The Federal Consulting Group, a franchise in the U.S. Department of the Interior: Creativity Fringes

CREATIVITY FRINGES

Forest Service
Eastern Region
December 2005

CREATIVITY, CATCHING ALL THE IDEAS

We are often asked the question about the source of people's creativity. Is it inherited? Can it be nurtured? Clearly, there are natural-born creative individuals just as there are talented athletes and singers. But, people by their very nature, can be creative. Look at children; they have a natural predisposition to be creative.

But what happens to this natural creativity? Most of it is taken away and suppressed by our education and management systems. Most people are trained to complete the task at hand. Children are mostly taught that this is the way things are done. They are not taught to ask questions, but to follow orders.

Some of us are starting to challenge the suppression of thought and claim our creative birthright. Remember, everyone is creative!

But why should we care if people are more creative? It's fairly simple: Creative people tend to be more motivated because they've achieved something. They've discovered a better way of doing things. By successfully finding solutions, people are more motivated to work. And the more motivated they are, the more productive they are. And the more productive people are the more satisfied and motivated they are. Isn't this what we want, more productive and effective people?
But before we can increase creativity in people, we have to figure out what is affecting their creativity.

First, you need to determine whether or not the people in your organization have the necessary resources, knowledge, skills, and abilities to get their jobs done. Are they hard pressed to find enough resources to complete their jobs? Do they have the experience and ability to allow them to be effective?

If you decide your people don't have the resources, knowledge, skills and abilities, then you need to decide how to get them further education and training.

Next, look at people's attitude toward doing things differently. How receptive are they to change? How often do people ever say "We can't do it that way because...," "It costs too much money," "We've always done it this way," "They won't let me do it that way" or "It's too hard." These and similar expressions are killers of creativity.

What can you do? When you hear people using one of these excuses, stop! Here are a couple of suggestions to turn those negative statements into positive ones:

» It may be hard to do it, but here are some ideas how we can do it.
» It's expensive, but let's see how we can still come in under budget.
» Let's see how we can increase the budget.

Once you convince people to think positively, an entire new realm of possibilities emerges.
Thinking positively also involves an aspect of risk-taking. Do you allow or even encourage your employees to take risks? What kind? To what extent? To what dollar amount? There are people who've had creative circuits running through their brains but were afraid the boss would penalize or criticize them if they spoke up. Sometimes when the money crunch puts the squeeze on units, employees are afraid of losing their jobs; they hold back and resist the temptation to be creative and innovative.

As a leader, when you witness these occurrences, you have an opportunity to chime in and encourage "appropriate" levels of risk-taking. For example, when you hear a supervisor reject an idea because it sounds too absurd, simply ask, "What's the worse thing that could happen if that person acted on his or her idea?" As the supervisor, you need to encourage more risk-taking and more creative thinking on the part of your employees.
So once you've assessed the availability of resources, reviewing your employees' knowledge, skills and abilities and you have started to encourage risk-taking and positive thinking, you can move on to noting individual and group motivational levels. Find out why people are motivated…or not. For those individuals who aren't motivated…or aren't motivated enough…don't hesitate to find out the reasons and obstacles that prevent them from being highly effective employees. Remember, high levels of motivation, energy and enthusiasm are related to increased levels of creativity.

Next, you should focus on the work environment. Have managers and supervisors created unnecessary and possibly restrictive levels of rules, regulations and procedures? If so, you've just identified more obstacles to thinking and behaving creatively. An atmosphere like this can stifle people by decreasing their risk-taking behavior.
You also need to determine if your employees fear stepping out of the box to come up with new ideas? Do they fear questioning supervisors and managers? Do they fear losing their jobs or receiving negative comments or evaluations from their supervisors? If so, you've discovered yet another threat to creativity and innovation.

Finally, ask yourself just how often you seek opportunities to recognize and praise your employees. Most people praise their pets much more than they praise others in the workplace. Simple statements such as "Nice job," "Well done," "Nice try," "Great improvement" or "I'm glad you're trying" are extremely powerful inducers of a positive working environment and a more creative and satisfied workforce.

Some of our organizations still come up short, but a greater number of people will overcome these barriers and take a crack at being more creative and challenging the status quo if you implement only a few of these suggestions. People will dazzle you with their ideas.

The things we fear most in organizations…fluctuations, disturbances,
imbalances are the primary sources of creativity.

