June 2003

Innovation Tips

…ideas for thriving on collaborative innovation

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Bringing the Soul to Life: Liberating Creativity

Organizations that have brought the soul to life are throbbing with creativity; they are highly responsive to change, they see and seize opportunities fluidly, and they collaborate readily and persistently to enhance the value of their service.

They are also rare.

Creativity is much easier to stifle than to stimulate. In fact, many organizations have found the magic formula for killing creativity: Control people rather than liberate them. And control in organizations comes in many forms.

Controlling decisions is one of them. If people feel they have no say in the key decisions that effect organizational success, they will feel a sense of powerlessness that will drain their creativity. The leaders who change course erratically, renege on important commitments, or scrap key decisions without explanation will amplify that feeling of powerlessness. The organizations most effective in bringing creativity to life give people a voice in decision-making—they give them a legitimate stake in the success of the enterprise.

Criticism is another form of control. Tentative ideas must thrive if creativity is to flourish. Elegant and profound ideas seldom hatch full-grown; they must be nurtured and cultivated to come to maturity. Early criticism, especially from the leadership, will kill the creative process. It has been said that the degree to which people will use their creative imagination is inversely proportional to the amount of punishment they will receive for using it. Criticism is one form of punishment, and it will control and deplete the creative output of the whole organization.

Political maneuvering is explicitly controlling. If leaders appear secretive or politically manipulative, they will generate an atmosphere of mistrust and uncertainty. Creativity requires open and candid conversation and will die in a culture thick with mistrust.

Bureaucracy is heavy with control. If any new or bright idea must be subject to the review and approval of cumbersome layers of management, it will die an early death. People must feel that they can take control of and ownership for the development of their ideas, preferably in small pilot projects where they can be tested and developed.

Too many organizations do more to kill creativity than to cultivate it. Managers too often see their own work as necessarily controlling the work of others. But we must vigilantly avoid excessive control if we are to liberate creative thinking. The life of the soul, and of the organization, depend upon it.

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