In his book Serious Creativity, Edward de Bono wrote “We need creativity in order to break free from the temporary structures that have been set up by a particular sequence of experience”. For me this means that we need to stop looking at what we have done to solve problems in the past, albeit that it worked to a degree, but need to be open to trying solutions which at first may be unproven. This is such an apt way of describing what we need to do as business leaders of the future. In nature too we witness the same creative destructive power in the form of bush fires. One of the bush fire’s consequence is that new growth will spring from an event that for some may have meant the end to life as they knew it.
In our business world, the way in which we solve current and future challenges takes a lot of creative thinking, yet a lot of organizations shy away from this well of inspiration. Alex Osborn wrote about Brainstorming “business has been trying to wed creativity with commerce. Unfortunately, the very nature of business tends to stifle creativity as the very competition it fosters establishes one of its biggest blocks, the fear of making a mistake”.
Being a Fire Starter in the business sense takes courage, forethought and an amazing belief in oneself and not being scared to making mistakes. However, unless an organization’s culture is one of trial and error and risk taking, the “only risk free and positive outcomes matter” organizations will always be the stifled by their own lack of imagination and creativity. I challenge all business leaders and managers of people to start that fire and see what rewards you can bring yourself and your organization.
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