Are people creative because they have an inner urge to be creative? They may have an inner urge to make something happen, an inner urge to make a difference. Perhaps it is a need for achievement. Just doing your job in the usual way is not enough. You want to be able to feel you have created something. Research in the US shows that 94% of youngsters regard achievement as the most important thing in their lives.
The above suggests that 'creativity' is a natural talent that some people have and others can only envy. I do not believe this to be the case. But the motivation to be creative might be more of a natural talent - or affected by upbringing. If you want to be creative, you make more effort to be creative. If you spend more time trying to be creative, you are indeed likely to be more creative.
You are also likely to pick up some creative thinking habits. In my experience, that is what is usually the case with people regarded as 'being creative'. Of course, such people do have creative successes from time to time. Such successes increase motivation, increase skill and increase confidence. The result is something of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
THE PULL ASPECT
So much for the 'push' aspect of creativity. What about the 'pull' aspect? Many organisations have sought to reward creativity with money. If you think up a better way of doing things then - eventually - you will be given a monetary reward, perhaps based on the money saved by your improved method. Once this 'monetary reward' is known, then surely everyone will make an effort to be creative, because this has become a way of making more money.
Perhaps this works. I am not sure that it does. Many people feel that they are never going to have the sort of idea that earns this money. So they do not try. People come to believe that creativity is not for everyone but only for the 'creative few'. So the creative few will be motivated, but the others will be put off.
It becomes a matter of strategy. Do you want everyone to become creative? Or, do you just want the 'creative few' to use their creativity? I do not see the two as mutually exclusive. I would like to see everyone becoming both motivated and skilled at creativity and I would, at the same time, like the 'creative few' to use all the creativity they can. Where there are suggestion schemes, for example, I propose that every month all those who have bothered to put in a suggestion are brought together and thanked and given a drink. This sort of 'recognition' is not expensive, but it is motivating. Having the reward close to the creative effort is important. If you reward creative effort, you will get creative results. If you only reward creative results, you will not get creative effort.
CULTURE
The biggest 'pull' factor is not money but the culture within an organisation. Does the organisation really favour creativity? Most organisations pay a lot of lip service to creativity - but it is only lip service. It is like talking a lot about dieting and then continuing to eat as much as you like.
Culture, in general, is set by senior management. It is possible to have a pocket of creativity within some part of the organisation: but for the culture to become general, senior management must be involved.
The culture of creativity can be shown in many ways. You could give 'hero status' to innovators as Du Pont does. You could devote the last part of every meeting to hearing from people who are exploring new ideas. It does not matter whether they are using the ideas or not - exploration is enough. If no one has any new idea to offer, then it is indicated that they are not doing their job properly.
Creavity is either a 'risk' or an 'expectation'. If it is not one, then it is the other. Creativity is a risk because it means putting in time, energy and political capital in getting an idea tried out. There is the risk that the idea might fail and be held against you thereafter. In all, it is a lot of work. Why bother?
If creativity is an expectation, people are very good at playing the 'game' that is expected of them. "If that is the game, then I shall play that game". When creativity becomes an expectation, it becomes the game that is useful to play.
THE SKILL FACTOR
Is skill a pull factor or a push factor? You can exhort people to be creative by showing videos, films, etc. of creative success and by sermon-like exhortation. This is a sort of pull factor. The effect might seem to be spectacular, but lasts not more than a week.
There is no mystique about creativity. The brain makes patterns as a self-organising system. These patterns are asymmetric. Creativity is simply the handling of information in such a system. There are the formal tools of lateral thinking, which can be learned, practised and used, and which can make anyone creative. These tools include provocation, random entry, challenge, concept extraction, etc. Thousands of people around the world have been taught these tools and now use them deliberately.
A number of workshops set up one afternoon by one of my trainers used just one of the lateral thinking tools to generate 21,000 ideas for a steel company in one afternoon. It took nine months to sort through these ideas. This is all very different from just sitting and brainstorming.
The point about formal thinking tools is that you learn to use them and acquire skill in their use. This produces creative results. From such results you build confidence in your creativity. So a 'push' factor is created. But this push factor is permanent, because you have acquired a real skill. This is very different from mere exhortation.
PUSH AND PULL
So both push and pull are really needed. The culture of an organisation provides the 'pull' factor. You are expected to be creative. Being creative is part of your job - not something extra for which you get paid extra. Creativity is part of every job description, just the same as competence and efficiency. If you make no effort to be creative, you are not doing your job properly.
The 'push' factor then comes from your confidence in your creative ability. This confidence arises from your training in creative methods. You know how to use these methods. You know that, when you use them, you get creative results.
The three mistakes that are generally made are:
1. It is enough to pay lip service to creativity.
2. It is enough to rely on the natural (push) motivation of creative people.
3. It is enough to rely on periodic exhortation.
If you want to take creativity seriously, then you do have to be serious about it. Messing around with brainstorming is not really good enough.
[For information on formal training in lateral thinking contact Mrs Hills by fax (44) 0207 602 1779].
