Creativity: More Important to Business than Family?
December 1st, 2008I was just reading an article from Fast Company titled Innovating with Meaning: You Reap What You Sow. The article describes the author’s belief that business performance can be enhanced by improving core competencies in creative thinking, strategic thinking, and transformational thinking among employees in support of innovation. Interesting stuff and a worthwhile article.
While I was reading it, I was struck by the thought that we may not need this type of business advice if we just did a better job of sowing the seeds of creativity in our children to begin with. Is it possible that corporations are trying to make up for our shortcomings as parents?
The article describes nine seeds of creative thinking. I’ve taken the first two and replaced business/employee language with family/child references. It really resonates with me:
Seed #1: Believe in Creativity
It is not enough for a leader parent to simply encourage “creativity” and creative thinking. Everyone must believe in their own creative thinking abilities. They Parents must also be willing to unlearn some of their old habits in order to truly participate in the innovation agenda and become an integral part of the organization’s family’s innovation engine.Seed #2: Be Curious
The foundation of creativity is the curious mind. Without a curious mind, many great opportunities will simply slip by unnoticed. Employees Children should be encouraged to broaden their perspectives and look for ideas beyond their particular department, organization, and industry home, school and neighborhood. Innovative organizations families encourage their employees children to ask questions and challenge “the way it’s done in our industry family.” It is important to note that employees children can be encouraged to ask questions while still respecting the essence and realities of organizational familial life.
If Gordon McKenzie is correct in his observation that kids lose their ability to be creative between kindergarten and sixth grade, it seems sad that corporations are trying to then re-develop those same skills later in life.
Honestly, I’m not sure what I’m getting at with this post. As the parent of child that just entered kindergarten, my gut tells me that we need to protect her creative instincts as adamantly as we protect her safety.
What do you think?
