CREATIVE POWER | Effective and joyous
As an Investor, what are key factors informing your most important decisions?
And, if you are a founder, what makes you unique as a leader?
Common answers in my sessions: “…my experience”; “...metrics”; “…twitter”.
Asked about what role creativity plays in their work, some view it as a mystical talent only obtained by gifted individuals or, dismiss it entirely as an irrational feature holding no value in the business of doing serious work.
Yet when mapping out areas of enhancing effectiveness in my clients businesses — from hiring, communication to decision-making process — creativity is the #1 underutilized power, both as a tool and as a NTS (Non-Technical-Skill). This rings especially true for creative-industry agnostic sectors. The more systemic and volatile challenges of the present require change at the core of how businesses are operating; how leaders are thinking, feeling and acting, and investors making their evaluations. Instead of business as usual, we need a custom-designed approach: recognizing the paradoxes of our time and deal with them effectively. Creativity then, is the link between two seemingly irreconcilable verities: a “strategy” following serendipity, the energy of opportunity. When creativity is enmeshed in the business it opens up far more opportunities for continuing success than a traditional approach relying on protocol. It underpins situational effectiveness lending itself to originality, agility and adaptability in all areas, from hiring, culture, leadership and product to the expansion of the organization.
The Challenge: Creativity is coupled with Uncertainty.
Uncertainty, in the world of all-time-high ROI’s, unicorns and churning of ever new product is an unfavorable metric when viewed alone — but in the context of it being a prerequisite for creativity, uncertainty can become one:
….because for the extraordinary you cannot bet on what is certain.
Whatever knowledge we have is limited by definition: it literally and figuratively lives in the sphere of the defined: structures, predictions, confined mental constructs. The magic of creativity however unfolds at the fringes of the familiar. To find or be originals, we must leave the known — whether it is hiring a unique and creative candidate or becoming remarkably effective and thus creative CEOs ourselves.
Embrace the creative tickle.
Turns out, that our desire oftentimes does not align with our actual behavior. Research has found that we harbor an aversion to creators and creativity; subconsciously, we see creativity as noxious and disruptive, and as a recent study demonstrated, this bias can potentially discourage us from undertaking or investing in an innovative project. In the hiring process the same bias has managers undermine a company's potential by favoring candidates that feel safe and foreseeable over the ones that are divergent and creative. Of course, this is not me suggesting you should hire the next lunatic knocking at your (metaverse) door, but definitely infuse your process with imaginative and explorative attitudes.
In coaching sessions I take my clients through a series of creative exercises, none of them requiring any kind of inherent creative talent. Rather, they channel whichever consciousness-expanding desire is already present. And, as my experience has shown, great leaders are innovators whose humility drives them towards exploration, a willingness to discover uncharted territory: What do I not know? Where can I become better? Who can I learn from? This mindset is the very canvas for harnessing one's Creative Power.
An intentional, open-ended creative inquiry unlocks the myriad of possibilities a problem can be solved, a decision made or a crunchy moment in your company addressed effectively.
Here are 4 steps from my CREATIVE POWER sessions to try out next time you are hiring, making a decision or wanting to explore creativity at work:
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When hiring this can include changing the setting (non-formal environment), and also the relational dynamic. Sitting next to a potential candidate instead of in front of them. Doing so allows shyer characters to feel more comfortable, and confident ones to focus better – it takes out inhibitors to creativity: tension/anxiety for the cautious type, and tames combative tendencies in the assertive type. Ergo true creativity can shine. Bonus: managers learn to embody the role of an ally as opposed to someone to feel threatened by or needing to be won over, giving space for creative discourse.
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In non-essential decisions, follow your impulse. Before bias of experience (however valuable) and programs (societal, mental) take over. Observe what happens (what feelings does it elicit, before & after?)
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…with your results from the 3-Second-Rule. Where did it fail? Where did it succeed? Re-arrange in a new hierarchy. From which perspective/vantage point would the failure transform into a success and vice versa? Is there a third/fourth scenario you can imagine?
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If your hire, investment, or product was to encounter dramatic changes, could the aspect that was valuable transcribed into a novel format/use? How many multiple uses are possible?
In a blog post a couple years back, I already toyed around with the feeling of uncertainty and how it pertains to entrepreneurship (in of itself a creative endeavor). In “No google maps, a compass for uncertainty”: I wrote: …”and whilst this is a fragile feeling, isn’t the hope for the unknowable what we’re here for?” Uncertainty may not run in our DNA, yet creativity and curiosity most certainly do. My present day take on it: Sailing in new directions we cannot predict is essential. Because this is where joy lives. And that is the most valuable metric to consider in any venture. Big Business or, big life.
If you are curious to find out more about my work, creative power or have a thought you’d like to share, please send me a message.
“I think life on Earth must be about more than just solving problems. It’s got to be something inspiring, even if it is vicarious.” — Elon Musk
*An anecdote: When I wrote this blog post I did not anticipate 4 years fast forward, I’d be living in Miami, at the exact location I found back then. Which goes to show, when life is approached with Creative Power, all paths are open. Another certainty.