Creativity | Innovation Culture Hand Space
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Here you'll learn what it's all about and why this element is particularly important in terms of innovation culture.Below, in the download section, you will find external as well as LIH resources that will give you a deeper understanding of the element and provide opportunities for application.If you want to experience this and more of the 5 elements it takes to create and sustain a culture of innovation in an immersive learning experience, sign up for Innovation Culture now.
Creativity is thinking up new things.Innovation is doing new things – Theodore Levitt
Creativity is often described in a kind of mystical manner, to conjecture that some of us are born creative while others are not. However, creativity is not an inherent quality but a skill, a way of thinking which we can refine and improve on. Perhaps even more importantly, creativity doesn’t mean drawing brilliant ideas from thin air. More commonly it refers to combining existing ideas, elements or resources to create something that has never existed before. In this sense, we at LIH consider creativity solving problems or finding new ways to improve things, often through a recombination of ideas.
Why is this important for innovation
Research conducted by IBM highlighted creativity as the most crucial leadership competency for future success and identified it as the key driver of innovation). As a creative leader, it’s important for you to find ways to replenish and restore your own creativity, as well as to provide an environment which provides your team with creative freedom in having the courage to explore. Creative leaders not only focus on managing day-to-day operations but also inspire and guide individuals to generate and implement new ideas, solutions, and approaches. There is clear theoretical and empirical evidence demonstrating that leadership is an important variable that can enhance or hinder workplace creativity and innovation. For creativity to take place, leaders must actively implement strategies that encourage it. Here we will explore factors which nurture creativity including collaboration, creative freedom and the power of rituals.
Collaboration | Creativity thrives in a collaborative setting where people and ideas can collide. Studies suggest a higher degree of creativity and information processing in heterogeneous teams; bringing diversity of thought, perspectives and backgrounds allows each team member to be an “expert” in a different role. However, team members may at times find it difficult to be their true selves at work. It is the leader’s responsibility to facilitate a working environment in which diversity is celebrated and managed in a way that employees can feel a sense of belonging and authenticity at work.
Creative Freedom | Creativity that leads to breakthrough innovations often doesn’t look like work, let alone efficient work. The old cliché that ideas come when you’re in the shower has its merit. Our minds just do not make new synaptic connections when we’re deliberately trying to do so. This is why good ideas are likely to strike when we’re daydreaming on a train, taking a bike ride, or washing the dishes, and our mind unconsciously processes and pairs entirely new variables. We need to make space to allow our minds to wander.“Innovation teams need enough freedom and creative space to focus on disruptive innovations from different horizons.” – Trend One Leadership Report 2023
The Power of Rituals | Cognitive neuroscience has found evidence of a positive correlation between rituals and creativity: “ritual promotes thought suppression – tuning out the inner critic, dampening brain chatter, centering and focusing the mind, and decreasing anxiety before executing complex tasks” (Forbes, 2018).In this toolkit you'll find a curation of resources related to creativity, originally compiled for the Innovation Culture – a training designed and delivered by the Lufthansa Innovation Hub.
What to expect from this toolkit
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