Passive creativity
Important 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.)
I believe for all of us creativity can be both an active thing and a passive thing. Ironically, I think highly realized creative people don’t need to be as active in looking for new ideas because they are wide open to fresh ideas that just present themselves.
Now before you think I’m getting all spooky like, I’m not talking about anything magical or mystical. I’m talking about simply being open to ideas that may present themselves in one manner or another. Yeah, some of it seems kind of mysterious sometimes when you seemingly get an idea out of nowhere. But, hey, just because it seems to come out of nowhere, if it helps you solve a problem, don’t ignore it just because you didn’t have to “work for it” in an active way. More importantly, don’t ignore it just because it wasn’t what you expected. That’s where the openness come in.
Expectations. That is often the difference between active and passive idea creation. When you actively pursue a new idea in any area of endeavor, when it comes, well, you kind of expect it, right? I mean, you were looking for it.
But when you’re not necessarily looking for it, and a new idea presents itself, less actively, more passively, one can almost say “out of the blue,” are you open minded enough to recognize it? That’s the big question.
Since the beginning of time great thinkers have had great ideas when they least expected them. But that didn’t mean they discounted them. And maybe it’s less a matter of ideas when they least expected them, but more, ideas that they didn’t expect, period - ideas that didn’t fit into their preconceived notion of that a new idea might be.
I believe we all get these ideas from “left field.” I think the difference between the open-minded person and the, well, close-minded person, is having the imagination to entertain that new idea even when it wasn’t what she or he was looking for.
Now to the management aspect of this discussion.
Again, people who manage tend to be more experienced, which means they’ve seen more, and often can fall back on what was done in the past to address an issue today. Also, when underlings present fresh ideas to these seasoned veterans, often the new ideas aren’t what experience might expect, hence the greater need for open-mindedness.
Another way to think about it is to look at how people in business spend their time. The more you supervise, the less you actually “do” and the more you “manage,” manage people who “do,” that is.
So maybe it shouldn’t seem ironic that some of the best managers in most industries do less active thinking of new ideas themselves and rely more on the fresh ideas of those who work for them, exercising creativeness and imagination in a more passive way.
Red Auerbach, considered the greatest pro basketball coach of all time, in critical time outs would often ask his players, “okay, anybody got any ideas?” Great manager? He won more championships than any other coach. Hmm.
