April 24, 2019

CREATIVITY: Crucifixion & Resurrection

The most underemployed asset in any organization is the creativity resident in the people.

In fact, right-brain creativity has become dormant in most employees. Why? Because in almost all organizations, the reward and recognition systems are very biased towards left-brain logical thinking. This needs correction.

In the current business environment, product life cycles in most organizations have started shrinking. This is a consequence of intense competition, as well as, changing customer expectations. For survival, one needs to proactively differentiate. In other words, proactively innovate. This demands the habit of creative thinking.

Now…… here is a million dollar question. For creativity to be dormant, one should have possessed it in the first place. Right? Yes. You did possess it as a child. You communicated creatively and effectively at the age of one and two. Unfortunately, at three your parents sent you to school, where the seeds of left-brain logical thinking were sown. This went on through high school and college. Ultimately, the right-brain creativity was crucified.

This calls for a resurrection.

We need creative thinking, organization-wide. Innovation is born from creative ideas. Therefore, all employees need to be trained on creativity tools. Organizations need Creativity Labs. The results can be startling. These labs are also essential for Design Thinking.

RANDOM THOUGHTS:

Creative thinking is also needed to solve some chronic problems that plague organizations – private and public.