The Fertile Unknown

Creativity in Business: My Interview with Dr. Win Wenger

  Interview number seven in the Creativity in Business Thought Leader Series is with Win Wenger, PhD, a pioneer in the fields of creativity and creative method, accelerated learning, and brain and mind development. Dr. Wenger is an educator, researcher, trainer, musical composer, and widely published author. He is renowned around the world as a trainer and author of 52 books, including the widely popular The Einstein Factor and Discovering the Obvious. He founded Project Renaissance, an organization dedicated to increasing individuals' genius. Only one other living person has invented or discovered, and developed, as many techniques for creative problem-solving as he has.

Q: What do you see as the New Paradigm of Work?
Moving toward win/win/win - wins not only for both sides, but also for the greater good as well.  We must both raise consciousness AND wield incentives to bring a greater alignment of personal, corporate and general public interests or we’re in line for another major meltdown.  

The old paradigm was based on perceiving self-interests in the narrowest way. Poeple did not see how their self-interests are mutually dependent with the interests of the greater good of the whole. If your work goes against greater interests, both your work and those greater interests suffer. In the new paradigm, the whole of society is our “rope partner” on the mountain slope.

Q: What do you see the role of creativity in that paradigm? 

We have profoundly underestimated the power of understanding and creative capacity in virtually everyone's mind. There probably isn't a problem which more than half of your staff is not capable of solving, given the right creativity techniques and some inducement to use them - including the focus on how to align personal interests with corporate and general public interests. We need to remove the cost of unsolved problems and unresolved but unnecessary difficulties; also the cost of profound positive opportunities lying neglected on all sides of us. Also, we need to fashion substantive economic growth, for ourselves and generally, by creating new “gotta-haves” by innovating or inventing new products and services that relate, in part at least, to our world's actual needs - in terms of energy, the environment, and basic human necessities which help bring billions more people into becoming our trading partners. 

In this wonderful and ever-changing universe we live in, everything relates to and leads to everything else which means that entire new civilizations-worth of new discoveries, new science, and new practical applications are just a step or so away, just an observation or so away, in all directions. We have not even begun to really utilize any of the many creativity methods which can readily take us many steps further, many observations further, into a limitless positive human future. 

Q: What attitudes and behaviors to see as essential for effectively navigating the new work paradigm? 1) Look for or develop win/win/win opportunities.

2) Look for incentives whose inducements can replace much or most overt controls, supervision, regulation, laws and governance, within the organization and across the general public.

3) Set up regular practice of specific creative solution-finding methods on the challenges and questions you most care about and need answer to, at all levels of the organization.

4) Set up personal and mutual practice of noticing issues and opportunities, bringing them into focus and resolving them.

5) Invest in training new and broader skills, so you and your staff can navigate a changing world with broadband perception.

Q: What techniques or approaches could people start applying today to bring more creativity into their work or their business organization?

Our "Windtunnel" process can get a lot of ideas going and ingenious answers found in just about any situation. Instructions for that procedure are posted at http://www.winwenger.com/part72.htm
One of the best approaches to creative problem solving is to work on the problem of how to create BETTER problem-solving methods. This simple principle, that of re-investing your best methods into creating even better methods. If you have a good, creative, working, problem-solving method in your firm, use it to invent new and better methods. Also, every day, notice, identify and define at least one major question or problem or challenge-opportunity that is most worthy of solving, then use a specific solution-finding method to find its answer.  Pursue and implement at least one of your good answers each week.

We need the specific steps of specific methods to walk ourselves past the usual habits, blocks and assumptions to the fresh perceptions and solutions needed. In today's complex and changing world we all need to be decision-makers and to draw upon a much broader range of our own and one-another's resources. The very specificity of steps in most creative methods will help us broaden our own and each other's competencies toward what is truly needed today.  
Q: What is Creative Leadership to you?  
1) Look beyond the vision statement and goals of your organization.
2)  We all have seen things, whether we are consciously aware of them of not, which no one else has seen, and thought thoughts which no one else has thought. Use creative processes to draw on these unique resources to find ways to make unique positive contributions to your organization and your team. And help each of your people to realize that s/he also has seen things, noticed or not, which no one else has seen and thought thoughts which no one else has thought, and that in them are also unique resources to draw upon.

3) Make time for regular frequent practice of creative processes yourself, and support regular practice of such processes by your staff. The methods only serve you well if you practice and use them consistently and often. Even in the core of the creativity movement, it is too easy for people to settle for one or two successful answers and then coast, missing even more significant opportunities.

4) Address your practical challenges part of the time that you practice such creative processes, but once in awhile determine the most profoundly basic questions you can be exploring, thereby getting your perceptions more broadband. You can reach Dr. Win Wenger at the Project Renaissance website (http://www.winwenger.com). He will be a presenter at our upcoming Creativity in Business conference (http://www.creativity-conference.com) in Washington, DC on October 4, 2009.

