Creativity, Need to rethink !

We start setting targets. And applying rules. And ritual. Things that make the organisation comfortable but do little to facilitate what we're actually trying to achieve. So creativity is often boxed into a department. Or made the jurisdiction of particular people. Or forced into the artificial restriction of a brainstorming session. Step outside these demarcations and enter a world full of friction, obstruction and justification.

This is wrong for so many reasons, but worst of all has to be that it is such a motivation-sapping, energy-depleting, conviction-destroying reality. If you are, say, a commercial person with a lot of ideas and a passion to change things for the better this can be absolutely soul-destroying.

And I think this needs to stop.
The desire for command and control completely underestimates the value of stepping back, getting out of the way, letting go. It should be about environment not expectation. Facilitation not forcing. Reinforcement not rhetoric. But it is so often not.
Pixar know a thing or two about creativity. The kind of creativity that generates not only spectacular but long-term commercial and artistic success. This fascinating talk (I would embed it but the embed option is clunky as hell - go watch it anyway) by Ed Catmull, President of Pixar, reveals the culture and practice of an organisation that is truly built around creativity.
He talks about how we think of creative inspiration as a mysterious solo act, a singular eureka moment or idea whereas in reality, many kinds of product development are highly complex, with the creative process involving a large number of people, often from different disciplines, marshalled around a vision, working effectively together as a team to solve a great many problems.

I think we need to rethink how we view creativity. Organisational reward is misplaced. Management practice is outdated. We need to open ourselves up to more serendipity, to what our networks can contribute. We need to stop trying to control it. We need to loosen up..