Before we dive into problem solving, first let’s define leadership – I define it as leading in your own sphere of influence. It’s how you behave, your mind-set and your attitude not what your job title is.
Creativity is one of those words that means something different to everyone. I define it as having ideas, original ones, unusual ones or even boring ones. They all count as long as the ideas serve a useful purpose or more precisely solve a problem.
So how do you actually ‘do’ creativity and then lead others? There’s no silver bullet. No blueprint. No one right way. Creativity is messy. There is a process but what comes out at the end of the process is not predictable because creativity is on a continuum, there are different types of creativity and it’s different for everyone. If we all went and did the same things to spark our creativity we’d get a whole bunch of different ideas.
The process can feel messy. You identify a problem that needs solving, you get curious, you draw on different contexts, situations and experiences, You mull it over, you play, you sleep, you relax, you go and do something entirely different instead. Ideas come to you. You repeat the process and evolve and blend your first ideas. You keep going until you have an idea that warrants testing. It can be unpredictable, time-consuming, fast-paced, exciting, frustrating and emotional.
Leading creativity is about embracing messy, trusting in the process and leading by example. Here are our top 3 tips:
- Leave your desk, get curious and go exploring. Go to that gallery, that exhibition or the talk that looked interesting. Encourage your team to take time out of their hectic business as usual day to go exploring into the topics that interest them too.
- Creativity is problem solving. Creativity is about being open to new things and learning to experiment and then fine-tuning. Creativity comes in layers. Stop trying to get things right first time. Do lots of small tests, approach everything as a small experiment and if and when they don’t work (because not everything will work – that’s probably the only guarantee with creativity), be open, tell people, share the learning and keep going.
- Don’t spend too long planning, or making your team construct lengthy business plans that will be out of date by the time they are signed off. Try ‘napkin planning’ – a plan that fits on the back of a napkin that by its very nature can be more flexible to change. Just remember to buy a good supply of napkins.
And one more tip for free; never, ever, if you are inspiring other people to be creative ask anyone to ‘think outside the box’.
If you’d like to learn more about creative thinking and problem solving for leaders programmes that Lucidity offers, then drop me a line.