Mining for Creativity
Creativity can be an early casualty of a recession. As sales slump and budgets shrink, leaders are tempted to hunker down into survival mode. Resist the urge to batten down the hatches or barricade yourself inside of an office! Tough economic times are precisely when creativity matters most, and tapping into the creativity of others will yield far more than relying on your individual genius.
In Mavericks at Work, William C. Taylor and Polly Labarre relate the stunning story of a leader who reached out to solve the challenges facing his organization. As a means of finding creative solutions to extract gold from his unproductive mine, Robert McEwen initiated a $500,000 contest. His company posted a half-century of maps and geological information about the mine on the Internet and began accepting submissions of drilling plans. Entries poured in from scientists and geologists in 51 countries, and several of the plans made use of technology that had never before been applied to mining gold.
McEwen and his staff selected the best of the plans and went to work. A dozen years later, the formerly unproductive mine could boast of being among the richest in the world. $100,000 invested in McEwen’s company in 1993, when he instigated the drilling plan contest, was worth $2.9 million in 2005. Talk about the value of creativity!
Tips for Attracting Creative Solutions
- Invitation – Have the humility to ask others to contribute their ideas
- Openness – Share what you know about the present reality
- Incentive – Find meaningful and public ways to reward creativity Creativity and Innovation Tagged $500, 000 contest, casualty of a recession, creative solutions, Creativity and Innovation, geological information, geologists, Incentive, individual genius, Invitation, Mavericks at Work, Mining for Creativity, Openness, Polly Labarre, richest in the world, Robert McEwen, scientists, survival mode, William C. Taylor, worth $2.9 million in 2005 No Comments »
