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Successful entrepreneurs are the ones who think the most creatively, not only in their initial product or service, but more importantly all through the stages of growth from startup to maturity. But even the best of them can easily slip into some bad decision habits that limit or hurt their business, due to natural human tendencies and the pressures of business challenges.
Obviously, the business of business has been around a long time, with many “best practices” well-defined and well documented, so creativity that ignores these is usually not a good thing. Thus every entrepreneur struggles to achieve that balance between methodically following “proven” processes, versus a new and creative approach which may be a real differentiator.
In my experience as a mentor, I find that keeping creative thinking in the balance is a challenge for every startup, due to the natural employee tendency to resist change.
I agree with the classic book by Ros Taylor, “Creativity at Work: Supercharge Your Brain and Make Your Ideas Stick,” which outlines some key psychological impediments to creative business thinking and change:
- Just use the data metrics. Shocking statistics, like unexpected losses last quarter, can generate a knee-jerk cost cutting decision, when further analysis and creative thinking might better close the gap with new revenue sources. Using data metrics alone for decisions, without seeking the root problem and alternative solutions, kills creativity.
- Let’s just be optimistic. Optimism is essential for long-term success, but it can delay or cloud short-term decision requirements. Entrepreneurs have to be careful not to look too hard for evidence that confirms their passion and positive perspective. Be a realist when making a decision and an optimist when implanting it.
- The way we do things. It’s human nature to believe that the way we have first learned and long done things is the best way, and other ways won’t work as well. It stops us from having to learn anything new. One of the reasons change is hard is that people have to unlearn the old way first, which is twice as hard as just learning something new.
- Tricked by recency. We tend to remember the first and the last things we hear – the primacy and recency effect. Sales people tend to remember the latest product when selling to clients, not the one best for that customer. So when decisions are to be made, we tend to remember recent information and issues. Not always to good effect.
- Group think will give the best results. Group results are often dominated by an autocratic leader, or represent assimilation of the lowest common denominator. Most people tend to be compliant, rather than risk conflict. Creative ideas are the outliers, and tend to be eliminated first, rather than evaluated fully. Diversity challenges group think.
- Low appetite for risk. With humans as well as with animals, you tend to get what you reward. If you reward ‘right first time behavior,’ you might get fewer mistakes but you will also get fewer attempts at trying new things. ‘Fast failure’ and ‘minimum viable product’ are startup concepts geared to facilitate creativity while still mitigating risk.
- Polarized thinking. Early failures tend to swing later decisions entirely in the opposite direction, which can have equally traumatic results. Some people tend to manage challenges with “either/or” thinking, rather than creative “both/and” thinking to try to solve the problem. If there are polar opposites, look for the positives on both ends.
- Generate more stress. The more critical a problem becomes, the less creative our decision making will be. Concentration is impaired by stress, judgment and logical thinking deteriorates, we tend not to communicate well, we tend to stop gathering data, and we tend to make quick, impulsive, short-term decisions. Work on reducing stress.
- No feedback or results analysis. Every decision needs review and continuous feedback from constituents for validation and tuning. In the world of business today, the only constant is change. Even good decisions today will require adjustments as the environment or customers change. Avoid the tendency to fix blame and look for excuses.
- Failure to learn. Experience is inevitable; learning is not. Review and measuring decision results facilitates learning, just like sales metrics facilitate a better understanding of sales. Creativity without learning will be short-lived and ineffective. Learning required effective listening, and creative thinking to make sense out of tough experiences.
It’s time to get past the myths and mystery about creativity. Creative people don’t have to have eccentric personalities, work in the arts, or work in isolation, to achieve results. It is possible to be creative on demand, and to demand creativity in your startup. In fact, if you don’t, your startup will too quickly join the ranks of the corporate world that you love to hate. Think about that one.