by Hal Lillywhite

Created on: November 13, 2008   Last Updated: February 25, 2009

Creativity. Everybody claims to want it but, to put it bluntly, most managers stifle it. Let's face the facts, the creative process is usually messy and uncertain. You cannot expect to order up a creative solution on demand. Worse, creative ideas often fail

A popular management book claimed that management is ballet, not hockey. By that the author meant that managers must plan all the details, not just go out there and do things. Good idea for execution but that is a big obstacle to creativity. In that sense, creativity is hockey. The creative person is likely to do his own thing. This can drive a manager crazy.

If you want creativity you must allow people to play, experiment, try odd ideas. Furthermore, they must feel free to do that without fear of being punished if their ideas don't work. Frankly, most new ideas don't work. However those that do make it worth while to allow the creative process. If you punish an employee because his idea was a failure, he will be reluctant to try again. He will not be reluctant to talk to other employees about how he was treated, and those employees will then also be reluctant to propose creative ideas.

You cannot mandate creativity but you can establish a climate in which it can flourish. To do so you must allow employees both the time and the resources to think up and experiment with new ideas. In fact you might even schedule brainstorming sessions from time to time. Those sessions concentrate exclusively on thinking up ideas - no criticism or evaluation of the ideas allowed. Yes, many will be dumb ideas, but what one person says triggers someone else to think of something else, then someone else gets an idea. Once you get the ball rolling ideas will flow like water over Niagara Falls. Somebody just has to record them for later analysis.

Be sure to demonstrate appreciation for all ideas, even the bad ones. And have an open mind, sometimes what at first seems stupid may be the greatest thing since ice cream. Use that same open mind to allow ideas from any source. Hourly employees often come up with the best ideas and employees from one department may have ideas that help in a different department. Creativity has no bounds, you shouldn't either.

Of course you do have to take time to evaluate all the ideas you will get. The market doesn't pay for creativity, it pays for products or services it finds valuable. You need to analyze each idea before trying it out. Then those that are most promising should be tested fully before being committed to production. However even in the analysis process you should be careful not to discourage those who created the ideas. You might tell them something like, "I appreciate your idea, I really thought it would be helpful. However I'm afraid that so far we haven't been able to turn it into a product. We only have so many resources to commit to this sort of thing so at least for now we have to stop working on it."

You can have creativity in your organization if you are willing to put up with the messiness and uncertainties involved. Encourage people to present crazy ideas. Reward them well if the ideas work but do not punish them for those that don't work.

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