Recommendation 

Business leaders recognize the creativity gap in their organizations: While roughly 82%
of companies connect creativity with strong business results, only 11% agree that their
organizations implement creative thinking as a core element in their business practices.
Author Chris Griffiths explores the absence of creativity in company work habits. He
presents a series of useful tools to generate, analyze and implement ideas and to make
creativity a core element of an organization’s mission.

Take-Aways

Businesses need to integrate creative thinking into their workplace cultures. 

Teams must commit to removing common thinking errors that constrain creativity.

The “Solution Finder’s” systematic approach establishes a culture that promotes

creativity.

Start by defining the problem.

Devise a brainstorming strategy.

Analyze ideas in ways that allow you to move toward action.

Prepare your chosen solution for implementation.

Team leaders need to encourage creative thinking by implementing innovative

strategies.

Summary 

Businesses need to integrate creative thinking into their workplace cultures.

Through applied creativity, business owners can move their businesses from “getting
by” to “moving forward.” Managers must foster openness to new ideas and implement
innovations deliberately. Yet many businesses don’t cultivate an environment that’s
conducive to creative thinking.

Through applied creativity, you can find new ideas about the causes of problems, ideas
to help you solve those problems, ideas to make common executive decisions, and
ideas about where you will go.” 
Business leaders’ future success will rely not on what they know or what worked in the
past, but on what they can create. Today’s innovative companies – Starbucks, Amazon,
Apple, Microsoft, and the like – position themselves to innovate regularly and to use
creative problem-solving. Using one-off brainstorming sessions is insufficient; instead,
implement a company-wide mind-set for creativity.
Teams must commit to removing common thinking errors that constrain creativity.

Bad decisions often result from errors in thinking rather than errors in information. When
employees view information without checking their underlying biases and assumptions,
it affects their ability to keep their minds open to new ideas and to see clear paths to
resolving challenges. Common thinking errors tend to belong to one of three categories:

“Selective thinking” – People rely on ideas that reinforce the way they think and ignore
those that don’t; this tendency strongly influences the decisions they make. Choosing
observations and facts that complement rather than challenge your thinking inhibits the
creative process. Kodak, for example, ignored technological innovations and stayed
focused solely on film-based photography because it had worked for years. When digital
cameras, digital printing and file sharing upended the world of photography, Kodak lost
its dominance in the industry.
“Reactive thinking” – When making quick decisions, people rely on instinct and past
performance rather than deliberate analysis of a host of ideas. Reactive thinking may
result in an efficient path forward; however, it discards viable and perhaps stronger
options. Success stories in business demonstrate that the first company out with an
idea isn’t always the one that lasts, as successors take the time to improve on the
original ideas. For example, Hydrox created the chocolate and cream sandwich cookie
in 1908, but most people immediately associate that description with Oreo cookies.
“Assumptive thinking” – Thinking based on assumptions limits the range of options and
presents an obstacle to new business models. Assumptions maintain “business as
usual” and can prevent companies from moving forward. The Body Shop achieved
remarkable success when it challenged assumptions in the cosmetics industry; at the
outset, it broke the rules by selling natural products in refillable plastic containers, but it
appealed to a new market segment: the environmentally conscious shopper.
The Solution Finder’s systematic approach establishes a culture that promotes
creativity.

In market-driven companies, experience and analysis drive decision-making. Market

drivers, on the other hand, think progressively and cultivate innovative ideas. Forward-
thinking companies, such as Starbucks, Ikea to FedEx and Amazon, create agile
environments that nurture creativity and innovation. The strategies they employ
integrate both divergent thinking – the expansion of ideas – and convergent thinking –
the narrowing down of the ideas into viable solutions. 

You can’t drive a car in first gear and reverse at the same time. Likewise, you can’t
create and evaluate simultaneously.
The Solution Finder process offers business leaders a systematic strategy for
addressing challenges by clarifying the problems they wish to solve; generating ideas;
thoughtfully analyzing those ideas and following them through to implementation.

Start by defining the problem.

Challenges don’t immediately identify themselves clearly in concise, positive language.
To develop a solution, leaders must explore the problem: Ask questions, challenge it
from different perspectives, and remain open to differing opinions. For example, if the
company’s goal is to increase a department’s productivity, leaders within that
department might restate the challenge using more concrete and positive language,
such as “we want to remove obstacles that are making it hard for you to complete your
assignments.”

