Company leaders often come into our offices and they say, “Man, I don’t know how you guys come up with this stuff. I don’t have a creative bone in my body.” To that, we just respond, “Well, you should drink more. It’s amazing what you can come up with when you have a decent buzz.”

I’m kidding, of course.

The fact is, everyone is capable of creative thinking. Einstein wrote that “creativity involves the ability to synthesize or sift through data, perceptions and materials to come up with combinations that are new and useful.” It requires bravery to go where not many dare to go because essentially, you’re the one that’s, well, different. It takes guts. And while there are some people who have an open channel, if you will, to that kind of thinking, everyone universally is capable of being creative. They simply haven’t been in an atmosphere where it was welcomed let alone rewarded.

There's a fine line between genius and insanity. Einstein had an equation for it I'm sure.

The creative class is now in session

I just read two books “The Rise of the Creative Class” (which is where the Einstein quote above came from) and “The Flight of the Creative Class” by Richard Florida. These books talk about the rise and flight of a new class of worker—those who make a living off their thinking and ideas. This includes artists, musicians and designers as well as software developers, inventors and entrepreneurs. He also analyzes and proves why some cities attract and perpetuate creativity while other cities ignorantly suppress it. Cities like Austin, San Francisco, Seattle and Boston seem to crank out innovative ideas whether they’re in technology, art, music, science or design. And these aren’t just one-and-done ideas either, these cities are consistently known as a breeding ground for innovative thinking.

The Three T’s

So Florida asked why it was that some cities seem to out-innovate others. He found that the most creative cities rank high in a Creativity Index that high measurements of the three “Ts”: Technology, Talent and Tolerance.

I’ve found that this is also true of organizations and companies.

Technology enables

Technology is a no-brainer. Almost universally, economists agree that technology drives growth. It enables people to create faster and more easily. In your organization, is your Technology enabling or frustrating your workforce? Do they have the right equipment and tools to efficiently do the job that you hired them to do? Good people want to be productive, but will soon grow frustrated if they don’t have the equipment they need to carry out their ideas.

Talent from other worlds

Here's to the crazy people and those who support them.

Why do you think they want to “Keep Austin Weird?” Because the weirdness attracts creative types who find inspiration in the artists, musicians, software developers, entrepreneurs, and cross-dressing homeless people who live there and perpetuate creative thinking. They borrow inspiration from places other than business.

But if you attract creative talent, you have to feed it. Do you have places (besides individual offices and conference rooms) where your staff can gather socially? That’s how ideas are shared passively because sometimes you can’t control when and where brilliant ideas happen. Having places where your talent can gather increases the chances of innovative ideas being created while they’re discussing something else. If you have gathering places, are they conducive to creative thinking?

Do you have pointless inspirational posters on your wall or do you display art? Art inspires creative thinking because it inspires a different thought pattern. It creates an atmosphere like windows to new ideas both consciously and subconsciously. It doesn’t even have to be great art. Of course that’s up to the individual.

Tolerance opens doors

Tolerance is not filling some meaningless racial or gender quota. It’s finding more value in the talent you hire above and beyond their skill set. When we look at people to hire, we look first for the baseline of skills and talent (do they have the proven skill set to do the job?), then we look for passion in their work (do they love what they do?), and then we look for the “X” factor. That “X” factor is what’s different about them. Are they worldly? Do they bring a unique experience, cultural or lifestyle perspective to their work that no one else can? Would they push their peers to think differently? When you’re paid for unique ideas and solutions, thinking differently is a huge asset.

People hire those who are most like themselves. That’s comfortable. It’s also dangerous. I had a boss tell me, “If you have two people in a room that always agree, you don’t need one of them.” Are you seeking out new thinkers who will alter the course of your solutions for the better?

Eat your young because they’ll grow up and leave anyway.

Innovation tastes good. You should try it.

Too often organizations get into a rut. We want dependable results so we start to look for formulas. Why? Because it’s easy. Creative thinking isn’t easy. It’s a lot of work and you have to take a lot of crap from the other zombies who keep doing the same thing over and over again. How many times have you been told after you’ve suggested something in your organization, “Oh, we don’t do things that way?”

Quick, get me a Bowie knife. I’m about to skin me a laggard.

But, if you expect to survive in today’s economy, you have to plan for your own obsolescence instead of allowing your competitors to make you obsolete. If I had my choice, I’d rather replace my own mainstay product with something better rather than let another company do it. Just ask Motorola what they think of the iPhone.

Preventing the talent exodus

Creative people are not solely motivated by money. In fact, research studies have shown that true innovators are motivated by the reward of the work and the experience of working itself. They want to be stimulated by the challenge of solving a problem, creating something new and being around other creative thinkers who stimulate them intellectually. The work is an end in of itself, not the means to a financial goal.

Why is it that a very highly paid attorney leaves a firm where she’s making a huge salary to start a recruiting and consulting business? Because as she’s making gobs of money, she goes home at night and thinks to herself, “Is this the legacy I want to leave? Am I even leaving a legacy? What have I actually done?” I’m not knocking attorneys, mind you, but this particular one simply had no passion for the work she was doing. It was time for her to move on.

Creative profit

So, as a company leader, you have to ask yourself: Is your company like Louisville, KY that ranks at the bottom of the Creativity Index for attracting good talent, low in technology and very intolerant of new ideas? Or are you an Austin, TX that has a reputation for attracting creative talent, high technology innovation and an openness to outside cultures and experiences?

Which kind of company do you think gets more productivity and profit from its most valuable asset—it’s people?  But, more importantly, what happens if you don’t take the time to create an atmosphere of creativity?

There is a deeper spiritual reward for creating something innovative that overshadows financial rewards. However, as people are doing what they love, financial success seems to follow them—not just for them personally, but for the organizations they work for. Remember the adage: “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” Creative people love what they do. All they need is the right place to do it.