Ideas
Creativity is a way of working, not a rare talent.
Everyone is born creative. Practical creativity is how people and organizations see new possibilities, question what they’ve assumed and make up things that work. Innovation is what happens when the best of those possibilities are put into practice.
What IntoWisdom means by creativity and innovation
IntoWisdom distinguishes the two: creativity generates possibilities; innovation puts useful possibilities into practice.
IntoWisdom calls its approach Practical Creativity: in its own words, “an approach to making stuff up that works.” It isn’t about artistic talent. It’s the everyday ability to look at a problem from new angles, question the assumptions built into it and come up with alternatives worth trying.
Innovation is the work that follows: choosing among those alternatives, testing them and making the useful ones part of how things are done. Done well, the creative process also builds trust, creates real opportunities to listen and brings in perspectives that are usually left out.
Why this perspective matters
Seeing creativity as something everyone has, and can practice, changes who gets to contribute ideas and how organizations make room for them.
Everyone is creative, in different ways
IntoWisdom starts from the belief that we are all born creative. Sir Ken Robinson argued that many of us are educated out of it; Howard Gardner’s work on multiple intelligences suggests that people are creative in different ways. The task is less to become creative than to reclaim it.
Creativity is a way of operating
IntoWisdom draws here on the writer and comedian John Cleese, who described creativity not as a talent but as a way of operating. He contrasted a relaxed, curious “open mode”, where people play with ideas, with a focused, purposeful “closed mode”, where they get things done. Both are needed; the skill is knowing when to switch.
Creative habits can be practiced
C. McNair Wilson, author of HATCH!, describes habits of actively creative people that IntoWisdom teaches: take risks, challenge assumptions, be curious and see differently. Like any habit, they get stronger with practice and weaker without it.
Generate first, judge later
Creative thinking and critical thinking both matter, but they work badly at the same time. Judging ideas as they appear shuts the flow down. Separating the two, and alternating between them, improves both.
Innovation needs follow-through
A good idea only becomes an innovation when someone chooses it, tests it and makes room for it in real work. That is where creativity meets strategic action.
The conditions for creative thinking
Following John Cleese, IntoWisdom pays attention to the conditions that make the open mode possible.
- Space and time A protected place and a set period, free from interruptions, so people can think without rushing.
- Confidence The sense that, while exploring ideas, nothing is wrong and no one will be ridiculed for a half-formed thought.
- Playfulness Humor and curiosity, which relax people enough to make unexpected connections.
- The open mode A relaxed, expansive way of thinking in which new possibilities can appear.
Leaders can’t order people to be creative, but they can create, or quietly destroy, these conditions.
A different way to look at problems and ideas
A creative view adds questions that keep possibilities open long enough to find a better one.
- Instead of only asking, “What’s the answer?” also ask, “What else could this problem be?”
- Instead of only asking, “What’s wrong with this idea?” also ask, “Yes, and… how could we build on it?”
- Instead of only asking, “What’s the most sensible idea?” also ask, “What’s the wildest idea we can think of, and where might it lead?”
- Instead of only asking, “Do we have enough ideas?” also ask, “What if we went far beyond what we think we need?”
- Instead of only asking, “Should we do it?” also ask, “How could we test it in a small way first?”
The second question in each pair doesn’t replace judgment. It delays it until there’s something worth judging.
Practical Creativity: how IntoWisdom works with ideas
Practical Creativity follows a small set of guidelines that make creative work possible for individuals and groups. They build on the agreements for brainstorming that C. McNair Wilson describes in HATCH!
- Level the field. Account for different ways people think: make room for introverts and extroverts, and for internal and external processors.
- Separate creative and critical thinking. Make time for both, but don’t try to do both at once.
- Brain share. Let others see into your thinking: think it, speak it, write it.
- “Yes, and…” Borrowed from improv: extend someone else’s idea, or use it as a springboard for a new one.
- Maintain the flow. Manage pace and energy, and watch for anything that shuts ideas down, including blocking others’ ideas or holding back your own.
- Seek volume. Go far beyond the number of ideas you think you need. The best ideas often come from trying to generate more.
- Seek variety. Encourage wild ideas. Impractical ones move people to new ways of seeing a problem and lead to better, usable ones.
From many ideas to a practical few
Creative work moves between divergent thinking, which generates options, and convergent thinking, which narrows them: grouping related ideas, growing the promising ones, prioritizing and choosing against the outcome you want. That rhythm is how creativity turns into something an organization can act on.
What this looks like in practice
Here is how Practical Creativity shows up in IntoWisdom’s work. These are illustrations of the approach, not accounts of particular clients.
In facilitated sessions
Creativity and problem-solving sessions protect time and space for generating ideas, then help the group narrow them and plan.
In workshops
IntoWisdom’s creativity workshops help people practice creative habits and gain the confidence to facilitate creativity with their own teams.
In leadership
Leaders shape whether a team feels safe to offer ideas: whether humor is welcome, whether pondering counts as work, and how half-formed ideas are received.
In strategic planning
Practical Creativity generates the alternatives that a strategic action plan is built from, before they’re narrowed into practical steps.
Where this idea connects to IntoWisdom’s work
Practical creativity runs through these ideas and services.
Idea
Quality Thinking
Creative thinking is one of the three kinds of thinking in IntoWisdom’s Quality Thinking model.
Idea
Strategic Action
Turning the best possibilities into purposeful action and learning.
Idea
Facilitation
Creating the conditions in which groups can think together.
Idea
Leadership
How leaders create, or limit, the conditions for new ideas.
Idea
Professional Development
Building practical capability, including creative thinking, at every level.
Service
Workshops & Programs
Including IntoWisdom’s Practical Creativity workshop.
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