Creatividad real o la innovación mal entendida

A veces, te encuentras en la empresa con procesos creativos que no aportan valor. Innovar por innovar, en un ejercicio de auto-indulgencia. Algo parecido a un cirujano que dice: “Qué bien ha salido la operación. Lástima que el paciente haya fallecido”. En las etapas iniciales de brainstorming, cualquier idea se admite. Pero, por supuesto, es más recomendable tener ideas con menor grado de innovación pero que aporten valor que al contrario. Es lo que De Bono denomina “crazitivity”:

Crazitivity is a new word that needed inventing. Crazitivity is that sort of creativity that is solely driven by desire to be different. Creativity is always new and different so the belief is that something new and different is necessarily creative. So anything different, bizarre and off-the- wall claims to be creative.

I have no objection whatever to this belief and this style of creativity. My only concern is that people should equate crazitivity with creativity. This would be a pity and would be a great disservice to serious creativity. Creativity can be low key, simple, unostentatious and very logical—in hindsight. Creativity does not have to announce: “Look at me. Aren’t I creative!!”

In the advertising world something that is crazy may catch attention and may therefore have a direct value. This is seldom the case elsewhere. Since much of the impetus for deliberate creative effort came from the advertising industry (brainstorming) there is this residue of belief that bizarre is creative.

Bizarre does not attract attention in general. So those who want to make a statement or parade their disdain for normal conventions may seek the crazitivity of bizarreness. Sadly, there is a huge convention of unconventionality—just as all hippies had to wear hippie uniforms. There is nothing wrong with the motivation to seek to be different. It is a pity if it just stops at being different for the sake of being different. In lateral thinking there is an important role for provocation. “Po cars have square wheels” is a typical provocation. The point of provocation, however, is that you use movement to move forward from the provocation. You do not just sit on the provocation and say: “Isn’t that creative?” So you move forward from the square wheel provocation to design intelligent suspension. Provocation is a valuable step but not a useful result.

The main reason why crazitivity is so often equated with creativity is that crazitivity is so very easy. So those people who want to be noticed and want to flaunt creativity find this the easiest route to take. That is a choice and an option. In my view it is not a very constructive one. I regard highly those creative contributions which deliver more value than just being different. So the key question is: “What value does this creativity deliver?” It may be eye-catching but then a shout is ear-catching. Do you really want to live in a world full of shouting?

Hay dos etapas para aplicar la creatividad real: la primera es hacer mejor lo que ya haces. La siguiente es hacer cosas mejores. El desafío es el hábito de reconsiderar las cosas para obtener un valor agregado. Eso me lleva a plantearme si algunas empresas innovan/innovamos por innovar o más bien por necesidad. Como ya hemos comentado, veo claro que el capital creativo de las organizaciones y de las personas debe tratarse de manera tan seria como el capital financiero, humano, material o inmobiliario. Pero sin caer en las redes del absurdo.

Créditos de la fotografía: Tristan Schmurr en Flickr (bajo licencia Creative Commons)