Is process killing creativity?

Tags: Services

At the weekend I was dragged kicking and screaming to watch the famous educationalist Sir Ken Robinson (I see you going -  “who?”) and to my surprise his vision for education struck a real chord with me so much so I watched it several times and subsequent lectures to boot.

His main precept in the talks was “Is Education killing creativity?” -  it struck me that there are strong parallels between this and the approach to creativity within business as Sir Ken pointed out in some of his lectures.  Even more so was the assertion that every one of us has immense creativity but it is simply educated or processed out of us.

In a contact centre the need for creativity is immense – every customer is unique and unlike the 19th century dogma that education and conventional systems thinking is based upon, a creative, diverse solution needs to be applied.

So why don’t we embrace creativity? It stems from the manner in which education and process constrains us and determines how we think about what we think about rather than allowing our fertile imaginations to create new ideas.

In business in particular the stigma attached to making mistakes – a natural consequence of creativity but not one of process led thinking - assumes we can dial out mistakes through, inadvertently, eliminating creativity.

Sir Ken defines creativity as “creativity is the process of having original ideas that are of value” he also stated that “creativity is not an option, we must be able to innovate”.

I still hear you saying “yeah what’s this got to do with me and anyway I ain’t creative”.

At primary school a young girl was really engaged for the first time in a drawing lesson and the teacher was delighted so she asked the little girl “What are you drawing?” to which the little girl replied “ A picture of God”  - “but nobody knows what God looks like “ said the teacher
“Well they will do in a minute” replied the little girl.

No fear of failure, no fear of making a mistake – that only comes to us later as we struggle with doing it the “right way”.

Still sceptical about your creativity?

A study shown below into divergent thinking (whilst not creativity but a necessary tool for it) revealed just how creative we are at certain groups. If you have ever been asked the question “How many uses are there for director” and you come up with over 200 you are a divergent thinker.

So maybe it’s time for us to change our recruitment policy to target those aged 3-5.  More seriously despite the effect of education and the effect of “doing it the right way” at work we are all born creative – and it’s not lost it simply lies dormant in all of us.

Most people know that Death Valley is the hottest place in the USA and it never ever rains there. However the impossible happened in 2004/5 – It rained. In the spring Death Valley was carpeted in a rich diversity of plant life which was beautiful to behold. Death Valley was therefore never ‘dead,’ merely dormant and with the right environment flourished.

There is always a danger in focusing on conformity that we aim too low and succeed whilst aiming high and failing will lead us to better ideas, better opportunities and new perceptions of what can be achieved.

So you might be thinking I am recommending we seek a permanent state of chaos (it has its attractions) but of course I am not. Process has its place but it needs to accommodate originality, doing stuff differently if the circumstances dictate it and without fear of having your mistakes stigmatised.  When you look at process design and look at creativity’s role in it – consider the following:

Whilst conventional thinking worked for the Industrial Revolution to bring order where there was chaos before it will not work for future business success. 

I’ll leave you with a Sir Ken story that graphically illustrates the power of creativity and the dangers of trying to stifle it because it is not ‘conventional’, ’not the right way’ and ‘doesn’t fit the system ‘.

Gillian Lynne is not a well-known name.  Born in 1926 she was sent to a ‘good’ school by her parents and whilst at school it became ‘apparent’ to the teachers that she was not doing well and had ‘academic and behavioural’ problems – she didn’t fit into their system. So much so Gillian was taken to the Doctor’s and asked to assess her ‘problems’. After much discussion with Gillian and her parents the Doctor said to Gillian that he needed to discuss her with her parents in private. As he and her parents stepped out the room he turned the radio on. Outside and through the window he asked the parents to simply watch Gillian. In the room Gillian was dancing around the room to the music with an expression of carefree happiness.  The Doctor simply said “Gillian is a dancer send her to dance school” They did she became a great ballet soloist and chorographer – including Cats and The Phantom of the Opera – Gillian is now a multimillionaire and greatly respected within dance, music and theatre.

Creativity comes in many guises – it is not tied to intellect or experience – how do you use yours?

Douglas Mcloughan

Director of Innovation and Insight

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