Characteristics of creative teams

K. Kuhathasan

A creative team must develop an organizational culture that encourages and motivates creativity through its members. Such teams should ensure that rewards are given to people for innovative ideas that pay off. A flexible organization structure is necessary for creativity. A process for developing new ideas into products or service should be in place. A trustful leadership that does not over control people and open channels of communication among members of the team, will go a long way in developing a creative culture.

Considerable contact and communication with the other institutions and willing to accept change, must be encouraged. Encouraging people to experiment with new ideas will also go a long way to promote creativity.

Creative and judicial thinking are important

Creative thinking is "future-oriented". It looks to the future and tries to find a more effective way to do things, to find new techniques and methods.

Judicial thinking is "past-oriented." It relies on past experience in evaluating new ideas, methods and techniques. It is important to keep both types of thinking in proper balance and not utilize one at the cost of neglecting the other. They complement each other. Together they make an excellent combination.

Creative decisions

Being creative does not necessarily mean coming up with revolutionary ideas. It does mean taking a fresh and uninhibited approach when making decision's and not being restricted by what has been done in the past. Creative Leaders not only have new ideas but also elicit new ideas from their employees. The Leader sets the creative tone; if he or she encourages creativity, the members will sense this and act accordingly.

The Creative Person

People tend to think of themselves and others as being creative or not creative. Being creative is not an all-or-nothing characteristic. Everyone can be creative to some extent. Creativity is not a mysterious power given to a select few. Typically, the person who believes "creativity is not my bag" has never tried to use his or her creative powers.

Characteristic of creative people

Creative people tend to be bright rather than brilliant. They have a youthful curiosity throughout their lives. They are also emotionally expressive and sensitive to the world around them and the feelings of others. Creative people tend to have a positive self-image; they feel good about themselves. It is said that creative people have the ability to tolerate isolation and are non-conformists. Creative people often have thrill-seeking tendencies and are always persistent.

Knowledge

Creative people spend a great number of years mastering their chosen field.

Education

Education does not increase creativity. Education that stresses logic tends to inhibit creativity.

Intelligence

Creative people do not necessarily have high IQs. The threshold for IQ is around 130.

Thereafter, IQ does not really matter. Creative people have been found to possess the following intellectual abilities: sensitivity to problems, flexibility in forming fluid association between objects, thinking in images rather than words, and synthesizing information.

Personality

Creative people are typically risk takers who are independent, persistent, highly motivated, sceptical, open to new ideas, able to tolerate ambiguity, self-confidences and able to tolerate isolation. They also have a strong sense of humour and are hard to get along with.

Childhood

Creative people have usually had a childhood marked by adversity. Experiences such as family strains, financial ups and downs and divorces are common occurrences.

Social habits

Contrary to stereotypes, creative people are not introverted nerds. Creative people tend to be outgoing and enjoy exchanging ideas with colleagues.

Establishing a creative climate

* Schedule regular practice session for creative thinking.

* Build a creative climate in which the desire and willingness to be productively creative will be ever present. It is important to encourage creativity in others in our organization.

* Build an "Idea Bank" - an idea reservoir - by building idea sources. Thus we will have an ever wider frame of reference to which our ideas may be related. Relatedness is important for creativity.

* Concentrate. Don't let anything distract you. Stick to one problem. Keep plugging.

* Believe in your self. Everyone can come up with good ideas when they put aside judicial thinking.

* Let the unconscious take over. When we're exhausted we should stop thinking and the unconscious will keep on working.

* Build big ideas from little ones. Add to what has already been thought out.

* Be enthusiastic and confident. This opens the mind for creative ideas.

* Be ready for ideas when they're ready to flow.

Barriers to organizational creativity

Many organizations have created numerous barriers to organizational creativity. Usually, but not always, these barriers have been established unintentionally, yet their effect is to discourage creativity among employees. Some of the more frequently encountered examples of organizational creativity barriers are.

* Fear of failure. The simple fear of failure prevents many people from ever trying anything creative.

* Premature criticism. Premature criticism and judgment of new ideas can cause people to shy away from creative ideas.

* The supervisor's shadow: Some supervisors create an environment that encourages employees to try to anticipate the way the boss is thinking. This discourages individual creativity.

* Distractions and interruptions. Creative thinking is enhanced by quiet and uninterrupted periods of thinking time.

* Protection of the status quo. Creative ideas often affect the status quo, and those who challenge the status quo often meet with criticism, lack of support and threatened self-esteem.

* Hierarchical idea filler. The more hierarchical levels an idea must pass through to be implemented, the greater the chances of it being distorted or lost.

* Appropriate ideas. Some supervisors take credit for ideas that actually come from one or more subordinates. This appropriation naturally discourages subordinates from generating new ideas.

* Self-consciousness. If you are worried about the opinion of others, you may not be creative.

* Depression. Depression is about believing that you can't change anything, that things are bad and always will be. Depression is about passivity. In many ways, it is the opposite of creativity.

* Reluctance to commit. Creativity is about commitment. We have to invest in our idea, plans and suggestions to bring them out into the open, to let them exist in some shape or form. So, paradoxically, some people's creativity is blocked because they have many ideas and they can't commit to any of them.

Final tips

*`Find the right time of the day for creative activities. Demarcate this time daily for such activities.

* Define your problem carefully.

* Don't be afraid to work alone.

* Schedule practice sessions.

* Beware of self-satisfaction; Keep looking for improvements.

* Use an organized approach by asking questions such as:

* "Will it do more?"

* "Last longer?"

* "Cost less?"

* "Is there an easier way?"

* "A less expensive way?"

* "A better way?"

* "Could it be modified? Changed?"

* "What can be added? subtracted? substituted?"

* "Can it be rearranged? combined? Reversed?"

Consider something which has been practised the same way for over five years, 10 years or more and ask:

* "Why is this necessary?"

* "What should be done?"

* "Where should it be done?"

* "When should it be done?"

* "How should it be done?"

* "Who should do it?"