ORGANIC IDEAS MAY BE BETTER FOR YOU
by Teresa Di Cairano why time matters when it comes to innovation
Much has been written recently about the limitations of brainstorming as a useful technique for creativity and innovation . Brainstorming techniques hope to stimulate creativity by trying to get teams to think in non-linear ways leading to more random associations and arguably better - or at least more - ideas .
Why the need for more creativity ? Ultimately , frustrated suits hit a wall in terms of innovation perhaps because their teams are stacked with too many left-brained analytical types .
After all , they were hired because they could quantify ROI and optimize performance measures that large organizations like , rather than generate new ideas . At this point , in comes the creativity guru .
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We want to be able to will ideas on demand .”
Then , in some presumably energizing , one-day retreat , management teams are taken through a series of “ creativity eliciting ” techniques - from walking over hot coals to face their fears , to random association exercises . The assumption here is that the creative solutions are in us already , and just need to be somehow unlocked . While not completely wrong , there is more to the creative process than brainstorming would suggest .
I think the confusion here is due to the reality that insights often come to us at unpredictable times . We can ’ t simply put it on our agenda to make , let ’ s say … Thursday , the “ idea day .” But an organization ’ s modus operandi is in fact the agenda or the project plan . We want to be able to will ideas on demand . So we try a few techniques , maybe some different thinking hats and voilà , enough ideas for your next innovation - or at least for your next meeting .
However , what we are learning from research is that seemingly random insights actually come out of periods of deep incubation . In his book entitled Creativity – Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and
Invention , Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi provides a simplified framework for the creative process .
While I usually stay away from oversimplifications , Mihaly has published several books on the subject , and has developed a deep understanding of creativity from research based upon a major five-year study .
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