 

Creativity in Business: My Interview with Russ Schoen

My next interview in the Creativity in Business Thought Leader Series is with Russ Schoen, partner at New and Improved, LLC; adjunct faculty member at the Center for Studies in Creativity; contributing author to innovation-related materials including the Foursight and Ingenious Thinking suite; and improv theater performer.

For the past 11 years, Russ has helped entrepreneurs, teams and organizations adopt a mindset, toolset and skillset to unleash creative behavior. He has delivered creativity, innovation and leadership programs worldwide for clients such as Discover, International Fragrance & Flavors, S.C. Johnson and  Leo Burnett. In addition, Russ is co-founder of the Creative Youth Leadership Academy.

Q: What do you see as the emerging paradigm of work?

There is no stopping change. It is happening faster than ever. Those who can anticipate and deliberately engage in change productively will thrive. In my opinion, the new paradigm of work requires that individuals and teams to work together to identify the right challenges to solve, to generate novel ideas, and to turn the best of those ideas into robust solutions that can be implemented.

In short: creativity, problem-solving skills, willingness to learn and try - and even fail - and the ability to work collaboratively. The old paradigm is more siloed. In the new paradigm, the boundaries are blurring. Truly novels solutions require crossing boundaries, and the only way for that to happen is for people to learn how to really collaborate, and especially co-create.

Q: What do you see the role of creativity in this the new paradigm?

The complex challenges that businesses are facing require novel solutions that can be implemented. Businesses can't afford to just wait for people to shower! What I mean by that is that when asked, many people report that they do their best thinking in the shower or driving, or someplace other than work.

Leaders need to cultivate a psychological climate that encourages all people to share their ideas at work and leaders would be wise to support individuals in developing their personal creativity skills.

Q: What attitudes and behaviors do you see as essential for effectively navigating the new work paradigm?

Wow! There are so many good ones. But here are four of my top ones:

1. Individuals need to learn to view problems as opportunities, to look for what is possible as opposed to what is not.

2. People need to learn how to manage their "gator" brain - the part of their brain that retreats at the first sign of "danger" - and truly learn to defer judgment and seek new ideas. Fear shuts down to the new. If you are aware of how the reptilian brain operates, you can monitor your thinking to say, "I need to be deliberate about looking for the new here."

3. When evaluating a truly new idea, people need to first look for the value in the idea, the build on the value...and THEN look at how to constructively point out concerns.

4. People need to take responsible for their own creativity and realize that they can learn to be deliberately more creative. The do this through awareness on how they express their own creativity, and through the learning methods and tools and practicing it. Everyone has access to their creativity, it is just matter of practicing it and unleashing it.

Q: What is one technique or approach that people could start applying today to bring more creativity into their work or their business organization?

Here's one of my favorites, and don't be fooled by its simplicity. When faced with a problem or challenge, instead of getting frustrated, phrase it as an open ended question starting with the words "How might...?" And then try phrasing it a different way.

So, for example, lets say you are working on a project and it looks like you are going to be over budget. Instead of just saying, "There is no way we can afford this; we're out of money," try rephrasing it as a question such as: "How might we reduce the cost on the project?" or "How might we get more funding?"

Notice what happens when you ask an open-ended question: Instead of being stuck, your brain will try to answer it! Now you can use this for yourself, or pose a challenge to the folks you work with and ask them for their ideas. Try it. It is a simple creative habit that can change the way you work and bring positive results.

Q: And finally, what is creative leadership to you?

To me, creative leadership is the capacity to solve complex challenges that bring about positive change in good times and bad. How? By building trust and creating a work climate that encourages people to be engaged and to put forth new ideas and ways of solving problems.

Creative Leaders model the way and set the context, for example, telling the story of why they need creativity. And they model being open to new ideas. So, when ideas are floated to them, they react by looking first at what is valuable. They hold a space for, and help facilitate, co-creation. That fully engages the people working in their organization.

Instead of saying, "Here is what we are doing. You do this," they say, "Here is where we are going. Here is the space we are playing in. What should we do to get there?" That is the engagement. If they help create it, they will drive it.

You can reach Russ Schoen at the New and Improved, LLC website. He will be a presenter at the upcoming Creativity in Business conference in Washington, DC on October 4, 2009.

Creativity in Business: My Interview with Brian Robertson

My fifth interview in the Creativity in Business Thought Leader Series is with Brian Robertson, a pioneer of holacracy, a new organizational operating system noted for dramatically increasing agility, transparency, innovation and accountability.