Reframing also helps to simplify a problem to stimulate new thinking. When we’re
overburdened with a problem, we can get stuck in complexity.
Such reframing can inspire a new business model as well. Hotel room capacity,
notoriously in short supply in San Francisco when major conferences come to town,
inspired entrepreneurs Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia to reframe the challenge:
Conference attendees needed low-cost, no-frills overnight accommodations. They
offered their spare room to overnight guests and, thus, Airbnb – a website that helps
people find short-term lodging in noncommerical properties around the world – was
born.

Devise a brainstorming strategy.

Business leaders and employees gather in group brainstorming sessions, often in off-
site settings, to focus on specific challenges the companies want to address. Research
suggests, however, that people generate better ideas when working independently.
Peer pressure, for one, leads many to agree with other viewpoints instead of posing
alternatives. In addition, time-boxing sessions don’t allow for important processing time
that enable people to reflect and imagine.

Most members of the group have hooked into a reactive or selective mode of thinking –
in their minds, they’ve already decided and set off down a certain path. This isn’t
brainstorming!
Business leaders can enhance brainstorming sessions by implementing a few
alternative approaches:

Allow members time to generate ideas on their own and in small groups before
presenting ideas to the entire group.
Encourage and embrace all ideas – even the seemingly nonsensical ones. Combine
and rework these ideas to produce more promising ones. For example, while coming to
work naked isn’t practical, combining the thought with a desire for a more relaxed work
environment may lead to ideas for casual workdays and pajama-party celebrations.
Try different techniques to challenge members’ thinking patterns. For example, use
metaphors to restate the problem in another way; ask “what if” to encourage members
to imagine different scenarios; or pose the question in reverse so members quickly
recognize what steps to avoid.
Analyze ideas in ways that allow you to move toward action.
After generating a multitude of ideas, teams begin to sift and evaluate the proposals.
Many people find this process overwhelming without the proper tools to thoughtfully
filter and measure ideas. In this analysis phase, leaders can take a three-step process
to avoid getting stuck:

“Sort” – Focusing on the original problem, sort ideas into logical categories or clusters to
narrow down the possibilities. Categories will likely vary for different activities and
challenges. Remove duplicate ideas and those that stray too far from the problem.
Focus on positive, rather than negative aspects of the proposals.
“Screen” – Take time to fully investigate the remaining ideas. Evaluate the ideas both
emotionally and logically, since many successful innovations and campaigns appeal to
both emotions and logic. Additionally, explore the pros and cons of the ideas from
different sectors of the organization to create a comprehensive view. 
“Select” – Test each idea thoroughly by asking key questions: Can it be done? Will it
give a decent return? Do people want it?
Prepare your chosen solution for implementation.

Implementing a chosen solution successfully requires a strategic plan. Teams need to

evaluate and challenge the final idea to strengthen it and help identify potential
shortcomings.

The implementation stage is crucial for turning ideas into positive change.
Several approaches help to develop a solution and prepare for implementation. Teams
can generate a list of pros and cons, and think of ways to strengthen the positives while
making adjustments to address the negatives. Observing customers who use the
product can help identify potential pain points in a servicing solution. Providing product
samples can lead to direct feedback on a new product. The founders of Innocent Drinks,
for example, tested their smoothies at a music festival, asking customers to drop
empties into buckets labeled “Yes” or “No.” The overwhelmingly positive response gave
them the confidence to move forward with their formula.

Teams need to celebrate the implementation of a chosen solution. However, they need
to continue to fine-tune and evaluate, even while it’s coming to market. Note that many
successful businesses developed several iterations of their products before they
achieved commercial success. Dyson, for one, persevered through 15 years and
hundreds of prototypes before successfully launching the bagless vacuum cleaner. Walt
Disney and Elon Musk both went through bankruptcy at different points in their careers.
The developers of the popular online game Angry Birds continue to evaluate and
innovate by regularly updating their app and by branching out into merchandise, books
and cartoons.

Team leaders need to encourage creative thinking by implementing innovative

strategies.

Being a creative leader often means transitioning the workplace culture to one that
encourages ideas and creativity. Leaders should look at current and possible habits and
decide which ones aid or hinder transitions to an agile, innovative workplace. For
example, leaders can consider:

What to stop doing, such as making quick, reactive decisions.

What to keep doing, such as giving workers free time to toy with ideas.
What to start doing, such as adding individual idea creation time to group brainstorming
sessions.
Your company can also increase creativity by gaining insights from failures as well as
successes. Failures serve as vital learning opportunities. Instill fun in the workplace:
Play at work keeps creativity flowing. Create an environment of collaboration and
support. Sharing information across teams helps employees grow.

About the Author 

Best-selling author Chris Griffiths is the founder and CEO of OpenGenius, which offers
training, software and tools to help companies implement creative thinking strategies.

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