and waiting for inspiration. There is something to be done. A person using the techniques quickly sees results. These results give that person confidence and the motivation to try to be creative. Exhortation is quite useless by itself and wears off after about a week. The techniques continue because people become more and more skilled at using them.

I believe it is at least as important to motivate people who do not see themselves as creative to become creative, as it is just to choose already creative people.

For further information on training in creativity, etc. refer to the Edward de Bono web site: http://www.edwdebono.com/ or fax +44 171 602 1779.