Are You Casting A Shadow?
When Alexander the Great visited Diogenes and asked whether he could do anything for the famed teacher, Diogenes replied:
“Only stand out of my light.” Perhaps some day we shall know how to heighten creativity. Until then, one of the best things we can do for creative men and women is to stand out of their light.
~ John W. Gardner
Birthing Creativity
I was having a conversation with Matt Homann the other evening on innovation and creativity. Or to be more specific, how to build activities that birth and harness creativity for business purposes. Matt is working on doing exactly that by developing what he calls a "Creativity Camp". I would encourage you to ask him about it.
The following day while consulting with a client I kept hearing a common refrain from the staff that "we WANT to be creative/innovative but don't feel empowered to do so!".
Empower Me!
I confess that while this is certainly true in some cases, my typical gut response to this kind of statement is that it's an excuse. Call it tough love, call it being a bit of a hardass if you like, but I've always felt that if you're going to wait around for someone to empower you then you have a long wait in front of you indeed.
However, the combination of these two conversations got me to thinking. Perhaps the real benefit of having management engage in creative workshops and learn to value the less definable aspects of business culture is not so that THEY can be more creative. Instead, this new open appreciation for the value of creativity gives implicit license to those around them to be creative. Those who previously felt they were stuck in the shadow of an unbelieving leadership might now feel empowered, or even better, encouraged.
Tell The Story You Want To Be
My comment to Matt Homann the other night was about how the best tool to change a business culture was in teaching leadership to find and tell the right stories. Storytelling is a sorely lacking skill in business these days, and a session on learning the art of it in a business context would be invaluable. These stories become the examples of what is valued in the organization, and in turn others adapt and adopt their message into their own activities and behaviors. Thus, a culture shift is born.
Having leadership engage in these types of creative workshops and openly bring their learnings back to the workplace is one way of telling a non-verbal story, a means of management moving aside and allowing light to flow where once they cast a shadow.
Are you casting a shadow on those around you or are you empowering a culture that supports both your employees desires and your companies productivity? Are you telling the right stories? I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Cheers,
Matt Ridings - @techguerilla
