Guest post by John Hunter, author of the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog (since 2004).
Heather Groom’s presentation on Creativity at our Deming in Public Administration seminar.
In discussing the roadblocks to creativity she mentioned the imposter syndrome. I have seen imposter syndrome mentioned very frequently recently (the last year or two). I find it interesting how concepts become popular and are widely shared for a while. Normally those concepts stop being shared fairly quickly – though a few people remember them and carry on sharing them even once the popularity fades.
Heather also talked about how fear stifles creativity. Our education and management systems often create conditions where people learn to fear straying from the expected behavior. Obviously when we create systems that do so we place constraints on creativity.
We have to be able to let kids create. We have to give them the freedom of being playful, asking questions and not being afraid of failure.
Which is also pretty good advice for employees. Let employees create. Let them play and ask questions and take risks.
Related: Public Administration: Past, Present, and Future – Creativity Inc., Using Deming’s Ideas at Pixar – Children are Amazingly Creative At Solving Problems – Encouraging Curiosity in Kids