My creative
thoughts on creativity!
Creativity! I have been staring at my laptop for the last 10
minutes! Am I that low on creativity? I am sure I have had some “Eureka”
moments and some “light-bulb” moments when I felt like an absolute genius. I
now decide to take the effective approach that we used in Prof. Walls class,
take 8 minutes to jot down ideas and thoughts. If you can come up with great
ideas in a rapid fire setting, you should be able to get thoughts on creativity
in a similar setting. One of the few questions I have asked myself is whether
creativity is whether is innate or if it can be harnessed. If I were to take a
stance, I would say it can be developed and harnessed if you try hard or if you
try harder or if you keep on trying harder. I feel that the main reason why it
is perceived as innate is because people associate creativity with a master
piece of art or a novel. Yes, I could never be able to come up with a piece
that nearly comes close to any of Picassa’s even if I try my entire lifetime. I
could never write elegantly as Dan Brown. But is creativity only confined to
Art? Absolutely not.
Cricket in
Project Management?
I have been creative at work. I have creatively managed my
team. Let me explain the scenario. I was
a program manager back in India in a software company where I lead a team of
software developers. The common myth about project management is that one does
not need a creative soul. People think project managers are systematic,
organised and just manage deadlines. But that’s hardly the case. Sometimes you
need to be creative to manage your team effectively. I encountered a problem
during my phase as a program manager. I found that the team that I was managing
was not motivated enough. They were not fully committed to deadlines. I tried
giving them pep talks and encouraging them, but nothing worked. I was
frustrated. I wanted to find a way to motivate my team and make them productive.
It was the time when we had the Cricket league season. Cricket is really big in
India. In fact, we had the slogan “Bleed Blue” everywhere ( blue because Indian
Cricketers wear a blue uniform (suit?, dress ?)) ! Cricket is something that
bought Indians together. It was not a game, it was a religion! I noticed
something interesting in my team. Though my direct reports were not motivated
to work, they would skip lunch to watch some highlights of the cricket game and
regularly talk about players with such passion. Why is working never so fun??!
I got a creative idea. I divided my team into 2 teams, gave them names of
players. I created a website with the Cricket league theme (kind of like a
fantasy football game) with the help of two software developers. And for every
piece of project they would complete, they would get runs (points). If they did
a great job they would get 6 runs (equivalent to touchdown). Soon, everybody
started loving work!! It worked like magic. They were so motivated and
involved. In this case, I did not come up with a master piece but I creatively solved
the problem….by connecting Cricket and Project Management. I reflected on what
Prof.Walls talked the other day in class about creativity and Steve Jobs. Steve
Jobs had said that creativity is just connecting dots. Maybe I just did the
same. Saw a connection between cricket and project management. Therefore I believe
this creativity happens in every discipline there is. Someone who is able to be
totally absorbed or immersed in that what he/she is doing, whether it is
science, sports, art, philosophy, or you name it, will receive some energetic
power you cannot see. It is like the wind, you feel it is there, but you cannot
see it.
How do we harness this power inside of us? There have been
times when I have felt that I am running out of creative juices. I feel like I
am staring at empty thoughts. We all have probably been there! One of the most
effective ideas has been created by putting ourselves in the shoes of other
people. Isn’t that what our class on customer insights is about? Not just
understanding what people do but why people do what they do. "It is not
much use making a creative effort if you are then unable to appreciate your own
effort. So it is important to develop a habit of mind which sets out to find
value in anything. With time you will become more and more able to detect real
and potential values. One outcome of creative thinking is specifically to focus
attention on discovering value. When we set out to discover value there can be
some big surprises. Very often there is a sudden 'insight switch'. A value
which was never even glimpsed suddenly becomes obvious." (The ah-haa
feeling). But there is a caveat we need to watch out for. "Creativity is
never a substitute for competence. If the car does not start there is no point
in being creative about destinations. On the other hand, competence is only a
substitute for creativity when everyone around is being incompetent.
Start by
redefining the problem completely. When you define the real problem, you can
solve it and move on." After all, if you had correctly defined the real
problem, you would have solved it long ago because all problems have solutions.
Bottomline : Be
creative in whatever you do. You can bring creativity in any industry if you
are truly passionate about what you do and you care about it.
