Personal Creativity
Sadly, I don’t have tons of experiences with individual creativity. When I was younger (high school), I played the trumpet. Playing the trumpet was something I enjoyed, but I never gave it enough attention to really master the instrument. Being creative musically is a situation where a significant amount of commitment is required. Greats like Wynton Marsalis and B.B. King make their improvisation seem so effortless as a result of putting in hundreds, if not thousands of hours honing their craft.
In terms of my personality, I definitely fit the mold of someone who has always regarded him
or herself as “not creative.” I think my belief in the myth of the “creative type” as Lehrer describes it in the article is a result of excelling in subjects like math and science, but falling very
short in my artistic abilities. In retrospect, equating creativity with a capacity to draw or paint was (and perhaps remains) a mistake in my self-assessment.
Organizational Creativity
As an undergrad, I majored in Accounting, perhaps the least creative-oriented major offered
(unless you include the creative accounting employed at places such as Enron). After graduation, I worked as a CPA in the audit practice of a large public accounting firm. The story isn’t getting more interesting is it? As one might expect, creativity was not expected or advocated in my profession. We operated under a well regulated accounting framework (FASB) and had
very specific procedures to perform at each client. My creative juices were really only needed
when I had to figure out how to obtain necessary documentation or information from a client who either was very busy or just didn’t like to be bothered by auditors.
It is always interesting to look back at periods in our lives and wonder how we got to where
we are. I often think about how when I was in college, not only did I not think I was creative, I did not engage in enough thought about what my interests were. My major was selected more out of process of elimination rather than being drawn to the subject matter. This played out poorly as I knew as soon as I started at my former employer, Ernst & Young, that I would never be happy with a career in public accounting.
My decision to leave accounting was to find a career where I could be more creative and be a part of something tangible as opposed to the book checking nature of auditing. While the decision to attend business school was very unusual for someone in public accounting, my drive to find a career that would satisfy me intrinsically was fueled my seeing my dad’s lifelong frustration with his career.
Can I be creative? Can groups within organizations be creative?
I can be creative to some degree by myself. However, I agree with the argument put forth in the article in that my creative faculties would be greatly improved if I spent more time working on them. I like to immerse myself in learning lots about the world which I think gives me relatively good perspective (despite my limited global travels, which I would love to work on, if only I had the cash!!). Due to my desire to start my own business, I have started to devote more and more of my time to thinking about challenges the world is facing and/or will soon face. I try to think creatively about solutions that haven’t been dreamt up yet and of businesses I would have the capacity to develop to solve those challenges. My current idea was discussed in my previous blog post: the concept of a smoothie made from whole vegetables, along with whole fruit. Over time, I will discover if I am coming up with a truly creative idea or if it is one that has been previously thought of but has been sidelined by too many barriers. I do think a group within an organization is capable of being creative, but it is highly dependent on the individuals within the group and the overall culture of the organization. Disruptive innovation also comes from the creative efforts of small groups (Wright Brothers, Facebook, and Twitter). It would be interesting to see an analysis of where more disruptive innovation has taken place over the last 150 years,
inside or outside the walls of an established company.
Critique of the article
I enjoyed reading the article and it is thought-provoking to think of creativity more of a science and less as a trait that we either have or lack. The anecdotal stories of 3M and Yo-Yo Ma were interesting. I would have liked to have seen Lehrer go into more detail on our innate ability to assess what type of creative process is required for a given situation as that seems critical to a successful breakthrough or innovation. Also, I found the ‘10 Quick Creativity Steps’ a bit hard to buy into without more detail on the studies. Overall though, the article
reinforced a few different concepts for me.
· Creativity can and should be practiced.
· As both individuals and organization, we must strive to avoid complacency and must always try to obtain new and unbiased perspectives.
· Make time for reflection and relaxation so my brain can unwind and step away from the mental roadblocks that I encountered during the day.
