FireFly Facilitation

Myth #2:   We think of creativity in absolutes – you either have it or you don’t – versus a continuum.

While it’s true you might not be able to compose like Mozart or paint like Monet, don’t you think you have a little bit of creativity within you?

What about that time you moved into a new role and had to develop a process to address a particular business challenge?  And what if you customize a process you created at another company – but apply it differently at your new company? Doesn’t that fit our more expansive definition of creativity?

When I work with teams to discover their untapped creative potential, I often ask them to remember back to a time in their youth.  For me, I showed early signs of my love of facilitation when I was 8.  I loved directing plays in our garage with all the neighborhood kids (at least those that were younger and shorter than I was).  It was fun bringing together a diverse group of kids, convincing then to play together nicely, and having a successful outcome (a play that we could perform for our parents).   I didn’t need to be the star of the play – it was more fun for me to be behind the scenes, making things happen.

And so now I will ask you…when you were younger, what came easily to you?  Maybe you even got a nickname for it.  What is your own unique brand of creativity?  How could you apply that natural talent to some personal or professional challenge facing you today?

When I tell a group of people that they are creative, I have some that knowingly smile back, and some that look me at me like this…and say “Who? Me?” 

 Why is that?  I think there are 3 myths that many of us hold about creativity that keep us from tapping into the true creative potential inside us.  Here we go…

Myth #1:  Our definition of creativity

We have a tendency to think that the word “creativity” only applies to artists and musicians.  While it’s true they may be artistic, they don’t corner the market on creativity.

When I was writing my book, The Firefly Effect, I told my husband that I thought everyone had creativity within them.  Well, he’s a pretty analytical guy – so he just looked at me and said  “Do you have any data to back that up?”

I didn’t – so off to the library I went to find some.  After a very frustrating day spent reviewing very arcane research from psychology and science journals, I was worn out and not sure if I would find the evidence I was looking for.  I wasn’t even sure what creativity was any more.

That afternoon, I’m driving my teenage daughter – Maddi -  to tennis practice.  I turned to her and asked:  “Maddi, how would you define creativity?” Being a typical teenager her first response was, of course,  “That’s random!”

I said – “No, really – how would you define creativity?”

This time her response took my breath away…. “To be original.  To do something no one else would think of.”   Wow!

Thus, by our very DNA and unique life experiences, we are creative.

That makes sense, doesn’t it?  No one else is exactly like you – with your life experiences, your perspectives and your ideas.  So, don’t hold back – claim your creativity.  You deserve it!

Next post…Myth #2

There is a new focus for innovation – and it is called design thinking.  It is all about breaking down the organizational silos and making everyone in the company responsible for innovation.  One of the chief proponents is Tim Brown -  CEO and president of IDEO and author of  Change by Design 

Tim Brown is an industrial designer by training, and has won numerous design awards.  His team even appeared on a news show, demonstrating how to create a new and improved shopping cart in just 4 days.  His passion is finding ways design can be used to promote the well being of people living in emerging economies. [In fact, many innovative ideas are being created by focusing on these emerging economies].

 He says one of the keys to great ideation is great preparation.  And great preparation begins with a design brief.  Here he captures the power in his own words:

“The difference between a design brief with just the right level of constraint and one that is overly vague or overly restrictive can be the difference between a team on fire with breakthrough ideas and one that delivers a tired reworking of existing ones.”

And I have found this to be true in my work facilitating innovation sessions, though it may seem counter-intuitive.  Often, the clients I work with say they want the brainstorming session to be very broad because they want to “empower” the participants.  In fact the opposite tends to happen.   When the “creativity canvas” is too wide, it actually either leads to too many ideas that are off the mark and not actionable or too many ideas that do not address the most critical challenges. 

As Brown says above, with just the right ending to the sentence – “How might we…” – you too can catch your team on fire with creativty aimed in the right direction!

Here’s the headline:  Employee engagement drives loyalty and business performance at World’s Most Admired Companies.   According to the Hay Group’s latest research, top companies are particularly focused on making sure employees feel engaged by their work.

Hay also conducted supplemental research on employee engagement practices at these organizations, which found that companies at the top of the list generated stronger employee loyalty to the organization over the last two years and reported greater decreases in employee frustrations over work conditions that were not conducive to their success.

“The World’s Most Admired Companies have been particularly good at focusing on long-term strategies, showing little tolerance for executives that compromise long-term objectives for short-term gains,” said Mel Stark, vice president with the Hay Group. “Equally important, the WMAC communicate their objectives to all employees, connecting the goals and objectives of every employee to the overall business strategy, and as a result, were able to come out of the downturn with motivated and loyal employees.”  Hay Group’s study found that 90 percent of respondents from the WMAC identified their company as very effective or effective at fostering high levels of employee engagement compared to 71 percent of their peers.

These findings are supported by another study conducted by consulting firm Towers Perrin (now Towers Watson).  They conducted a Global Workforce Study, the largest study of its kind, in which they asked 90,000 employees in 18 countries,  “What can a company do to attract, retain, and engage top talent?”  They boiled it down to 5 key things:

1. Get leaders out front to talk with employees about the business environment…how the organization is responding…the long-term vision…what the organization stands for.
2. Involve employees in efforts to manage costs to help them feel like active contributors.
3. Communicate consistently and candidly about both short- and long-term objectives.
4. Listen and gather input from employees.
5. Promote development opportunities so people can see a future for themselves worth working toward.

 If you look at 1,3 and 5, you will see these are all about talking to or telling employees something about the company.  2 & 4 are all about listening and getting employees to tell you ways to manage costs, perhaps front line customer feedback on what needs to change, etc.  The researchers noted: “The challenge for senior management is to recognize the value of employees’ untapped potential and to channel it in ways that yield real improvements in business performance.” 

More engagement comes from being recognized as unique and with value.  The good news is with a more engaged team – the leader doesn’t feel they have to do this alone – it truly becomes a team effort.  And they may even come to care as much about the success of the organization as you do.

What do you need to start doing today to attract, retain and engage your top talent?  There’s no time to waste, because even in this tough job market, your highest performers always have choices.

In a recent Accenture survey, 89% of executives agreed that innovation is as important as cost management for high performance.  This indicates a big shift from 2009.  The emphasis for most companies last year was on how to cut expenses.  This year, there is the realization that you can’t cut your way to business growth.  And this survey bears that out.

Okay, from the Accenture survey we know execs think innovation is important.  Below is the Daily Stat email I receive from Harvard Business Review (a very valuable resource that I strongly encourage you to check out).  From this Ernst and Young survey, we can see that only half of the senior executives see their companies as more innovative than their competition – and 17% even say their less innovative than peers.   

There are several reasons cited for this.  For example, while many companies are investing more in innovation, only a few have a rigorous approach for managing the process.  As a result even innovative companies often fail to realize the benefits that their new ideas could produce.

Interestingly, almost half of them blame the lack of appropriate personnel as a major contributor to their lack of innovation.  You know as well as I do that you can’t just go getting rid of everyone you don’t think is creative – and in fact you don’t have to.  There are ways – which I will share with you in later blog posts – for discovering and tapping into the creativity in each of us. 

And this is where you come in.  Strategic, progressive leaders have an incredible role to play in boosting the innovation occurring within their companies – and it all begins with employee engagement.   Next post – some proven ideas for how to engage your top talent.