Passive creativity
Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007Important for all of us. Critical for managers.
When we speak of creativity we usually refer to it as an active thing. “Coming up with new ideas.” “Having fresh ideas.” “Conjuring up something different.” All descriptions of how we actively use the imagination to entertain something that has never been considered before.
Well, how about using your imagination in a less concerted manner? How about just being open to new ideas that might present themselves? Doesn’t that take just as much open-mindedness? Maybe more.
And for people in management, which usually means senior people, with more experience to leverage, and often more attachment to how things “should” be, this openness to ideas you didn’t expect is usually the difference between being a great leader and a, well, less-than-great leader. ( I’ll speak to more on this later.) (more…)
