March 17, 2011

I recently had the privilege of speaking to a group 400-plus senior executives from a very large organization.  During my allotted 90 minutes, I conducted an activity used to demonstrate the power of divergent thinking.  At the conclusion of the exercise, I asked for solutions to a specific problem. Twenty hands went up, if that.  And, of those, most were only halfway raised.

Contrast that with a presentation I had given later that afternoon to a group of 200 high school students.  When we conducted the same exercise, all 200 hands went up.  In fact, half of the students had both hands up, so technically 300 hands were up.  And, in an effort to gain my attention, a quarter of the students were jumping up and down on their chairs.  The solutions provided by the high school students were off the charts.  They were so creative that some ideas were beyond comprehension.

The difference between the adults' and teenagers' sessions were night and day.

My own observations, while not overly surprising, have been validated by research.

There was a study done a number of years ago by George Land.  He found that 98 percent of 5-year-old kids tested as highly creative.  By the time they were 25 years old, only 2 percent tested at that same level.

If children possess such a dynamic level of creativity, why aren’t companies hiring a collection of 5-year-olds to enhance innovation efforts?

The answer lies within the distinction between innovation and creativity.

What I admired most about speaking to the children was their passion, not necessarily their responses.  They had a level of enthusiasm that was unparalleled.  They all wanted to play.  They all wanted to contribute.  And no one was concerned about looking bad in front of his or her peers.  In fact, it seemed as though the more they participated, the more it made them look good in the eyes of others.

Adults, on the other hand, are calculating and careful when responding.  They are more concerned with saying something “stupid” and being labeled as a failure.  As a result, they sit quietly -- often with the best ideas buried in their minds -- and resist participating fully.  This robs teams of their full potential.

Consider the contrast of responses between the two groups.  The solutions provided by the children were SO creative that they were impractical, bordering on impossible.  Although there were glimpses of usefulness in their answers, for the most part, it would have taken an incredible amount of thought and effort to convert the “wild and crazy” into “useful and valuable.”

Large quantities of irrational ideas is not what your organization needs.  In fact, you are probably already drowning in ideas.  Instead, consider that you need better solutions to problems that matter.  Even though adults tend to be more reserved with their responses, their solutions are typically more useful.

What does this mean for an organization?

Statistics, like "only 2 percent of adults test as highly creative," may lead us to believe that the old- timers can't contribute to innovation.  In fact, the opposite is true.  Although children may be more creative, their solutions tend to be unbounded, and they do not yet possess the capability to turn these ideas into usable solutions.  Innovation is not just about wild ideas.  It is an end-to-end process that starts with a problem and ends with an implemented solution that creates value.  Though adults may not test as creative, they can be incredibly effective at innovation.

But there is one trait that children have that adults typically lack: passion.  What if every employee enthusiastically had his or her hand raised when you wanted input?  What if there was an excitement in your organization that encouraged people to play hard and to contribute?  This would be the best of both worlds.

When working with your team, encourage not only the creativity of children, but also allow them to capitalize on the playful enthusiasm that they had once possessed as a child.

Related Topics

• Innovation

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