Can You Afford To Take A Gamble With Creativity?

Can Your Business Afford To
Take A Gamble With
Creativity?
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PRESENTS
© 2013 The Mudd Partnership | www.themuddpartnershiponline.com | @muddpartnership | www.fb.com/muddpartnership

In forthcoming Blogs/ Slideshows amongst other things we’ll be taking a look at
Complexity & Adaptive Leadership, Perceptions & Appraisal, Transformational
Change, The Six Weapons of Influence, & Leadership & Wicked Issues.
Today though we’re going to start by looking at Brainstorming versus Individual
Creativity, because at The Mudd Partnership we believe how we
recognise, understand & harness creativity in the workplace is very important in
driving forward the capacity to innovate, manage change and create
agile, super performing Organisations and Businesses.
First off though perhaps we need to reclaim the term Brainstorming as some of us
will be old enough to remember when, for a while at least, you were „Thought
Showering‟ instead!
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The fact is there is a proper pedigree behind the technique and a very good
reason for keeping & using the term, „To Brainstorm‟. As the concepts originator
Alex Osborn simply puts it, the process is, „to use the brain to storm a creative
problem and doing so in commando fashion, with each stormer attacking the
same objective”.
It will also probably come as no surprise that the process was born and nurtured
in the world of advertising. Alex Osborn was a partner in the New York Advertising
Agency BBDO & his celebrated idea was first promulgated in Chapter 33 of his
1948 (surprise) best seller, “Your Creative Power‟. In fact it was the success of this
book that set the template for a range of Management and Business ‘Help’
books being authored during the 1950’s & 60’s by luminaries from this sector.
Including David Ogilvy (described as the Father of Modern Advertising)
whose, „Confessions Of An Advertising Man‟ was hailed as being important
because, “It‟s not just about advertising, it‟s also about how people think and
behave at the sharp end of business”.
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Chapter 33 was titled, „How To Organise A Squad To Create Ideas‟, &, Osborn
wrote that when a group works together, the members should engage in a
„Brainstorm”.
For Osborn, Brainstorming was central to BBDO’s success and his book outlined
the essential rules of a successful Brainstorming Session. The thing that he believed
distinguished Brainstorming from other types of group activity was the absence of
criticism and negative feedback, &, he wrote, “Creativity is delicate, a flower
that praise tends to make bloom while discouragement often nips in the bud”.
Brainstorming was predicated on a no-judgments approach to holding a
meeting. It provided companies with an easy way to structure their group
interactions and it became the most widely used creativity technique in the
world. It gave rise to detailed pedagogical doctrines, such as the Osborn-Parnes
„Creative problem Solving Process‟ which is still used today by Business
Consultants, &, when people want to extract the best ideas from a group they still
observe Osborn’s cardinal rule – “Censure Criticism (whilst) Encouraging the most
Freewheeling Associations”.
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Arguably, Brainstorming is then the ideal, feel good way to boost
productivity, but does it actually work? The scientific evidence would suggest
not!
Based on the findings from empirical tests dating back from the late 1950’s and
conducted by such august bodies as Yale & Washington University, the control
sample of individuals would always roughly come up with twice as many
solutions as the Brainstorming groups under the same conditions and the „Solo
Solutions‟ were independently judged to be more „feasible‟ & more „effective‟.
The conclusion drawn was that rather than unleash the potential of the
group, the process of Brainstorming made each individual less creative.
The interesting paradox subsequently thrown up by all of this however for both
The Mudd Partnership and many other practioners &
business, organisational, people and change management commentators, is
that like it or not, human creativity has increasingly become a group process and
many of us work better creatively when teamed up!
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To appreciate and understand this is then important in how you structure for
creativity, the capacity to innovate and ultimately to be both organisationally
robust and agile; not only responsive to your market, customers, stake and
shareholders, but also to be on the front foot and ahead of changing
demand, new pressures, challenges & targets.
So, what People, Process & Structural changes should you be considering to
ensure you have the best market position, optimum capacity and capability and
a true competitive edge?
The Mudd Partnership suggests the following ⇒
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1. Have a Powerful Engagement Process & Committed Local
Sponsors
To overcome resistance, build commitment and stimulate creativity, you need to
engage powerfully and bring people together in a Purposeful Way (We shall be
looking more closely at Purposeful Leadership in future Blogs ): In addition, you
want your middle and front-line managers to model the behaviours that will drive
forward creativity & innovation and they will be critical in connecting the
creative thinking done to the organisation‟s values and goals;
2. Recognise that Behaviours are the Key to Organisational
Success
These include both Relationship Behaviours and Task Behaviours; There will be
clusters of each already operating in your organisation or business, &, both
clusters are important for creative, innovative and High Performing Teams;
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3. Engage both Relationship & Task Behaviours
Relationship Behaviours include
adaptability, communication, innovation, creativity and personal leadership:
Task Behaviours include decision making, people development, planning, results
focus, vision and strategy (All traits which regular readers of these Blogs will
recognize as being characteristic of a ‘Thinking Performer’’ or „Strategic Activist‟);
4. Actively Develop your Thought Leaders, Thinking Performers &
Strategic Activists
Model respect for talent and achievements at every level; Offer frequent public
thanks; Praise those who meet high standards while helping poor performers
improve; Emphasise personal responsibility; Reward initiative; Make Brainstorming
a habit; Provide opportunities and resources for continual learning and growth;
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5. Remove Silos, Inert Boundaries & ‘The way we do things here’
Mentality
Convene conversations across groups; Involve diverse cross-cutting teams in
problem solving; & again as we have suggested in previous Blogs stress
„Common Purpose‟ & communicate inspiring goals larger than any individual or
group;
6. Help Everyone to Raise Their Emotional Intelligence
In previous Blogs we have looked at the importance of Emotional Intelligence in
Super Performing organisations, &, in particular, the work of Daniel Goleman;
Another EI guru is Richard Boyatziz who found on questioning 2000 Supervisors &
Managers on 16 Attributes which distinguished „Superior Performance‟, that all
but two were Emotional! High EI, coupled with excellent social skills are as
important as creativity, innovation & expertise in driving forward the
organisation, so encourage employees not to bite off more than they can chew
– to be clear about what the pay-off for them will be in every situation – to focus
their energy…
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on making the most of their strengths, before looking at their weaknesses – &
becoming tenacious in seeking feedback from everyone around them; & finally
7. Think Relationships, Think Communities, Think Networks, Think
Pattern Management:
Organisational adaptability and agility come from the little creative contributions
of the many, not just from the big ideas of the few & a Leaders role is now not so
much to “Hold a mirror up to the organization” as to, “Honour emergence in a
complex adaptive system”: Create the optimum opportunities for lots of frequent
but small creative inputs which can be communicated and acted upon quickly
through nurturing a „Community of Practice‟; And nurture relationships through
abundant social communication to create what Robin Dunbar would call a
„Social Glue‟.
The Mudd Partnership will be looking more closely at Complexity Theory & how it
can improve business and management practice & performance in future
Blogs, Slideshows, in the meantime if you’d like to find out more please contact us
& let us make a compelling case for working with you!
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Website : www.themuddpartnership.com
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Can You Afford To Take A Gamble With Creativity?

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