Be Creative And Analytical

Last week, i read an article in "Hindu" newspaper & liked it very much. It is very interesting & informative. I liked the way it is presented.

It is a well-known fact that innovation is an essential ingredient of any success formula, irrespective of economic conditions. In good times as well as bad ones, companies that innovate succeed. But for companies to ensure a constant stream of innovation whatever may be the state of the economy, they need people with excellent visionary skills who can help build a culture of inquisitiveness and greater risk taking. They also need people with very good analytical skills in order to channel innovation investments in the right direction.

Only very few people are both creative and analytical. The best option therefore is to pair creative and analytical people together to get the desired results.

While creative people generate ideas, analytical brains pick up the most viable ideas and leave out the unprofitable ones and thus help the organisation create a success niche for itself.

Most organisations, while trying to embed a creative culture, commit the mistake of trying to teach their analytical experts to be creative.

Often it fails to work out because creativity is a distinct personality trait. While some have it in abundance others don’t have it at all. Far from learning to be creative, typical analysts often exhibit a tendency to kill good ideas. Instead of aiming to turn people into creative people overnight, corporate training programmes should be designed in a way that these people first learn to appreciate the need to build and uphold a culture of creativity and continuous reinvention.

In a similar vein, very few creative people are adept at analytical quests. They are likely to be obsessed with their ideas and never know how to distinguish between feasible and non-feasible ones.

Thus neither the creative experts nor the analytical masterminds can weave magic alone. Only the teams with the right cognitive mix can harness the kind of creativity that fosters business growth.

It is therefore important for organisations to use a combination of talents at every level to achieve the best results. But to get people with different cognitive skills to work in tandem is an uphill task in itself.

It is not as simple as throwing two types of people together. Providing a common purpose is vital to motivate them to work together and cooperate with each other. Also, before setting them off on a mission, adequate training should be given to help them overcome mutual differences and work within a common framework.

The training should essentially focus on the following aspects:

SWOT: The team members should be made to learn to realistically identify what they are good at and where they require help. They should be taught to draw on each other’s capabilities to achieve synergy.

Develop trust: The importance of mutual trust while working on a team should be clearly explained to all the team members. To succeed at their mission they must learn to trust each other and also be willing to put the overall interests of the organisation ahead of their own individual interests.

Share expertise: The team will be able to take good decisions only when each member brings forth insightful observations and good judgement to the table. They must learn to willingly share their experience and expertise with others. They must realise that using tactics such as one-upmanship often defeats the common purpose.

Stay motivated: They must be made to understand the importance of remaining committed to the success of their mission as well as each other.

Disagreements are bound to arise in any team setting. It is critical to build competencies that help team members communicate openly with each other and sort out differences amicably.

Discovering winning combinations of people with different cognitive abilities is central to organisational growth and success. Capitalising on individuals’ distinctive strengths is utmost important to continuously innovate and make a difference in a highly competitive business world. It is a well-known fact that innovation is an essential ingredient of any success formula, irrespective of economic conditions. In good times as well as bad ones, companies that innovate succeed. But for companies to ensure a constant stream of innovation whatever may be the state of the economy, they need people with excellent visionary skills who can help build a culture of inquisitiveness and greater risk taking. They also need people with very good analytical skills in order to channel innovation investments in the right direction.

Only very few people are both creative and analytical. The best option therefore is to pair creative and analytical people together to get the desired results.

While creative people generate ideas, analytical brains pick up the most viable ideas and leave out the unprofitable ones and thus help the organisation create a success niche for itself.

Most organisations, while trying to embed a creative culture, commit the mistake of trying to teach their analytical experts to be creative.

Often it fails to work out because creativity is a distinct personality trait. While some have it in abundance others don’t have it at all. Far from learning to be creative, typical analysts often exhibit a tendency to kill good ideas. Instead of aiming to turn people into creative people overnight, corporate training programmes should be designed in a way that these people first learn to appreciate the need to build and uphold a culture of creativity and continuous reinvention.

In a similar vein, very few creative people are adept at analytical quests. They are likely to be obsessed with their ideas and never know how to distinguish between feasible and non-feasible ones.

Thus neither the creative experts nor the analytical masterminds can weave magic alone. Only the teams with the right cognitive mix can harness the kind of creativity that fosters business growth.

It is therefore important for organisations to use a combination of talents at every level to achieve the best results. But to get people with different cognitive skills to work in tandem is an uphill task in itself.

It is not as simple as throwing two types of people together. Providing a common purpose is vital to motivate them to work together and cooperate with each other. Also, before setting them off on a mission, adequate training should be given to help them overcome mutual differences and work within a common framework.

The training should essentially focus on the following aspects:

SWOT: The team members should be made to learn to realistically identify what they are good at and where they require help. They should be taught to draw on each other’s capabilities to achieve synergy.

Develop trust: The importance of mutual trust while working on a team should be clearly explained to all the team members. To succeed at their mission they must learn to trust each other and also be willing to put the overall interests of the organisation ahead of their own individual interests.

Share expertise: The team will be able to take good decisions only when each member brings forth insightful observations and good judgment to the table. They must learn to willingly share their experience and expertise with others. They must realise that using tactics such as one-upmanship often defeats the common purpose.

Stay motivated: They must be made to understand the importance of remaining committed to the success of their mission as well as each other.

Disagreements are bound to arise in any team setting. It is critical to build competencies that help team members communicate openly with each other and sort out differences amicably.

Discovering winning combination of people with different cognitive abilities is central to organisational growth and success. Capitalising on individuals’ distinctive strengths is utmost important to continuously innovate and make a difference in a highly competitive business world.