Creativity as a cutting edge

We have passed the era of information and reached the era of imagination. Creativity has become a cutting edge factor for competitive advantage. Today’s column is an attempt to see what, why and how of creativity, with emphasis on Sri Lankan organizations.



Overview of creativity

Creativity involves the production of novel, useful products. It can also be described as the process of producing something that is both original and worthwhile. What is produced can come in many forms and is not specifically singled out in a subject or area.

Creative thinking is a mental activity, which produces new ideas or new insights. It does this by de-patterning or re-patterning thoughts. In fact, our mind is the sum total of our memories, images, desires, expectations, beliefs, feelings and other such mental processes. Thinking is therefore a sequence of images and events, which constitutes our mind.

Creativity involves breaking patterns and thinking out of the box. Figure 1 illustrates such a concept. It reveals how a mind pattern based on traditional or stale perceptions could give rise to a fresh new wave of creative thinking. The result is the generation of new ideas.

FIGURE 1. Creativity as breaking free of patterns

 (Source: Arun Wakhlu, Managing from the Heart, New Delhi, 1999)

AS the above figure illustrates, new ideas come through the breaking of patterns in forming new patterns.



Creativity and organisations

“Every organization has to prepare for the abandonment of everything it does,” said Peter Drucker. Innovation is followed by imitation. Only way to sustain the competitiveness is to continue to innovate further. Creativity is the starting point.

Warren Bennis described creativity as a dimension of a ‘new paradigm’ for managers. He cites the following elements as parts of creativity:

• To see deeper significances and connections, which may not be obvious, and the ability     to break old connections, and make new ones
• The capacity for envisioning and understanding of intuition
• The ability to have a much wider and deeper perception – the ability to see more than     ‘what meets the eye’
• The skill to convert such connections into concrete applications relevant to the     organization and its mission.

In other words, creativity implies a capacity for vision, intuition, perception, connection, and application.   In line with this, Edward de Bono, who earned the reputation as a father of creative thinking, elaborates on creativity:

“As competition intensifies, so does the need for creative thinking. It is no longer enough to do the same thing better. It is no longer enough to be efficient and solve problems. Far more is needed. Business needs creativity both on the strategic level and on the front line to make the shift those competitive business demands – from administration to true entrepreneurship.”

There is an inborn element of creativity. Yet, it needs to be developed. Researchers have validated that there are two stages in creative thinking:

• Divergent Thinking: Involves moving away from the problem or situation to explore and investigate its potential. This is diffused thinking or divergent or radiant thinking and the purpose here is to find something new.
• Convergent Thinking: Involves judging the new idea one has found and bringing it back into the world as something of use. People evaluate and judge new ideas using convergent or focused thinking: logic, categorization, measurement and analysis, comparison against objectives, as the purpose here is to get something done.

Creativity and human brain

The human brain is divided into three parts – the cerebrum, the cerebellum and the medulla oblongata. The cerebrum being the largest part is divided into two vertical halves known as hemispheres. Functions of the right side of the body are controlled by the left hemisphere and those of the left by the right hemisphere. It was proposed that convergent thinking being logical and analytical is rooted in the left hemisphere and the divergent thinking in the right hemisphere.

There is both psychological and physiological evidence that people differ in the relative balance of activation of the two hemispheres. They also noted that there is a significant correlation between which of the hemisphere is more active and the relative degree of verbal and spatial skills. However, there is no evidence that people are purely left brained or right brained. This clearly points out to the importance of harnessing both sides of the brain, which needs training, particularly in the case of the less used area.

According to a study done on Sri Lankan managers, the most frequent actual management style was found to be left-brain. The focus is needed to enhance an integrative use of both the left and the right brains. Identification of actual and potential brain skills should help in the development of managers in the most desired directions – integrative and intitutive in the case of top management. It is also important to note that the development of the under-utilized brain side would result in greater levels of synergistic effects. Once again the emphasis is on a clear focus needed in developing the creativity, in using both sides of the brain.



Characteristics of Creative People

How would creative people differ from others? Psychology Today magazine published several key characteristics that differentiate them from the rest. I picked five of them, which are critical to us.

• Being energetic:

Creative people have a great deal of physical energy, but they’re also often quiet and at rest. They work long hours, with great concentration, while projecting an aura of freshness and enthusiasm. This suggests a superior physical endowment, a genetic advantage. Yet it is surprising how often individuals who in their seventies and eighties exude energy and health remember childhoods plagued by illness. It seems that their energy is internally generated, due more to their focused minds than to the superiority of their genes.

Sri Lankan managers can be more energetic in becoming ‘corporate athletes.’ A growing trend towards more ‘outbound experiences’ for them is a healthy sign. The challenge here is to harness energy with a clear purpose for the betterment of the organization.

• Being smart:

Creative people tend to be smart yet naive at the same time. How smart they actually are is open to question. It is probably true that what psychologists call the ‘g factor,’ meaning a core of general intelligence, is high among people who make important creative contributions.

It is simply a case of moving beyond passing exams in passing life. Sri Lankan managers have a high scope to enhance their personal effectiveness.

• Being playful and disciplined:

Creative people combine playfulness and discipline, or responsibility and irresponsibility. There is no question that a playfully light attitude is typical of creative individuals. But this playfulness doesn’t go very far without its antithesis, a quality of doggedness, endurance, perseverance.

As Psychology Today reports, Jacob Rabinow, an electrical engineer uses an interesting mental technique to slow himself down when work on an invention requires more endurance than intuition – “When I have a job that takes a lot of effort, slowly, I pretend I’m in jail. If I’m in jail, time is of no consequence. In other words, if it takes a week to cut this, it’ll take a week. What else have I got to do? I’m going to be here for twenty years. See? This is a kind of mental trick. Otherwise you say, ‘My God, it’s not working,’ and then you make mistakes. My way, you say time is of absolutely no consequence.”

I have met such interesting characters in Sri Lankan corporate sector as well. Whether they get the required “blessings” from their seniors is the question mark.



Being imaginative and realistic

Creative people alternate between imagination and fantasy, and a rooted sense of reality. Great art and great science involve a leap of imagination into a world that is different from the present. The rest of society often views these new ideas as fantasies without relevance to current reality. And they are right. But the whole point of art and science is to go beyond what we now consider real and create a new reality. At the same time, this ‘escape’ is not into a never-never land. What makes a novel idea creative is that once we see it, sooner or later we recognize that strange as it is, it is true.

Most of us assume that artists — musicians, writers, poets, painters — are strong on the fantasy side, whereas scientists, politicians, and businesspeople are realists. This may be true in terms of day-to-day routine activities. But when a person begins to work creatively, all bets are off. Managers are a good example of a healthy blend of art and science. We need to use our logical left and magical right of the brain.



Being passionate

Most creative people are very passionate about their work, yet they can be extremely objective about it as well. Without the passion, we soon lose interest in a difficult task. Yet without being objective about it, our work is not very good and lacks credibility. This is what Steve Jobs of Apple fame showed us throughout his innovative career.

Sri Lankan managers have a key improvement area in this respect. My frequent encounters with diverse range of our managers tell me that those who are passionate have excelled in achieving extraordinary results.



Way Forward

What are the inhibitors for creativity? How can Sri Lankan managers develop a creative mindset in talking pressing issues? What are the global and local success cases? Next column of Human Results will continue to elaborate these aspects.



(Dr. Ajantha Dharmasiri works at the Postgraduate Institute of Management. He can be reached on [email protected] or www.ajanthadharmasiri.info.)