The Paradoxes of Blue Sky Thinking
How will you tackle planning for creative problem-solving in your team?
Constraints and paradoxes form an important part of creative problem-solving and innovation. Sounds improbable? Let me explain.
One paradox that leaders face is, on one hand, unleashing creativity by supporting diverse thinking in individuals; on the other, managing team decision-making. The challenge is finding the balance between individual and team by ensuring everyone feels safe to contribute their ideas and are also open to each other’s ideas and willing to passionately debate and disagree.
Setting goals is an accepted part of leadership, but it can be tricky when it comes to innovation. Unlike solving regular problems where you can set clear milestones, creative problem-solving is often unpredictable. The nature of the creative problem-solving process means that it’s not always possible to set milestone goals for brainstorming. During the early stages of creative problem-solving, there may be only an overarching goal, for example, ‘keep our customers loyal for 10 years’. You can’t predict that you’ll produce a winning idea or that you’ll have a working prototype by a given date. This can cause challenges when reporting to higher leadership on perceived progress.
This leads to another constraint: being comfortable with creative problem-solving requires patience. Managing the expectations of stakeholders during the process of innovation is key. However, leaders also need to understand how to bring balance. You need to know when to chivvy people along so they don’t get stuck in the quagmire of repeatedly going back to the drawing board. Sometimes you just need to kick an idea out of the nest to see if it will fly.
Have you thought about how you will tackle planning for creative problem-solving in your team? What about the constraints you’ll set for your team?
Even though setting constraints might seem like it limits creativity, it's actually within these boundaries that innovation flourishes. Working within boundaries while also embracing the paradoxes, you’ll find that you can create an environment where systematic blue-sky thinking can thrive.
If you are curious to learn more about the role creative problem-solving plays in leadership, you may be interested in joining me on my next live webinar. Full details and registration here.
I believe that, with the right support anyone can learn creative ways to solve problems. If you’d like to see what tapping into creative potential could look like at your place of work, contact me at Ellia@ThePotentialCenter.com to arrange a call.