Creativity...It's Never Been Just for Artists

Within the context of leading and managing nonprofit organizations (NPOs), creativity has both contemplative and active modes. When we are “being creative,” generally we are thinking along new lines and perspectives. When we are “doing something creative,” we are doing new things.

Versatility, as I see it, is creativity’s close cousin. Versatility is about being flexible with respect to method and allowing oneself and others to experiment with new ways of doing things.

The Value of Creativity and the Cost of Neglecting It

The value of creativity in the for-profit sector is massively documented. Innovation leads to profits, market share, publicity, prestige. Across the years, innovation is what makes a company.

By contrast, the lack of creativity – and thus, adaptability – is what breaks a company. The stories of typewriter manufacturers that did not metamorphose into computer manufacturers and railroads that did not re-imagine themselves as transportation companies are old saws on the corporate meeting speaking circuit.

The same principles hold true in the nonprofit sector, even though there is no commonly shared canon of stories from which to draw the conclusion. Yet we all have our examples of the now defunct charity which dug a routine of myopic dysfunction so deep that the rut became its grave.

We all know that the only constant is change. What we forget sometimes is that to stay current with change – let alone to get ahead of it – requires us to nurture habits of stretching emotionally and intellectually.

Barriers to Creativity and Versatility

From my observation of organizational life from various perspectives over the years, two barriers to creativity have been especially prevalent. Whether they are entirely self-imposed or arise from the group dynamic varies with the institution.

The first is perceived lack of time. I recall an executive who once said to me, “I am far too busy to be efficient.” When asked why she said it, she added that she and her colleagues always felt so pressed to move forward that they never permitted themselves time to imagine or deliberate.

The second is the intuitive opposite. We are so comfortable with our patterns and habits and routines and protocols that we really don’t want to engage in anything new. A residential treatment facility was hemorrhaging money because of empty beds. When a new colleague suggested sending someone to visit the agency’s referral sources to cultivate new business, the old guard chided the newcomer mercilessly for wasting time on “tactics that had never been tried.”

It should be noted during this time of economic recession and financial stabilization plans (see last month) that money is not a necessary prerequisite to creativity. Necessity, after all, is the mother of invention.

Ways to Stir Creativity

Unlike most other lists that appear in this monthly column, I urge you not to follow this one item by item with tight-knuckled determination. (You may wish to print this – it may be the last time I make such a suggestion.) It is offered not as a check-list but rather as miscellany of pieces to be used – or not – in generating your own mosaic of ideas. The invitation underlying all these suggestions is to make a habit of taking in the new in order to cultivate strength and wisdom to take on the new.

o Every day or so, devote a moment to looking at something especially closely.
o Every other day or so, listen deeply during the period between two conversations.
o Every week or so, do a little brainstorming about some matter that is important but not urgent and, if you like, note your ideas in a journal.
o Every other week or so, take a walk around the premises or the neighborhood in which you operate and, if the occasion arises, visit with someone with whom you usually just say “hi.”
o Every month or so, study the website of another organization in the same field as yours and note what is different, then discuss at a board or staff meeting.
o Every other month or so, visit another NPO to see how it works and get a feeling for its culture.
o Every quarter or so, conduct an informational interview of someone who works in a different program.
o Every other quarter or so, read a professional journal from a field that is related to but different from your own.
o Every year or so, change out the art and memorabilia in your office.
o Every other year or so, attend a conference or other learning event that is relevant to but not within your field.

A Last Word

I don’t know where any of this will take you in your leading and managing…but that is the point….!