Margaret J. Wheatley

BUREAUCRACY

In the October 2005 Harvard Business Review, William H. Starbuck, professor, College of Business, University of Oregon has provided the background and definition of bureaucracy. This is something we should all consider as we write anything that affects people in our organizations.

"There's a long-standing tension in organizations between innovation and bureaucracy. Excessive layers of management and byzantine processes often shoulder the blame when a promising idea fails to make to market or a nimble start-up thwarts a mature competitor. That tension can be traced back at least 340 years, to an inadvertent collaboration between two government officials in France. In 1665, with the French economy in turmoil, King Louis XIV appointed Jean-Baptiste Colbert as his comptroller general of finance. Colbert prosecuted corrupt officials and reorganized commerce and industry according to the economic principles known as mercantilism. To assure the populace that the government would act fairly in monetary disputes, he demanded that officials abide by certain rules and apply them uniformly to everyone. Then, in 1751, Jean Claude Marie Vincent de Gournay became France's administrator of commerce. Gournay was outraged by what Colbert had put in place and railed against the multitude of government regulations he believed were suppressing business activity. To describe a government run by insensitive creators and enforcers of rules, who neither understood nor cared about the consequences of their actions, he coined the term "bureaucratie." Translation: 'government by desks.'"

CHARTING TRENDS

Effective Brainstorming

Thomas Kelley of design firm IDEO has a lot of experience in fostering effective brainstorming. He suggests allocating a specific space for innovation, well-stocked with sketch boards, maps, pictures and other stimulating visuals, as well as an abundance of post-it notes, prototyping kids, markers, story-board frames, etc. Practice the Zen principle of "beginner's mind" and leave your preconceptions at the door. "Don't judge, empathize." Seek out epiphanies through "vuja de"… the sense of seeing something for the first time, even if it's commonplace. Cross-pollinate: hire people with diverse backgrounds or even nationalities, create lots of opportunities for impromptu meetings among disparate groups, host a weekly speaker series to get creative juices perking, seek out diverse projects that stretch the firm's capabilities. When it comes to brainstorming, sharpen your focus on one specific customer need or process and go for quantity…encourage wild ideas and pie-in-the-sky thinking. Number your ideas…a hundred ideas per hour is usually a sign of a good, fluid brainstorm. Use props…write and draw your concepts with the markers and giant post-its suck to every surface. Get physical…let that enthusiasm bubble over into impromptu prototyping using foam core, duct tape, glue guns and other model building tools. Stretch first…sometimes it helps to ask attendees to do a little homework the night before or play a word game to clear the mind before getting down to business.

Business Week
October 24, 2005

Save Every Idea

In the years before he co-founded Aegis Living…an operator of senior residential communities, CEO Dwayne Clark saved all the ideas that were rejected by his bosses. He kept them tucked away in a "black-box" file. Now that Clark is making decisions, he frequently reaches into that black-box, which now serves as a cache of new ideas for jazzing up his business and the 35 residential communities it operates. An idea…like soliciting free products from suppliers to share with employees…has helped Clark keep caregivers content in an industry known for high turnover. Good leadership means knowing a good idea when you see it. Don't let those fleeting inspirations slip away…the right time for them may be just ahead.

Entrepreneur
May 2005

Some thoughts from a few Dreamers…….

Thanks for the great articles and information on creativity. I like many of the points you have made, in particular how we should provide more training on creativity. How do we find this training? I live in a small town, which not much available locally and with our continued budget reductions, not much money for travel. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

********************

In response to some of your articles that suggest we need to do more with less; I caution you that the slash and burn approach is not always the best methodology. While we can save money in the short run by slashing our organization, I think that we lose the diversity of ideas and limit the creativity of people. We are now cutting the Forest Service to a new extreme. It is reorganization at all costs, not for what is best. It just seems that people are being discarded without regard to the long-term ramifications of the Forest Service. Corporate America has taught us that the mind-boggling short-term success does not mean long-term sustainability or the betterment of anyone.

If you are interested in learning more about creativity or wish to share any experiences, please contact Karl Mettke at kmettke@fs.fed.us.

Thank You For Taking Time To Be Creative?

CREATIVITY FRINGES

Forest Service Eastern Region December 2005

CREATIVITY, CATCHING ALL THE IDEAS

Suggested Readings:

BUREAUCRACY

Forest Service
Eastern Region
December 2005