Brian's initial development of holacracy took place at an award-winning software company he founded in 2001 and led as CEO through 2007, which served as a test bed for new methods of organizing and working together. The resulting system was named holacracy and made its debut in 2006 in a prominent article in the Wall Street Journal. Holacracy continues to evolve under the stewardship of HolacracyOne, co-founded by Robertson, to further develop the method and bring it to the world. It's now being applied by organizations and organizational consultants all over the world.

Q: How does holacracy relate to creativity and innovation?

Brian: It is a comprehensive practice for governing and running our organizations. With its transformative structure and processes, holacracy integrates the collective wisdom of people throughout the company, while aligning the organization with its broader purpose and a more organic way of operating. The result is dramatically increased agility, transparency, accountability, and innovation – creativity in action.

Holacracy takes leading-edge ideas and principles about harnessing creativity and instills them in the actual structures and processes of the organization. It grounds them in practice and brings them to life.

Q: What do you see as the new paradigm of work?

Brian: Over the past two decades, dozens of thought leaders have pointed the way to new capacities that organizations must develop to thrive amidst our 21st century challenges. Peter Senge highlights the need for systems thinking and learning organizations. Gary Hamel describes radically new management methods. Meg Wheatley calls for self-organization and a living systems mindset. And Jim Collins shows the impact of leaders who get their ego out of the way. These visionaries and many more have been highlighting the limits of our conventional views of organization and leadership, and offering a glimpse of new possibilities available to us – if we’re able to make the leap.

The approach holacracy takes to realizing this shift is comprehensive and transformative, yet equally honors conventional fundamentals. It is not enough to simply throw out current methods, however obsolete – we must replace them with new methods which still achieve the value of the conventional, plus much more.

Static predict-and-control management methods must give way to a more dynamic and adaptable approach. This requires shifting rigid top-down power hierarchies into a more responsive organic structure, and then using that new structure to distribute governance and capture learning throughout the entire organization. That means surfacing a great deal of feedback, so slow meetings and painful decision-making must be replaced with an approach that rapidly integrates key perspectives from multiple people.

The organization’s operational processes can then take advantage of this newfound agility to harness innovation and deliver superior results. To avoid all of this falling apart in a clash of egos, the organization will need a compelling purpose that invites everyone to serve something larger than themselves, and a purpose-driven board to anchor it. Sustaining this over time will require new language and meaning-making in the culture, to help uproot deeply-entrenched mental models that are limiting in light of the emerging reality such a system offers.

Q: Where do you see creativity in this emerging paradigm?

Brian: The new paradigm more naturally allows creativity to happen, and allows an organization to be a better instrument for its emergence. Creativity is at the heart of reality, it is a fundamental drive of the universe we live in – where once there were only atoms, molecules emerges; where once only reptiles, some sprouted wings and learned to fly. We live in a naturally evolving, creative universe, one which constantly seeks to express newness, to manifest deeper and higher levels of order and embrace.

The new work paradigm doesn’t use creativity; it is a deeper expression of creativity in action, and one which itself helps to further express the same fundamental creative impulse that started this 14 billion year journey of ours.

Q: What attitudes and behaviors do you see as essential for effectively navigating this paradigm?

Brian: Most modern leadership and management techniques are based on a predict-and-control paradigm. This mindset asks those in leadership roles to anticipate and design the best path to achieve pre-defined goals in advance, and then control for any deviations to the prescribed plan. This approach matured through the first half of the twentieth century and worked well enough in the relatively simple and static environments faced by organizations of that era.

Today, our predict-and-control techniques are struggling to keep up with the agility and innovation required in a landscape of rapid change and dynamic complexity. They’re also failing to ignite the passion and creativity of a new generation of workers demanding greater meaning and purpose in their work.

In today’s environment, steering an organization with predict-and-control methods is akin to riding a bicycle by pointing in the right direction, then holding the handlebars rigid and pedaling, eyes closed. Organizations need more dynamic methods for steering their work, to gradually shift from predict-and-control, to experiment-and-adapt, and finally to true sense-and-respond. Like riding a bicycle, dynamic steering involves pursuing a general aim by adapting continuously in light of real data about present reality.

Q: What is one technique or approach people could start applying today to cultivate more of the inherent creativity in their organization?

Brian: Whenever you feel the need to predict-and-control a project or decision, stop and ask yourself how you could enable more dynamic steering. Typically this means establishing tight feedback loops and frequent opportunities to steer down the road. Shift your planning and decision-making processes to focus on quickly reaching a workable decision and then letting reality inform the next step, rather than agonizing about what "might" happen in an effort to conjure up a theoretical "best" decision that still doesn’t quite get it right.

Move swiftly from discussion and planning to actually testing decisions in reality and learning from the results – plans which start out imperfect will become well-aligned with actual needs through a continual process of facing reality and incorporating feedback.

