Page 259 - THE DO-IT-YOURSELF LOBOTOMY Open Your Mind to Greater Creative Thinking

250 Appendix

Managers need to know that their people are usually only as cre-
ative as their managers allow or encourage them to be. To put a lid on
the staff’s creative output in any way is starving the organization of a
much needed energy supply.
If your answer to question C was never or sometimes, your managers
could do a much better job of bringing out creativity in others. Based
on your answer in this area, your managers might be more than weak
in this area—they could even be an impediment. It appears that your
managers might actually provide discouragement, a big no-no. Putting
a lid on the staff’s creative output starves the organization of your best
thinking. You have some serious work to do in this area. Some easy
first steps are (1) being more open to new thinking and (2) actually
asking for it.
If your answer was frequently or very often, your managers could still
do a better job of bringing out creativity in others. To reiterate, some
easy steps to higher performance in this area are (1) being more open
to new thinking and (2) actually asking for it.
If your answer was always, congratulations. It appears your man-
agers are excellent at bringing out creative thinking in others.

Question D: How often do the people in your organization stop at
their first good idea?

It’s quite natural for people to stop at their first good idea. But
when they do this early on in the creative process they are limiting the
possibility of an even better idea materializing. One way to discourage
stopping at the first good idea is to simply keep judgment out of the
process during the early ideation phase. If you don’t judge, you don’t
know what’s good or bad, so you don’t get attached to the “good,” stop
ideating, and prevent yourself from finding something even better.
If your answer to question D was always or very often, this is a prob-
lem area, because too many of your people stop at their first good idea
too often. Your group needs to change its habits in this area; otherwise,
you risk putting too much of your effort into executing mediocre ideas.
If your answer was frequently or sometimes, too many people in your
group tend to stop at their first good idea a bit more often than they
should.
If your answer was never, it appears that your people are not prone
to stopping at their first good idea, as are most people. That’s great!
Question E: How many ideas—good and bad (even those you dis-
count immediately)—are generated by people in your group
during a typical brainstorming session?