Page 212 - THE DO-IT-YOURSELF LOBOTOMY Open Your Mind to Greater Creative Thinking

The Keys to Creativity Are in the Corner Office 203

HOW TO DEVELOP FRESH PERSPECTIVE

Developing people with perpetually fresh viewpoints is also something
that starts at the top in a well-run organization. If managers aren’t gen-
erating, or at least open to hearing, new ideas, how can an organization
expect to develop this type of mentality in the rest of its people? If a
company doesn’t accept a degree of failure from those who are trying
to push the envelope, how can they expect to explore new frontiers?
To push freshness of thought, encourage your people to practice
Intergalactic Thinking and 180° Thinking consciously and purpose-
fully, both in groupthink and individually. But, remember, if manage-
ment doesn’t manage for greater creativity and isn’t open to the new
ideas that emerge, little progress will be made on this front.

THE KEYS TO CREATIVITY ARE IN THE
CORNER OFFICE

I’ll end this chapter by telling you about an exercise I use to wind up
my Mind Farming workshops.
Toward the end of the program, I divide the group into four seg-
ments. I give each segment virtually the same assignment posed four
different ways. After they complete this short drill, I have all partici-
pants share their results. Here’s what happens every time. Group A is
consistently more creative than groups B, C, and D. Group B is invari-
ably the next most creative. Group C typically comes in third. And
those pathetic guinea pigs in group D unfailingly come in last. Why?
Because I manage them into increasingly tighter limits on their cre-
ativity.
With all due respect for the “natural tendencies” of people revealed in
our discussion of the Mind Farming personalities (dreamers, rationals,

That big idea you had last year is
still impacting the company's bottom
line. Can you spell promotion?
Timeline of a great idea (continued)

Timeline of a lousy idea (continued)