Many will agree that it is difficult to turn our creative thinking capacity on and off like a tap and to some extent preparation of certain factors will help or hinder the output of any creative thinking activities. Recently, I have had cause to reflect on the factors that both help and hinder our creative output, in particular how we think and feel about problems that require a creative approach and particularly the role that the environment plays. Indeed the research we have conducted that underpins the development of our ‘Leading Innovation Diagnostic’ (LID) questionnaire suggests that environment plays a key role.
An example of where environment made a positive contribution was when Dorothy and I were recently returning from a client meeting and our journey home proved to be very fruitful in developing some new ideas worth exploring about the future of our business. We reflected on what we had achieved and how we had done this. We concluded that our physical and metaphorical journeys were somehow intrinsically linked. Personally, I have come to know that I have a lot of my best ideas when I am driving in my car. I put this down to the principle of allowing the conscious mind to get on with attending to the routine actions of driving whilst allowing the unconscious mind to get to work on idea development.
An example of where environment proved to be a negative factor in creative output was when we delivered a client workshop that had a creative element to it. The room facilities that had been booked were small for the size of group, cramped, had little natural light and the seats were uncomfortable. It became evident that people had trouble concentrating on the task in hand and were becoming irritable about minor things.
My doctoral research on creative problem-solving highlighted the fact that environment plays a critical role when engaged in creative thinking. Many of the managers who participated in my research reported that they often had their best ideas when engaged in doing something different, such as working out in the gym, going for a swim, skiing down a mountain or just listening to music.
In conclusion then, it would be worth taking some time to identify what types of environment are conducive to your creative thinking activities, personally and for any team that you lead and ensure you make adequate time and resources available. In the following video the presenter is talking about the link between creative thinking and play and of course, environment is a contributory factor in enabling these two notions to work together.
Gill Stevens
Director
Level Seven (UK) Ltd
