Creativity and Collaboration…Trust in the Virtual Workplace
The book Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative by Ken Robinson sat on my bedside table for a long time because I didn’t want to finish it — I enjoyed it so much. Creativity and innovation are on the minds of senior leaders a great deal these days. In fact, Business Week quoted research by IBM’s Institute for Business Value that reveals that CEO’s believe creativity is what is required to navigate the complexity of the global workplace. It ranked above all other requirements. Hmmmmmm – how’re we going to train that?! Well, you can develop creativity — it is not something that can be “trained.” We can create environments that encourage and expect creativity.
A quick term definition from Robinson:
Imagination=bringing to mind that which is not present
Creativity=developing ideas that have value
Innovation=putting ideas into practice
To net out Robinson’s excellent thinking: Creativity is collaborative. We must imagine to create and we must create to innovate. We create in groups, we inspire one another when we can bounce ideas around. Ideo sure knows that. They don’t create in isolation. Virtual workers are often isolated in their home offices, cars or simply far removed from their global teams. Trust is challenged in a virtual environment because of the loss of visual cues and cultural differences. Yet trust is critical to creativity. We need to know that our “silly idea” is one we can float out there and others will build off of it. Virtual leaders must work even more to foster creativity.
Here are 3 little things I suggest to develop creativity in your team:
- Say “yes and…” I know you’ve heard this but it bears repeating. Build on ideas rather than shooting them down. Creativity is killed when ideas are rejected. Play with ideas, grow them, develop them, bounce them around — let them evolve.
- Expect new ideas — regularly. Give assignments to teams to come up with ideas that are way out of the box. Make time to create at every staff meeting — generate zany ideas that make people laugh. Work to solve real problems by throwing out wild ideas for 10 minutes — just work your creativity muscles.
- Use the ideas. Apply small ideas for a limited time — try them out. Work out the kinks in them. Creativity will wither away if the ideas are not put into practice – in other words, if there is no innovation. Folks need to see an environment of creativity all arond them. Leaders must create idea gardens — grow the seedlings and watch others pop up.
