People around the world have become increasingly perceptive and have been offered much more choice in recent decades.1 Concurrently, we are experiencing unprecedented change, huge uncertainty, unparalleled connectivity, and the birth of the global village, all courtesy of the internet. This fast-moving uncertain environment demands fast-moving creative organizations. The challenge then is towards effective people management – enhancing, releasing, and harnessing their creativity.2
Is creativity important in your organization? Your church? If your answer is yes, and I trust it is, imagine the effects leaders and the design of the organization can have on creativity. And, there are barriers to creativity we have established that need removing to increase the level of creativity and innovation, thus improving our organizational success, its ability to accomplish its mission and vision.
The beginning of a new decade is a great time to look forward with optimism, reflect on the past, and determine what shift is needed in our organizations.3 There are three key issues we will discuss as we address this topic. These key issues are creativity, leadership, and innovation.
Creativity
Creativity is, “the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; originality, progressiveness, or imagination.”4 Simply, creativity is about ideas. It can be thinking about familiar issues in a different way or coming up with absolutely new ideas.5 It is also an act of courage because it may require making connections that are, by definition, out of the ordinary and expose the organization to potential ridicule and to above-average levels of risk. Although ridicule is an inherent response we experience because of our Christ-centered message, we may be reluctant to be risk-takers in many areas once we have some “success.”
However, as we review our mission (Matthew 28:19-20) and determine how our message is designed and delivered, creativity must be applied throughout the entire strategy process – beginning with the formulation of the vision. As such, truly creative organizations must break down the barriers that hinder the continuous creative process. Some of these barriers include; organizations that are hierarchical, judgmental, highly prescriptive, risk-averse, poor listeners, controlling, and status conscious.6 Other barriers include punishing employees for thinking creatively,7 a culture where – right or wrong – the boss is always right,8 and organizational environments where there is a lack of challenge, lack of trust, lack of resources, lack of freedom, and lack of motivation.9
We must recognize that “creativity flourishes when there is a free flow of ideas around the organization; where ideas are valued because of their intrinsic worth, rather than the status of their sponsors; where people are encouraged to connect up their thinking with others . . .”10 As Christ-followers, more than anyone else, we need to foster environments of creativity in our churches and organizations. And, the type of organization most likely to be creative have fewer organizational levels, high leadership trust, an active flow of ideas, effective idea management processes, leaders who challenge, a balanced view of risk-takers, leaders who delegate, and leaders who actively involve others.11 We must foster an environment where ideas can freely flow, recognize all ideas have some merit but realize, and clearly communicate that some are more doable than others.
Leadership
Leadership is about the ability to lead. It is about creating a shared vision that inspires confidence, creativity, and initiative at the same time that it inspires traditional values of pride and loyalty.12 It is about creating structures, systems, trust, and clarity that inspires people to achieve the organization’s strategy and apply their creativity to the things they do in their work. It is about involving people in planning and implementing actions required to fulfill the organization’s vision. This necessitates inspiring individuals to contribute creatively to the common goal and align their personal values to those of the organization.13 Remember, good ideas can come from anyone, and everyone should have opportunity to participate in activities that engender the creative processes.
Leadership is about building bridges between the work lives and personal lives of people. This interaction reinforces commitment and coherence and strengthens respect and trust.14 This bridge building must be genuine and not a self-serving opportunity for the leader to prompt some secondary gain from the relationship.
Furthermore, leaders need to support risk-taking. Do people bring ideas to you? If they do, it probably means that you are a good listener, among other things. Listening is about suspending judgment long enough to hear the other person’s point of view. It is a key component of creativity and of leadership.15
One of the most significant issues related to leadership is that we need to discover our most natural and appropriate leadership style or styles in order to be effective. (Although this article will not discuss different leadership styles, I encourage you to study them, understand what strengths and weaknesses you have, and learn which styles are most effective for particular situations.) We also need to understand those we lead in order to match an appropriate style of leadership to their needs and that not all leaders can be truly effective in every situation. Let me remind us of the myth of the 60s and 70s that declared, “a good leader can lead any organization effectively.”16
Innovation
Researchers and practitioners alike have long argued that different situations require different types of leaders,17 and leadership opportunities are available for those with the creativity to conceive, the courage to make changes, and the confidence to involve others.18 However, creativity by itself and leadership by itself is not as important as creativity (and leadership) in combination with innovation. Furthermore, the success of an organization cannot be realized by investing in either creativity or innovation alone. Success (accomplishing its mission and vision) can be realized only by investing in the two together.19
It is critical that we realize we do not live simply in a world of possibilities, those grand creative ideas. Those ideas must be transformed into reality, a service or product. In combination, creativity and innovation are central to effective leadership because together they form a process of generating ideas and possibilities and transforming them into reality. This combination creates the future.20
It has generally been the young and imaginative that tend not to separate these components – leadership, creativity, and innovation. Examples of this in the world of technology are Steve Jobs, co-founder and CEO of Apple, and Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Dell Computers. Although each approached the world of computers with vision and passion, they took different paths concerning innovation. Jobs inspired people to develop some of the most iconic hardware and novel software, while Dell saw early on that a direct channel to his customers was the way to go for mass-market computers and inspired his team to constantly improve the company’s operations.
In our area of service, Loren Cunningham founded Youth with a Mission after being rejected by main-line denominations with his idea to engage youth in world mission’s outreach. YWAM now sends teams to more than 1,000 locations in over 149 countries.21 Joel Osteen, pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, grew the church’s ministry attendance from 6,000 to over 25,000, and leads a ministry that reaches to over 100 nations of the world following.22 And Pat Robertson combined leadership, creativity, and innovation to establish the Christian Broadcasting Network, The 700 Club, Regent University, the American Center for Law and Justice, and other Christian based organizations.23
Some Final Thoughts
I wonder if sometimes we are so entrenched in tradition and routine we forget whose we are. Consider the one who created the universe. None is more creative than God and he has created us in his own image (Gen. 1:26-7).
Our creativity is a gift from the Creator. Our responsibility is to help develop and articulate a clear vision that inspires confidence, creativity, and initiative in others, to remove the barriers to creativity in our organizations, to encourage creativity and the sharing of new ideas, and to enable the transformation of creative ideas into reality through innovation.
Simply stated, life is “trying things to see if they work”24 and “creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.”25