Creative Mindwork I (#11)
An introduction to creative mindwork.
Creativity is the second major type of mindwork. It is not quite as easy to measure as analytical capability, but, with a typical modern organization, it is just as important.
Creativity in the workplace is not relegated to marketing campaigns logos or website designs, it is far deeper; concerned less with the appearance of things and more with the purpose of things.
When thinking about those who use their minds for creative work, we often imagine a particular type of person—the generative imagination that was exercised when thinking about a creative person is one aspect of cognitive creativity.
Imaginative Creativity
An active imagination, or the ability to use our minds to see something that does not exist, is an element of creativity—but it is not the only one. An active imagination is one of the characteristic pillars of someone who has high psychological openness.
Of course, we can all have, to some degree, the capability to imagine something fantastic, just as we were all able to conjure up an image of a creative business type together (extra points if your mental image of a creative was wearing a suit).
Imaginative creators like to create new things, and they use the power of cognitive generation to accomplish it.
If creative, innovative work is a necessary component of an employee's work, a trait assessment could help identify the ease with which they might imagine something that does not exist.
Operative Creativity
Now, there are certainly people who can create things, but they do not rely on their active imagination. Instead, these creatives approach problems with an analytic of their own; a creative analytic.
This approach is a favourite of marketing; they analyze the market, looking for gaps and opportunities, and then initiate their creative imagination to brainstorm solutions or ideas.
Operative creatives utilize the power of observation and deduction as the spark to their problem-solving creativity.
AB testing, for example, is regularly used in marketing to determine the success of creative content. In the case of websites or blogs, topics, font, and colour choices, images, and keywords are tweaked to increase traffic. This is operative creativity.
Operative creativity is concerned with producing what is intended, always executing on what is known, and testing for what is unknown. It is a scientific approach to creative mindwork. Those who excel in operative creativity are, just like the scientist, making knowledge or information.
Observation and deduction are the primary skills of these individuals, and they make knowledge by continually discovering and verifying ideas that work as they were intended to work.
Bricolage Creativity
The other type of creative mindwork that can be seen in almost every level of an organization is bricolage. ‘Bricolage’ is a term coined by Levi Strauss, who used it in fashion design to describe what resourceful people can create from whatever they have available.
Bricolage describes the product of a resourceful person who can create something from whatever is available, regardless of each item’s originally intended purpose.
In business, it is normal to have gaps in staffing, expertise, equipment, or simple cash flow. A resourceful business leader will know how to use the limited people and tools he has available to create solutions and innovate.
Psychologically, resourcefulness is closely related to conscientiousness, however without a healthy dose of openness, that resourcefulness will be stunted by caution.
In fact, inventions regularly come from a place of necessity. Resourceful employees dramatically improve a business, but they also protect it from excesses that could stagnate growth.
When an organization does not have as many resourceful employees as they have resources, they end up with warehouses of waste. If the same organization has few resources but several resourceful employees, they will have the opportunity to experience bricolage creativity.
Where Creativity Matters
Organizations that prioritize the development of a resourceful staff will be able to weather the most difficult circumstances by relying on their employees. In the same way, strong business leaders and managers understand the three types of creative mindwork - and how to use them.
Imaginative Creativity: This is the most active ingredient for a visionary leader, who must look into the future, using their own experience and perspective, to project an image of success for their organization.
Operative Creativity: A strong strategic leader must be able to reverse engineer an intended outcome, using their systems and resources to determine and design a reliable pathway to success.
Bricolage Creativity: Successful functional leaders must be able to identify which resources are realistically available, and, along with their team, do the absolute best with what they have.
The three types of creative mindwork are regularly required in modern organizations, regardless of department. It would be irrational to expect that all creative work happens in only one small team of creators; every mindworker must employ creativity every day.
Operative creativity is typically more desirable in an organization, because it is a little easier to measure and identify. However, each type of creativity has a place.
Without the fantastic curiosity of imaginative creatives, many successful businesses, or inventive products, would have never been created. Without the persistent systematic approach of operative creatives those same businesses and products could not have grown, or been developed, to make it to the marketplace. Finally, without the unconventional determination of resilient bricolage creatives, those businesses and products could not have overcome any serious market or economic pressures.
Each type of creative mindwork is essential in your organization, sometimes within a single role, and sometimes across numerous roles. Without developing an organizational strategy that allows for each of these types of creative work, you will naturally limit the creative capability (and therefore, the output) of your associates.
The way you interview and describe your job plays a massive role in the types of creative mindworkers you will attract. Operative creatives are masters of systems and processes, and will be more frustrated by your organizational imperfections than the other creative types, but they also prefer stability and consistency in their environment (which they also constantly attempt to enforce).
Finding the Creatives
If you are seeking a creative mindworker that can help you improve the performance of a department without straying from organizational standards, focusing your hiring process on performance-based knowledge and skills will get you the best operator.
This is a typical desire for organizational leaders, who assume that the only reason a department or team is struggling is due to performance.
These types are the most ubiquitous in the workforce. They also utilize one of the less traditionally creative types of creative mindwork. They are effectively applying a scientific, problem-solving methodology to the creative problems that face them.
If you are seeking a mindworker who can advance and push your product development teams into unique and innovative spaces, you will need to highlight the beauty of the unknown, and the mystery of the future.
Imaginers who are perfectly situated to jump into the wild and exciting world of “what might be possible.”
These creative mindworkers are the prototypical creatives, you give them an idea or a problem or a situation, and they design something that either describes or visualizes the information that you shared. These types are great at verifying information within the context of its purpose, while the operative creatives are great at verifying information within the context of its performance.
Finally, when you are dealing with looming deadlines and limited resources, the bricolage specialist is attracted to the mechanical and inventive opportunity to solve the puzzle of your profitability.
Bricolage creatives value opportunities to do things uniquely, but do not necessarily balk at limitations or compounding challenges.
These types of creatives do not feel burdened by the challenges associated with your business, they feel burdened by the potentially arbitrary policies or standards you put in place.
The subtypes of creative mindwork have a lot of facets, which we will explore later this week. The key thing to remember with creative mindworkers is that each creative has the ability to make a difference in specific functions by utilizing particular skills.
Where imaginative creatives use the power of cognitive generation, operative creatives use observation and deduction, and bricolage creatives approach their work with open-minded resourcefulness.
Understanding the natural tendencies and traits of your associates will help you to determine their creative approach, making it much easier to deploy them in a manner that fits their abilities and meets the needs of the business.
