In previous generations, it was thought that there were two groups of people: creative geniuses and… the rest of us. But we’ve discovered that creativity is innately human and can be found within us all. We just need the right circumstances to bring it to the forefront.
Creativity seeps into each industry and is becoming an increasingly integral part of our modern workforce. With the advancing development of AI, many wonder how to maintain relevance in the workplace and develop irreplaceable skills. The answer? Embracing what separates us from AI… our continual pursuit of all things new, unique, and inspired, delving into the hard work of creation and innovation.
But how do we drive innovation in the workplace and fuel our collective creative genius? Through creative leadership which sets the tone for a culture of creativity fostered within an environment that inspires and enables.
Setting the Tone with Creative Leadership
Harvard Business School professor, business book author and anthropologist Dr. Linda Hill spent nearly a decade studying the leaders of the most successful creative organizations such as Pixar, Google and Volkswagen. Regarded as one of the leading experts in the field of innovation and leadership, she teaches, “If we want to build organizations that can innovate time and again, we must unlearn our conventional notions of leadership.”
Dr. Hill teaches that true innovation is not the result of the genius of one inspired individual, but the collective, collaborative genius of a group. And it is within that collective creative genius that humanity does its best and most revolutionary work. Creatives want to actively participate in building a vision for the future with their leaders. Knowing this, innovative leaders can’t follow the age-old approach of creating a vision independently and inspiring their employees to follow it.
The most successful creative leaders focus on building a sense of community and crafting a culture to support it through:
- Generously giving credit where it is due
- Nurturing talent from the bottom up
- Being an aggregator of viewpoints, not a dictator
- Redistributing power to give more to the many and lessen the impact of the few
- Hiring people who disagree with you and aren’t afraid to challenge you
- Encouraging discussion
- Seeking diversity
- Amplifying voices and critique
Fostering a Curious and Creative Culture
Dr. Tina Seelig, esteemed Stanford professor, neuroscientist and best-selling author, teaches courses on entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation in the Department of Management Science and Engineering. She advises, “Culture is the background music of any organization. It sets the tone. It tells you how to feel, think, and act. If we want people to be really innovative, creative and willing to fail, we have to set up the culture to support them.”
So what does a culture that supports innovation and creativity look like?
It fosters curiosity and a sense of inquiry by encouraging employees to ask questions, vocalize ideas and doubts, and bring their full range of diverse talents, knowledge, and experience to the table. Innovation is a process of problem-solving and collaboration. Organizational cultures should prioritize hiring and giving voice to people with different experiences and perspectives.
It’s built upon a solid foundation of trust, allowing employees the space to take the risk of failure that comes with trying something new and different. And when failure inevitably happens, innovative cultures see those failures as an opportunity for growth and learning, not something to punish employees for. To innovate, our team members must feel safe to take risks and make mistakes.
It requires all members of the team, regardless of experience level or time spent within the company, to vigorously maintain open-mindedness and a willingness to be wrong. An innovative culture resists an operational mindset, and requires all members of an organization to be vigilant against the thought of, “That’s just the way we do things here.”
Researcher Dr. Linda Hill teaches that innovative organizations possess three capabilities: creative abrasion, creative agility and creative resolution.
Creative Abrasion
The ability to create a marketplace of ideas through conversation and debate.
Creative organizations embrace and enhance differences. Creating an innovative workplace requires us to challenge the way we view conflict. A culture of creativity is not about brainstorming sessions in which people withhold their judgment, but about having passionate yet constructive arguments to create a wide array of ideas. Creative organizations should encourage respectful conflict rather than avoiding it, working to balance inquiry and active listening with advocating for their own point of view.
Creative Agility
The ability to test and refine ideas through quick pursuit, reflection and adjustment.
Creative organizations prioritize discovery-driven learning and focus on acting instead of planning. Creative leadership allows employees the opportunity to test multiple ideas simultaneously to find the one that works best. Innovative cultures rely heavily upon design thinking, which combines creative thinking with the structure of the scientific process.
Creative Resolution
The decision-making process by which organizations combine different ideas to produce a solution that is new and useful.
Innovative organizations resist the temptation to go along with others’ ideas in order to get along. Creatives don’t compromise, they collaborate: as the best work is not the creation of one person’s genius but the creation of the combined genius of the group. Innovation requires an inclusive, and sometimes more time-consuming, decision-making process that allows for “both-and” solutions to arise instead of “either-or” solutions.
Building an Environment that Inspires
The common office is often an uninspiring space to say the least: a chilly room harshly lit with fluorescent lighting surrounded by white or gray walls and cubicles dividing desks in a way that is more akin to prison cells than a workplace that inspires creativity and fosters imagination. One reason why many creative people find it difficult to reach their creative potential: they’re not in environments that stimulate and encourage innovation. No matter how innovative we are, if we find ourselves in environments that are cold, bland and lifeless, the creative spark is dulled.
In her Innovation Engine, Dr. Tina Seelig names our habitat as one of the 6 components driving innovation, which also includes: the external factors of resources and culture and the internal factors of imagination, knowledge and attitude. The physical environment we surround ourselves with directly affects our imagination through nonverbal communication. It tells us what is expected of us. Monotonous colors and rigid seating encourage by-the-book thinking. Colorful, flexible space opens up our minds and inspires creativity, so we can think beyond what is expected and truly innovate.
If your business isn’t currently preparing to build a new office space or renovate your existing space, small changes to your office can have a big impact. Consider:
- Painting the space a more exciting color
- Hanging interesting art on the walls
- Adding potted plants to the space
- Or introducing group workspaces within your office with flexible seating options
Even encouraging your employees to decorate their desks and cubicle spaces with photos and art they enjoy, lamps, rugs and fun office supplies can be enough to generate creative thinking.
Although many businesses are reluctant to allow employees to work remotely, this is precisely why it may be so effective. Allowing employees the opportunity to work in the environment in which they feel most creatively inspired and most productive leads to not just happier and more fulfilled employees, but higher quality work and more innovative ideas. If the idea of a remote workforce is daunting, maybe start with one day a week.
Truly creative, innovative work presents leaders with the difficult paradox of unleashing the talents and passions of a group of people and harnessing them into useful work. The power of allowing talented people to play out their passions can not only revolutionize your business, but drive the world forward toward the future: leading to fulfilled and driven employees, profitable organizations, and a better, more creative future for all.
