8/9/2019 Five Secrets to Creative Adaptability - A Resiliency Skill

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Five Secrets to Creative Adaptability - A Resiliency Skill

In the face of continuing economic challenges, a roller coaster marketplace, Congressionalstalemates, and unrelenting change, leaders in every part of an organization must develop acapacity for resiliency. A cornerstone of resiliency is adaptability. Mind you, this is not theordinary find-another-answer but rather find MANY answers.

Remember: the organizations with the greatest number of responses to any given situation is theone that survives.

The good news: a leader does not and cannot have all the answers. Engaging every part of theorganization breathes unknown potential into life.

Here is how:

Bring unlike minds together

The secret is to mix up people. Example: A secretary produced a brilliant idea as to how to

remove snow from phone wires. A security guard sat around a product development table forTimberland and gave input that turned into a best-selling work boot. 3M rotates its engineersfrom division to division as a spur for innovation. Wisdom comes from not -knowing instead ofrepeating the obvious.

Put people face-to-face. Direct dialogue produces more results of higher quality than digitalchatter.

Visit Pixar Animation Studios and you will discover why, since 1995, every Pixar film hasaveraged an international gross of more than $550 million per film plus netted award after award.Its their process. The free-flow of ideas is made possible by the very design of the physical plant.Everything from restrooms to coffee shops, to watering holes radiate within an atrium forcing

people to run into each other and to talk! This is why physical meetings, when handled wisely,produce better, faster results than web conferences.

Forget the rules of brainstorming.

Brainstorming just doesnt work. And I have been guilty, many years past, of teaching its verypractice. Keith Sawyer, a psychologist at Washington University summarizes it by stating, Decades of research have consistently shown that brainstorming groups think of far fewer ideas

than the same number of people who work alone and later pool their ideas. So much forfreewheeling to jumpstart a group.

The other tenant of brainstorming is the absence of criticism. Unfortunately, that also can netpoor results. Using Pixar as an example, it is the very use of candid conversation about mistakesand downsides allows for a richness of results. The emphasis is thus not on my idea but ratheron what serves all of us as a team.

Make play time as important as work time.

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Creativity is the residue of time wasted. Einstein. Or as Anacharsis put it, Play so you may beserious. Laughter build bridges and breaks barriers. When one creativity session came up with

the very funny notion that a product could be made that sent feelies and smellies by wire, theresult was a detector that could sense smoke as well as toxic gas. What play does is to take themind away from a problem and give it a breather. Often in that break, play becomes a brilliant

metaphor that can serve up a potential solution. Walking in nature, running along he beach,playing ballanything that is considered non-work allows the brain to return refreshed andready.

Take risks and make messes.

I actually owe this to my nephew who, when he was six and newly adopted from Russia, wantedto explore the low-tide dregs found around pilings on the Cape. My brother, a responsible parent,told him that it could be dangerous.

Sasha, John logically began, "there could be glass in the mud, who knows what kind of trash

and maybe even dead things."

Poppa, squealed Sasha as he twirled, jumped up and down, and waved his hands in hugecircles. "To discover, you must take risks and make messes."

Brilliant advice from an unlike mind. Ask the 3M researcher who discovered glue that refused tostick. Ask the Wright Brothers who drove many a battered plane model into the ground. Justknow how much risk is acceptable and then forge ahead.

Take courage form the words of Alvin Toffler: Change is not merely necessary to life - it is life.Now go be creative. LChaim.

2015, McDargh Communications. Publication rights granted to all venues so long as articleand by-line are reprinted intact and all links are made live.

Eileen McDargh is a Hall of Fame professional speaker, business consultant and topthought-leader in leadership. Visithttp://www.eileenmcdargh.comto read her blog andhire her to speak. Her newest book "Your Resiliency GPS: A Guide for Growing throughLife and Work" is a guidebook for dealing with change. Learn more athttp://www.yourresiliencygps.com.

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