In regular operational meetings, you can build your agendas at the start of the meeting, in that moment based on present tensions, rather than bringing a pre-established agenda in advance. Then stay laser focused on just identifying the next action needed to move each issue forward, and move on – get through the entire agenda every meeting.

When confronted with the need for a decision, resist the urge to compulsively make it; instead ask yourself when you need to make it, and delay to the end of that timebox - delaying decisions to the last responsible moment allows you to collect more data in the meantime. These shifts will help an individual or a team more move towards dynamic steering and the creativity it enables.

You can reach Brian Robertson at the HolocracyOne website. He will be a presenter at our upcoming Creativity in Business Conference in Washington, DC on October 4, 2009.

Creativity in Business: My Interview with Larry Blumsack

This week's interview in the Creativity in Business Thought Leader Series is with Larry Blumsack, founder and director of Zoka Institute, a creativity and innovation consulting, training, and coaching company. Informing his work is over 40 years of parallel careers as a serial entrepreneur/business leader and as a "creative" - he has owned several businesses; worked in marketing, sales and television; is a founding member of the theater department at Northeastern University; and a syndicated critic, columnist and commentator on the arts for American radio, TV and print outlets and more. Having in depth experience with both creative and business cultures, Blumsack teaches business organizations how to build creative cultures within their organizations, and individuals how to tap into their own creativity.

Q: How does you work relate to creativity?

Larry: I use arts-for-business based activities to solve business issues, develop strategy and for critical thinking, creative problem solving and collaboration. Using visual and performing arts activities forces people to step out of their comfort zone and requires them to use non-traditional methods to address everything from strategic planning to specific business research, or silo problems.

America's educational process has strip-mined creativity - the mantras of "no you can't and here's the answer," "mistakes are bad," and "you have to be serious" have permeated both our educational and business environment to the detriment of building and maintaining of any kind innovative and creative culture.

Q: What do you see as the emerging paradigm of work?

Larry: Looking beyond linear, process-oriented solutions only. We need to encourage failure as a learning step instead of punishing it; provide employees a level of freedom and the environment to explore new ideas; and encourage cross-silo collaboration. In a work culture, everyone needs to feel that they are valued, engaged, and participating.

Q: What do you see the role of creativity in that paradigm?

Larry: I call it the "Zoka's 5 Habits for a Competitive Edge" - habits that draw from the visual and performing arts that also utilize tools of spirituality to incorporate a sense of much needed ethics in business. The habits are engaged mindfulness; look and see, listen and hear; yes and; and storytelling. Our lives are built on speed. Companies like Google, General Mills and many others are beginning to realize that speed is not the road to innovation and sustainability as a company. They have instituted mindfulness training which is based on meditation practices into their organizations to step up their creative and innovative thinking.

Engaged mindfulness is about stopping all the monkey chatter and mental multi-tasking we do throughout our day. Art and sculpture are tools to sharpen one's ability to look and see. Music opens up one's ability to really hear all that is coming into the ear. Yes and, the heart of improvisational theater, is the perfect mantra to institute at all meetings and personal.

It is said the emotion is the fast track to the brain and what better way to connect with someone that through the art of storytelling. The key is to use different art forms because some people are visual, some are auditory and some or kinesthetic - no one form serves all. It is rewarding to see senior executives, management teams and staff release and experiment through the arts to solve real business issues.

Q: What approaches and techniques do you recommend for effectively navigating the new work paradigm?

Larry: Understanding the value of managing FOR creativity - like a theater director - instead of trying to manage creativity. Learn how to think like a visual or performing artist. Learn that there is no one solution to anything. One must try and experiment with a number of approaches in all aspect of running a company or problem solving. A creative culture respects all ideas regardless of where they come from. And many great ideas come from places you least expect it if failure is acceptable.

Q: What is creative leadership to you?

Larry: The creative leader needs to be like the director in the theater who musters a variety of creative and talented actors, musicians, dancers, choreographers, lighting/costume/sound designers, authors, lyricists, etc. That director's job is to tap the creative talents of the team and mold them into an exciting, cohesive production.

Creative leadership values employees and realizes that innovative and creative ideas - when encouraged - can come from all levels of the company from the shipper/receiver and receptionist to the highest executive. Creative leadership understands Thomas Watson's (founder of IBM) answer when asked the secret of success - increase the rate of failure. Creative leadership understands the collegial, respectful culture that Edison built into his company so he could have 10,000 attempts - not failures - in creating the light bulb and numerous other lasting inventions. And Creative leadership means one understands and practices "yes and" at all times.

You can reach Larry Blumsack at the Zoka Institute website. He will be a presenter at our upcoming Creativity in Business conference in Washington, DC on October 4, 2009.