Embracing the Creative in a Tech-philic World

FountainBlue’s August 6 Front Line Managers Online meeting was on the topic of ‘Embracing the Creative in a Tech-philic World’. My thanks to our panelists for their participation. 

Our panelists represented a wide breadth of roles and organizations, but each showed how creativity helped them to better manage and lead their teams and functions. They agreed that:

• Creativity helps teams and organizations be more innovative.
• Creativity helps to drive a business strategy.
• Creativity helps us be more open, more engaged.
• Creativity helps us all be more labile, agile and relevant, which is very important in these times of great change.

Below are some ideas for inviting more creativity in your teams.

• Make it safe to speak up and speak out, and reward people for doing so, especially if they are not comfortable doing so.
• Be creative yourself, leading by example.
• Be curious about the why, so that you can frame the right problem to creatively solve, and so you understand the motivations of all stakeholders.
• Define the problem set and the solution options and have an open and broad tolerance for solutions which might address the identified problems.
• Ask questions about how things have been done in the past, how things need to happen in the future, what resources are available and required, so you have a framework to think creatively around.
• Be clear on what needs to be done, but open about HOW things are done.
• Be good at understanding the story, and telling that story in different ways, depending on the audience. This takes flexibility, knowledge and creativity for sure!
• Know the ramifications of choices made today on the future, way downstream. It takes creativity to factor the future in.
• Transparently communicate the ‘whys’ and the ‘whats’ and the ‘hows’ and question HOW these whats and hows and whys came to be.
• Be customer-centric, curious about the problems they’re facing, and how they are experiencing the proposed solution.

The bottom line is that many people at all levels in all roles will question whether the Creatives belongs in a tech company. If and when they do, confidently respond that the Creatives should be embraced as it benefits individuals, teams and organizations.

Let the circumstances and requirements be the guardrails, but proudly and confidently DO YOU! 

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