Misconception of Creativity and Innovation

"The view that good ideas are rarer and more valuable than good people is rooted in a misconception of creativity." This is what Ed Catmull, cofounder of Pixar and the president of Pixar and Disney Animation Studios, wrote in an article in an HBR article, "How Pixar Fosters Collective Creativity" (HBR-September 2008.) We are learning that organizations and individuals across industries and the world, like Pixar, are recognizing that people and their many dimensions of difference are the catalysts for generating new ideas that fuel innovation.

Catmull explained it this way: "People tend to think of creativity as a mysterious solo act, and they typically reduce products to a single idea: This is a movie about toys, or dinosaurs, or love, they'll say. However, in filmmaking and many other kinds of complex product development, creativity involves a large number of people from different disciplines working effectively together to solve a great many problems."

In light of these truths, we need to flip everything we are conditioned to believe. You know, let’s put our differences aside, we are more alike than we are unalike; look at all we have in common. These remain valuable truths, but when we stop there, our differences are made secondary, sometimes brushed away as if they don’t matter. As Ed Cantrell points out, the bigger oversight is when we don't recognize that all that makes us different is an advantageous stockpile of kindling for igniting new ideas, breakthrough thinking—differences are the drivers of creativity, innovation, and invention at any level -- in any organization or community. As leaders in the twenty-first century, we have to become master of doing much more than celebrating differences; or merely saying we appreciate them or tolerating them. It means consciously elevating the importance of our diversity and creating an environment of inclusion that becomes a catalyst for success. We need to look for differences, welcome them, and utilize them for the good of all, consciously making our differences a priority—part of the mix—for any mainstream practices like problem solving, team building, and decision making. Albert Einstein helped us understand why this is important when he said, “You can’t solve problems with the same thinking you used to create them.”

In my book, Putting Our Differences to Work, you'll find how-tos and many best practices to help you put the powerful foursome to work: creativity, leadership, diversity, inclusion. To get you started, below of three KEY BEHAVIORS to try out:

• Recognize that differences generate new ideas and breakthrough
  thinking.
• Make difference a mainstream business priority in problem solving,
  team building, decision making, talent management, and overall
  business operations.
• Create a culture of inclusion for innovators at all levels to thrive,
  recognizing that it is inclusion that accelerates and influences
  understanding, acceptance, ownership, engagement, collaboration,
  and the generation of new thinking and new ideas.

And I ask you, what best practices do you have to share?

Debbe Kennedy
Founder, Global Dialogue Center
author, Putting Our Differences to Work

new book!
Putting Our Differences to Work
The Fastest Way to Innovation, Leadership and High Performance
by Debbe Kennedy ▪ Berrett-Koehler ▪ June 2008 – Hardcover
ORDER a copy at AMAZON.COM

Also available in DIGITAL DOWNLOAD at Berrett-Koehler

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Foreword by Joel A. Barker, futurist, filmmaker and author
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