December 2004

6 ways NOT to encourage creativity

Creativity is the sexy part of your work. It's what happens when you're turned on--true for everyone in every kind of job--and when that happens, you tend to come up with solutions, even for very tough problems.

So why don't we have more of it in our businesses? If it's so valuable to successful operations, why do so few seem to show it?

Unfortunately, it's often because we, as leaders, are unconsciously doing some of the very things that discourage its flowering. And maybe you already know there are better ways to foster creativity in the workplace, but you thought of it as just a feeling--something you couldn't justify with numbers.

Now comes a report to help you out. Harvard B-school professor Teresa Amabile, head of their Entrepreneurial Management Unit, was interviewed for an article by Bill Breen in Fast Company magazine that reports on a study in which she measured people spontaneously expressing creativity and put numbers on what she found.

Yes, the numbers say, creativity happens everywhere and from every person, and there are specific ways you can encourage it. Here's the list of ways NOT to encourage creativity:

• 1. Don't expect it. This is a biggie. If you think only marketing and R&D people should be creative, you're probably unconsciously erecting--or allowing--barriers that discourage creative thinking in other departments. Think about it. Do you treat your IT people differently than you treat your administrative employees?


• 2. Try to buy it. Money can be a serious demotivator to creativity--especially if people feel their every move affects their compensation. The study showed that a supportive environment with a level of challenge that lets people stretch their skills is the greatest boon to creativity. So keep careful watch that your reward plans are not unintentionally getting people to focus on their next bonus instead of on creative problem-solving.


• 3. Keep people under constant pressure. Some people believe that creativity rises under pressure. The study showed that, in fact, it decreases but that pressure itself isn't the problem. Instead, creativity is quashed when people are not allowed to focus on the work--when they're not protected from distractions--and when they don't understand why the work must be done immediately.


• 4. Keep people anxious or in fear. This is an old theory-X management tenet that still has life for lots of leaders. In the study, creativity was consistently lower in people who were afraid or sad or worried. Conversely, people who reported feelings of joy, love and happiness consistently produced creative solutions--and this created a recurring cycle of positive feelings reinforcing and producing positive thinking. Significantly, a state of happiness one day was almost always followed by a creative breakthrough the next day...


• 5. Make people compete with each other. Many leaders believe that competition fosters creativity. The study found that teams where members had to compete for recognition were measurably less creative than those that were encouraged to collaborate, to share and to openly discuss ideas.


• 6. Downsize. Nobody in today's tough environment wants to hear how bad this is for creativity--but it's even worse than you thought. Because people fear the unknown, they tend to disengage from their work completely while waiting for a downsizing. During the process itself, every stimulus to creativity suffers. And worse yet, says the study, for many months afterwards creativity takes a big hit.

The message isn't new. The proof is. The fact is, to change a paradigm in most any business environment, you've always had to start with quantifiable results. Read more about Professor Amabile's groundbreaking work--and take comfort because now you can take these ideas to heart--and put them to work--with the stats firmly in hand.

Sincerely,
Barbara

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