The Creativity Question

“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.”

– Steve Jobs

Nearly every client we have or business we analyse is keen to create greater collaboration. They are concerned that their organisation is siloed and feel that raising the incidence and quality of collaboration will drive improvements in creativity and productivity. There is also the expectation that it will make the workplace a more fun, rewarding and inviting place to be.

Interestingly we did some work with a small number of research partners some years ago including the BBC, through which we sought to understand the drivers of creativity and the implications for how organisations and the workplace in particular could encourage and promote greater creativity. What we found was that very often, creative people are far from collaborative. They like to worry away at a problem themselves and have considerable confidence in their own ability to crack it without input from others. The implication for the workplace was that creating lots of collaboration rooms with whiteboards might not be the key to encouraging creativity. More broadly it is suggested that perhaps the answer to upping the creativity quota in an organisation might not lie in stimulating greater collaboration but instead, in hiring and encouraging more of the kinds of people who Steve Jobs refers to in the quote at the top of this article.

It also raises the long-standing debate about whether ability is innate or instead can be developed. Can an organisation “create” creative people or do they just need to find them and hire them? The word “creative” is itself interesting because it often suggests a picture of a “creative type”. In fact creative people, if Steve Jobs is right, are really problem-solvers able to see a shape in something, which no-one has noticed before. The shape could be a pattern in data, a different way through organisational complexity, a new approach to joint venturing or a myriad of other situations in which creative problem-solving is required as a way to move forward and outflank competitors.

Have you harnessed the creative potential within your business? As a critical factor in driving value, it might be worth investing some time in understanding how forward thinking inc could help you develop a creativity plan. If so, contact Penny Lloyd at Penny.L@forwardthinkinginc.com.