Harmony through Creativity
It all happened at an in-house training course at a company that shall remain anonymous. The theme of the training course was "Suggestions for medium-term strategies." On the first morning, the owner-manager spoke to the assembled participants, who were the executive staff of the company. During the speech, he posed the following question:
"Who is more creative: a jazz pianist or a classical pianist?"
Creativity is something that is necessary for everybody, not just for pianists and artists. During training courses and consulting, I myself think about how I can do things more effectively. Industry drives a demand for innovative ideas in areas like research and development, new marketing methods, implementation of improvements in business operations, strategy review, and cost reduction. In working with my customers, I am keenly aware of that need and the efforts that go into implementation. One often hears from leaders who call for all employees to engage their brains, come up with suggestions, and put them into practice. There is a cry from the top levels of management for staff to change their mindset and their perceptions, and adapt to the modern ways of doing things.
"We want you to adapt!"
Whenever I hear these words, I recall a talk given by Michael L. Tushman, a professor at Harvard Business School, when he visited Japan in 2001. One of his themes was that "innovation = creativity + implementation." For employees to display creativity, an organization needs to have a culture which facilitates innovation, one which "supports risk-taking" and "tolerates failure." Tushman also made the point that "effective group processes" and "speed of action" need to be part of the corporate culture in order to achieve implementation in a competitive marketplace.
While it is indeed important for employees to display creativity, their superiors, and the organization as a whole, need to empower those employees and support their creativity by making their ideas a reality. Creativity is essential in the early phases of a business plan, but innovation cannot be achieved unless that creativity is properly implemented, and proper implementation requires the ability to adapt.
Returning to the question of the jazz pianist and the classical pianist, the owner-manager stated that the success of a classical pianist demanded more creativity. "Because a jazz pianist arranges and plays with such marvelous improvisation, it would seem that creativity is more necessary for him or her than it is for a classical pianist,” he explains. “However, consider the fact that all classical pianists work from the same score! Yet, if one listens to a piece of music performed by top-flight pianists, one hears a totally different rendition of the music from each pianist. Classical pianists, all working from the same score, each devote their mental energy to working out how their performance will move the listener. And day after day, they put considerable efforts into working at the piano, all the while exercising their creative faculties." He concluded his talk with the following message, intended to inspire his leadership team:
"All of you are working at the same company, under the same system, just as all classical pianists perform from the same score.”
He then added, “Some of you are performing outstandingly, others not so well. I want you all, as professionals, to engage your creative faculties more, and display intelligence, and overcome problems to achieve great results, and I will provide every support for that."
With all the upheavals in business conditions, I often think of this analogy of the pianists. As a professional, I remind myself on a daily basis that my work is a performance, and I need to engage my creative faculties, use my brain, and work in harmony with my team in order to ensure that I don't become set in my ways.
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