Critically creative

Is critical thinking important in solving problems? I'm sure you'd agree with me that it is. But did you know that creative thinking could probably be just as, if not more important for this purpose? 

When you have a problem, what do you do? Chances are that you try to think of a solution. But thinking about a solution without first defining the true problem is not effective. Certainly you'll come up with many ideas all worthy as solutions, but will implementing the ideas solve the problem? Let me give you an example.

Carol is working on a marketing brochure for her business in the hopes of generating more business. She thinks that a brochure will help, but she's stumped for ideas for the brochure, so takes a break to generate wording. 

Now here's what's wrong with this scenario. Carol will probably come up with lots of great ideas for wording for the brochure, but what problem is she really trying to solve? Is it finding the correct words for a creative brochure? No. The problem is how to generate more business. 

So it is with organizations. Working on solving the wrong problems decreases overall efficiency and costs the organization more time and money in the long run. If "symptoms" are showing up in your organization (e.g., lack of business), don't mistake them for problems (e.g., inadequate marketing brochures). Before jumping to solutions, stop and find out what's causing the symptoms in order to understand the underlying problem(s). 

One way to determine problems is by using mind maps. Mind maps help you to outline the problem(s) and then pose questions/challenges to come up with ideas for possible solutions. Brainstorming can also be a useful exercise as are flowcharts, force field analysis, interrelationship digraphs and tree diagrams. Or maybe you have use some other creative ways of dissecting the symptoms from the problems. However you go about it, defining the real problem first is essential to getting to the correct solution.

Restraining the free spirit

Creative individuals are usually at odds with the organization's need to focus. They tend to gravitate toward "possibilities" instead of remaining with the task at hand. The creative free spirits are routine-aversive, so these individuals can drag the organization into many directions at once resulting in loss of time and money for the organization. 

The best way to keep creative individuals happy and to harness their creative genius is to place them in a properly focused position that allows them to build extensive expertise. Got a problem that you or your organization have been grappling with and even though it needs to be handled, it's not yet on your priority list? Give the problem to the creative genius in your workplace and let them work on it. Not only will the creative individual be happy and benefit from the task, but the organization will be happy and benefit, too.

Creative individuals, if their creativity is harnessed properly, can help the organization improve its systems, processes and practices; thereby improving efficiency and profits. Any organization would benefit from those that "dream in possibilities."