Leadership Skills in the Workplace

Maintaining Gains Made

LEADERSHIP BRIEFS

02 Creativity

Objectives

Learn an easy way to generate creativity in your team when new ideas or creative solutions would be helpful.

Take a fresh look at a current organizational problem.

Lesson

Have you ever heard the quote, attributed to Albert Einstein, paraphrased as “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you always got.” When we are trying to solve a troubling problem we often buckle down and, with greater determination than ever, do exactly what we’ve been doing all along; we just do more of it…or we do it faster, with more intensity and focus. We expect something different to result from these efforts. But an old habit will not result in a new solution. Doing more of the wrong things won’t fix it either.

It is often more effective to take a completely different approach, a creative and fresh look at the situation. We can practice getting out of the habit of looking at things in the same old way. We were all artists and creators when we were children. But most of us have suppressed that creativity and free thinking by the time we are adults. Sometimes, however, fanciful, creative thinking can be just the breakthrough we need when we are facing a thorny issue.

Group Acivity

Break the group into two smaller groups (no more than five or six people per group). Each group forms its own circle. Each group will choose an item that is present in the room that can be passed around the circle. Choose any available item, from a notebook, to a marker, to a piece of art, to a water bottle cap; or use something the facilitator may have brought. As the item is passed around, each person holds it and verbally states another “use” for the item, NOT what the item really is. For example, a pen could be a backscratcher and a conductor’s wand. Crazy, fanciful answers are encouraged, too, like a pen could be an oar for a mouse.

Pass the item around the circle three times. Then choose a second item, and a third item and pass each item around the entire circle three times, so that each person is challenged to devise three creative uses for each item.

Questions for Group Discussion

1. Now that you have warmed up your creativity, think of an organizational or departmental challenge you are facing and brainstorm to get everyone’s ideas, including kooky ones, by going around the whole group round robin at least twice (three times if you have time). Have someone record the ideas, circle the group’s favorite ideas, and decide as a group whether or not you would like to present some or all of these ideas to your decision makers. Is this a problem you could potentially solve? Your group may be able to be the catalyst for change.
   
   
2. Can you think of a way you can be more creative in your own department, or encourage more creativity for your team?