School
Sneering
Social pressure
Status quo
Standardization
Silos
SuitsWhen I refer to school, I am really referring to the idea that there is
one right answer and that IQ dominates.
Sneeringis still prevalent in organizations. It is the absolute
enemy of creativity. This is partly why brainstorming is as success-
ful as it is: it forces participants to delay their critical judgment or,
at worst, sneers.
Social pressurecan take many forms. Often, it is a prevailing
orthodoxy, such as the belief that the only way to solve problems is
by spending very long hours on them. It could be a view that it can
never be right to use consultants for some jobs or, conversely, that
it is always right to use them. In some organizations the social pres-
sure is quite simple: to do what you are told to do by those supe-
rior to you. I can think of organizations where it is considered quite
acceptable to pull individuals out of longstanding commitments, at
short notice, for no good business reason, simply because it suits a
very senior manager to gather a particular group of people together
at that time.
Adhering to the status quois not consistent with the essence
of creative thinking and leads to many organizations going out of
business. When you hear phrases like “But we’ve always done it like
this,” you know that there are going to be limiting boundaries to
what is being thought through. This tendency is often linked to a
view that is sometimes referred to as “not invented here.”
Bystandardization, I mean that the brain’s tendency to orga-
nize into the patterns it feels comfortable with makes it unlikely to
want to go back to basics and rethink structures completely. In
many cases, this may be exactly what is required!
Silosare airtight containers or deep pits for storing things. As
such, they suggest organizations made up of isolated, unconnected
departments or sections. The culture of these places is jealously to
guard knowledge and compete more aggressively in a mythicalHarnessing Your Creativity 161