Improving Business

November, 2011

Today, the global recession and the hemorrhaging of jobs to countries that can perform them cheaper and faster has created a new mantra for America, “Innovate or die!”  Bestselling nonfiction books in the 1940s included I Choose Freedom, The Curtain Rises, and A Guide to Confident Living; books about patriotism and national pride.  Today we read Blink, A Whole New Mind, The Ten Faces of Innovation, and How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci.  All share the message, “In this global economy there will always be another country that can do it cheaper and faster; we have to do it cooler.”   We have to continually invent the next new thing.  We have to be different, even if only for different’s sake.  Innovation used to be fun.  Now it is survival.

Here is how most companies try to develop the next new idea; the one that is cooler than all the rest.  They gather a bunch of people around a table with coffee and bagels, some bring toys, but most have nothing save for blank legal pads or Post-It posters.  Everyone in the room has a thousand other tasks waiting for them when the session is over, everyone’s head is somewhere outside of the room.  The boss stands up and says, “Okay everyone, if we don’t come up with something really out-of-the-box soon, we are going to be in trouble.  I called this brainstorm session so we can knock around a few ideas and see where it takes us.  I’ll stand here at the white board and you guys start shouting out ideas.  Who’s got one?”

Right about then is when you hear an audible click in the room.  That is the sound of everyone’s brain triggering the stress alarm. Stress causes us to protect ourselves, to survive.  As soon as “Who’s got a good idea?” came out of the boss’s mouth, everyone’s brain went into survival mode.  The evolution of the brain actually makes it difficult for people to create new ideas. The brain cannot process data efficiently; it can most easily discern patterns.  This means it is much easier for the brain to remember than it is to imagine.  Since memory is a function of brain patterns, it naturally follows that, under stress, the brain will remember only what has worked in the past.  That is why most brainstorm sessions are filled with, “This worked great before, why don’t we try it again?”  Not the most innovative approach.  If someone thinks of a truly out-of-the-box idea, he or she dismisses it as “too weird” before even introducing it to the group.

The brainstorming session continues until everyone is drained of energy.  Noticing the drop in output, and the zombie-like expressions on everyone’s faces, the boss says, “Come on everyone, let’s focus!  We only have a few minutes left, let’s get five more ideas on the page.” People call out five ideas as fast as they can so they can get the heck out of the room.  Mission accomplished.  Another brainstorm session has resulted in a stressed out staff, lackluster ideas, and a white board full of ideas that will be recorded by an assistant and filed in a drawer to be opened when archeologists in the 23^rd century conduct a dig to find ancient ruins from the year 2011.  They find the contents of the drawer under Ancient 2011 Torture Devices.

Research has determined that the classic brainstorm method, introduced by New York advertising executive Alex Osborne around 1940, is tragically flawed.  Not in its concept, but in its execution.  On paper the method seems sound; have people of various abilities work together to create ideas.  The rules are simple: 1) Quantity of ideas is the goal, not quality.  In fact, quantity will result in quality.  2) No criticism is allowed.  3) Free association and unusual ideas are welcomed.  4) Improving on an idea will come about through combining disparate ideas.  These concepts are great; the attempt is to foster divergent thinking resulting in ground-breaking innovation.  Sadly for most brainstorming sessions, theory and reality don’t run toward each other in a field of flowers and land in an ardent embrace.  Instead, reality tells theory she is “okay on paper, but this is the real world.”

After talking to a whole bunch of corporate executives (“a whole bunch” is any number between two and eighty seven) I discovered that creating new and innovative ideas ranked as one of their top concerns to grow their companies.  When I asked them how they went about creating an innovative environment, the most common answer was to plan occasional meetings to brainstorm. Some even went so far as to install suggestion boxes in the break room.  Suggestion boxes, wow.  Creating an environment that fostered ongoing innovative thinking not only didn’t occur to most of them, but some responded with, “I can’t have my people free-wheeling around all the time.  We have an office to run!”  It’s like the boss who said, “I want my people to have fun, as long as they get their work done.”  He doesn’t realize that having fun at work results in getting more work done.

So I have decided to devote the next few columns entirely to the subject of innovation and creativity; not an easy task since even our understanding of how the brain creates ideas is ever-changing.  But, in the words of Scott Allen, “Done is better than perfect.”  Let’s finish up this introduction to the subject of creativity with a basic understanding of how the brain approaches new ideas; which is to say, horribly! The brain is largely not an instrument of innovation.  Since we have evolved much faster socially than we have intellectually, in many ways the brain is still at the hunter-gatherer stage of development.  Most of our mental functions are automatic, and designed for pure survival.  The brain is much more interested in keeping us alive than in finding better ways of doing things.  That is why we move more quickly away from pain that we do toward pleasure.  Finding a bush full of berries is nice, but not as important as avoiding the bear who wants the berries too.

Although some creative ideas lead to an “Ah ha” response, accompanied by the release of chemicals in the brain that make us feel good and inspire connections between the various brain centers, the good is almost always accompanied by a negative twinge of “How are we going to make this work?” or “Now this project is going to be added to my already-full plate.” So new ideas aren’t always a welcome thing in the brain.

As a survival-focused creature, we are adverse to crazy new things.  They almost always lead to problems.  That is why you so often hear, “Why can’t we just do it the old way?!”  People who use that phrase, although unproductive in a changing environment, are behaving normally.  That is why most brain people (neurologists, psychologists, mothers) will tell you that the brain almost never comes up with an out-of-the-box idea all on its own.  Bruno Abakanowicz didn’t wake up one day and say, “Today I will invent the Spirograph.” He combined concepts from mathematics and engineering, plus he had quite a bit of free time in the evenings ( there were no Red Box movies in the late 1800s).

Every new idea is, at its core, an incremental change from a previously existing idea. So if you are looking for someone to jump up during a brainstorm session and scream, “I’ve got it!” you’re wasting your time.  What happens instead is a process of combining and changing existing ideas until j’ai trouve, there it is!

A continually creative environment isn’t what it seems.  It is not wacky toys on everyone’s desk (unless wacky toys work for some people). It is not just a mosh pit of words and ideas being tossed around.  It is definitely not chaotic.  In fact, the more structure you add to the creative process, the more results you will gain.  Paul Sills, the founder of The Second City Theatre (an organization known for a bit of creativity here and there) once said, “Creativity is born of structure.”  The more you can systematize the creative process, the more relaxed everyone will be.  For humans, structure is calming.  In fact, the brain has evolved to prize security more highly than freedom.  Just like a restaurant menu with too many choices is frustrating, too much freedom stresses us.    A relaxed brain creates better than a tense one (as long as it is not toorelaxed, but we will delve into that more later).

For now, start looking around your workplace.  If you think, “I don’t need to think outside the box, I am just told which tasks to perform and I do them” you are wrong. The simplest tasks can be made easier, done faster, or eliminated outright if viewed with a creative eye. If you are thinking, “I don’t have time to sit around and invent new stuff, I have enough on my plate as it is” you are a drain on the company.  Sales professionals know that they have to keep the pipeline full of new prospects to safeguard against slow times; innovation is the same, a constant pipeline of ideas is needed or the company will be caught empty-minded.

More later, for now I have to go.  I just thought of a really cool way to…oh crap, it’s already been invented!

Stevie Ray is a nationally recognized corporate speaker and trainer, helping companies improve communication skills, customer service, leadership, and team management. He can be reached at www.stevierays.org or stevie@stevierays.org.

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