When I was a kid, a man who worked with my dad called him the most creative businessman he'd ever known. But that didn't compute with me, because Dad could barely draw a stick man. He couldn't write a story, play an instrument, or produce a video. He never professed or demonstrated creativity to me, yet with incredible resourcefulness, he could birth a business, solve distribution problems, manage people, beat the competition, and make money. 

Most people don't understand how their abilities could resemble anything close to creativity. I've seen a financial executive, not otherwise known for his creativity, present bland financial data in the form of a compelling story. I've watched in awe as our own VP of sales led a prospect from arms-folded resistance to acceptance in the span of an hour.

Hewlett-Packard understands creativity. Its 1999 annual report contained the following challenge to employees:

Rules of the garage:

Believe you can change the world.
Work quickly, keep the tools unlocked, work whenever.
Know when to work alone and when to work together.
Share — tools, ideas. Trust your colleagues.
No politics. No bureaucracy. (These are ridiculous in a garage.)
The customer defines a job well done.
Radical ideas are not bad ideas.
Invent different ways of working.
Make a contribution every day. If it doesn’t contribute, it doesn’t leave the garage.
Believe that together we can do anything.
Invent.

HP's garage mentality sets an example for our own corporate creativity. Fun rules and flexible work appeals to the average employee in any company. Encouraging people to be creative frees them to take risks without fear. 

What does creativity mean to you? Many leaders think "artistry." But it's really a mixture of planning, envisioning, composing, discovery, prioritizing, logic, organization, intuition, emotion, persuasion, perspective, perspiration, and the pursuit of perfection. It requires the whole brain, not just the imaginative right side. It compels buy-in and makes you say, "Of course!"

Tackling Challenges

Are the best minds in your organization stumped by a problem? Do you desire an ounce of Michelangelo's brain so you can cast a Sistine-like vision for the future? We know the book of Genesis as the story of God's creation, but when you study it with an eye toward process, a blueprint for tackling challenges emerges.

On the first day, God creates light; then he fashions the sky, followed by land and sea; on day 4 he fills the visible sky with the sun, moon and stars; the next day he fills the sky and sea with creatures, leading to land animals the next morning, and in the afternoon, his crowning achievement, man, rises from the dust. On day 7, the Lord rests from his creative work.

I believe a powerful application from this account is that one mind created the universe, just like an entrepreneur with an original spark. God is divine - he didn't need us to help him create - and in business, the team should not necessarily be exalted over the individual.

Have you ever led a brainstorming session in which you laid out the problem, established the ground rules, and created a criticism-free environment; but instead of eliciting ideas from everyone, you kept hearing from the same few people? The problem, say social researchers, is that brainstorming rarely enhances the quantity or quality of ideas. They point to several limiting factors: distraction, evaluation apprehension, production blocking (when people become distracted by others' ideas and forget their own, or don't have time to think of an idea), and my favorite, "social loafing."

Social loafing's premise is that brainstorming groups are little more effective than other types of groups, and they are actually less effective than individuals working independently. The loafing occurs when people in the group feel de-motivated because they think their contributions aren't valued - so they let others speak. People who believe they're especially skilled or creative, however, contribute extensively because they believe they'll see their fingerprint on the group's final decision.

As a result, we miss some ideas from the quieter people, giving us an incomplete brainstorm. A simple solution, especially with a large group, is to collect thoughts before a meeting occurs, freeing people to think without distractions, anxiety, or time constraints. The leader collects the ideas and anonymously e-mails them to the group, asking them to comment on their favorites. After refinement, the team meets in person to expand or combine the top-voted ideas.

When people conduct one-person brainstorms in the comfort of their own offices, on their own schedules, they often surprise themselves by discovering latent creativity. That's the power of the unfettered individual mind. When we as leaders mine that power rather than spend time dealing with the dysfunctions of a group, we connect with the divine image of creativity etched into all of us.


For discussion....

1. How would you describe your own creative abilities?
2. How effective was the last brainstorming meeting you were in?
3. Who are the quiet people in your organization that rarely express their ideas?

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Excerpted from Leading from the Lions' Den: Leadership Principles from Every Book of the Bible, by Tom Harper (B&H, Fall 2010).