Creativity Economy – Everyone Gets to Play in New Places
In the December 18th issue of SmartBrief on Leadership, there is an excerpt titled “How to foster creativity that pays dividends.” This excerpt went on to discuss “a group of Nike employees in Toronto meets every week in the same place to brainstorm. What's creative about that? The place is a subway car and they interact with passengers. "Gray Formica meeting spaces lead to gray Formica thinking," says innovation expert Dave Lewis.”
Going to the source of the article at Knowledge@W.P. Carey provides some tips for starting a business-wide creativity habit that improves the bottom line. Mr. Lewis’ company mission is to shake people out of stale thinking. Their working definition of creativity is “the habit of continually doing things in new ways to make a positive difference to our working lives.”
Do your creative projects get restricted only to those with a marketing title, or well-known innovative people in your library? Mr. Lewis states “I think everybody has an opportunity to do things in new ways. How many here have ever cooked without a recipe? How many have ever redecorated a room?”
This is not to say we should run rampant with creativity. To make it worthwhile, creativity should get your library somewhere, it should add to your bottom line. Creativity is not the goal; rather, it should lead to a combination of insights into customer’s needs and wants with ideas, creating an impact. And no matter what, those impacts should not be ignored. Yes, there are times where bureaucracy forces an impact, a great idea into incremental change – this leads to the same old situation syndrome. The impact becomes mediocre or less, unable to maximize on its potential.
While rewards and measures can be in place to foster a workplace’s creativity, sometimes the surroundings need to change. As Mr. Lewis asks, “How can you be innovative in the place where you’re doing your financial planning?”
Things to think about…anyone up for a library brainstorming session in the grocery store?
[1] How to foster creativity that pays dividends; SmartBrief on Leadership; Dec 18, 2008 referring to Knowledge@W.P. Carey (12/3) –
Dave Lewis: Creating the Creativity Economy; published Dec 3, 2008 in Knowledge@W.P. Carey
http://knowledge.wpcarey.asu.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1714
Heidi Sue Adams, MS, AHIP
KRMC Medical Librarian
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