Creativity and innovation are critical skills for any leader and a “must have” for success. As people mature and become comfortable in their respective job assignments, the inherent creativity found in everyone seems to dissipate or become sealed in a deep chamber of the mind where it is forgotten. During class discussions I often bring creativity and innovation into the dialog.

I ask the class participants about their creative abilities. The question, “who believes they are very creative?” doesn’t generate much of a response. Creativity and innovation seem to have been replaced by logic, time constraints, forced deadlines, and tired brains or maybe a very suppressive work environment. There is no time to think about options and new approaches or creative ways to solve a problem. There is only the pressing need to produce something quickly and as inexpensively as possible, which reduces the team into the mode of – just get it done. There is no time to think about and discuss the solution that has been decided upon to determine if it is actually the best solution. This “jump to solution” approach can be very risky in terms of cost, organizational capabilities, customer satisfaction, and the behavior of the project team involved.

Creativity becomes a victim of time pressures and stress. The greater the pressure, the more our creativity is suppressed. Today’s emerging leaders and those who have found their calling as leaders are continually looking for the next right answer, the next best product, the way to save a dollar, the best way to keep their employees or team members motivated. While researching information for a presentation, I discovered an interesting quote on a website that focused on the “wow” project” (visit Tom Peter’s website to learn about the wow project). The quote was “There is no such thing as a boring project, there is only boring execution.” If you think about it, any project you may be assigned to should be important to your organization or you wouldn’t be working on it. (This is a generalization but it is a reasonable assumption). The leaders and decision makers for most organizations select projects because they have some value and are necessary. Some projects may be relatively small in terms of complexity and duration and many are considered routine. These smaller projects seem to be where creativity and innovation suffer the most. A lack of enthusiasm on the part of the project manager or team leader result in lackluster performance and probably quite a bit of complacency. It seems that “small” projects are viewed as not very important and not worthy of a little extra creative effort. Looking at larger projects where there is more at stake in terms of cost, risk, and integration of components, there is generally more interest, excitement and a feeling of commitment.

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