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- P e r s o n a l _ C r e a t i v i t y -
John Snyder
Your project team is stuck on a crucial decision, and the schedule is slipping. Most of the team members agree that Option A is the way to go, but a strong minority are committed to Option B. The conflict has paralyzed the team. Tempers are flaring, positions are becoming more entrenched, and all you can think about is the voicemail you just got from the CEO. He wants to know how long before Option C is in place. One of my guidelines for sustainable innovation is *"Exploit the possibilities in your problems."* [cf. *MindPlay*, March '95] This often means changing the way we deal with conflict.
Conflict is neither good nor bad -- it simply is. It's the inevitable result of living in a complex universe with other autonomous beings, all of us having brains and bodies limited to a partial, selective, interpreted experience of reality. (I think of this as the "biological argument for humility.")
As part of the animal kingdom, we come equipped with the "fight or flight" responses to conflict. But as human beings we have another option: insight. That is, we can often find a creative new perspective that transcends our old understanding of the problem and simply dissolves the conflict.
Let's look at each of these responses.
Fighting reduces the complexities of the situation to a simple question of power. In so doing, it moves attention and energy away from the substantive "primary" problem and toward the "secondary" problems of self-defense, maintaining self-image, and saving face. These secondary problems can often eat up as much creative energy as the combatants have to give. And that's energy that's not going toward solving the real problem.
Flight also leaves the problem intact. There are many ways of running away from the creative potential in a problem, and most of us are well versed in them all. We can try to deny the problem or gloss over it. We can let the boss -- or the customer -- decide. We can study the problem to death (our death). We can copy the other company's solution. We can go with the majority opinion. Running away may get us temporarily off the hook, but it never births a breakthrough.
Insight -- the third, uniquely human, option was beautifully described by the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung: "All the greatest and most important conflicts are fundamentally insolvable . . . They can never be solved, but only outgrown."
This outgrowing proves on further investigation to require a new level of consciousness. Some higher or wider interest appears on the horizon, and through this broadening of outlook, the insolvable problem loses its urgency. It is not solved ogically in its own terms, but fades when confronted with a new and strong vision.
To me, that "new and strong vision" implies a radical clarification of purpose, an openness to new ways of seeing, and the ability to bring to the search for new understanding the courage, stamina, energy, and skill often dissipated in fighting or fleeing.
Consistently choosing the "insight response" requires a commitment to valuing people and treating them (and ourselves) with dignity and respect. This link between ethics and sustainable innovation is a powerful reminder that true creativity is far more than the generation and evaluation of novel ideas. True creativity is a response of the whole person to the situations of life. It's a road always waiting to be taken.
"Hey, project team, what are our deepest purposes here? What's our highest vision for these purposes? Anybody want to help me create Option D?"
Acknowledgements: Thanks to Anu Garg for the rhyme "flight/insight" and to Jane Jacobs for insightful improvements.
John R. Snyder is president of Innovation On Demand, Round Rock, TX. IOD helps managers find the breakthrough insights hidden in their problems. Contact John at (512) 218-4870 (phone & fax) or at: jsnyder@bga.com