How would I increase creativity? I would bring in a grammar teacher to
drill everyone in the subjunctive tense. No explanation. This
'craziness' would get attention. Then I would bring in a workshop to
train DeBono's six thinking hats. I would require each person to
facilitate a green hat meeting, which would be mercilessly black-hatted by
the participants. This might be sufficient to establish the possibility
of possibility.
How does this relate to insecurity? Insecurity is a byproduct of
creativity and tends to dampen it. If you add to insecurity with layoffs,
you can dampen creativity to the point of extinction. What you need is a
mechanism to contain at least that portion of insecurity that you unleash
through creativity. One way you contain it is by having people realize
that saying things won't make them so (subjunctive), and that non-green
hats accomplish very little if they don't have green hats to kick around.
McMaster's "Exploring Possibility" chapter is very good on this subject.
Personal footnote: While reading McMaster's chapter, I was reminded of a
woman I went out with (for a very short time) who was the ultimate case of
not being able to speak hypothetically. She was in real estate sales,
which I suppose was the perfect match. Anything that anybody said, she
expected action to follow. As much as I enjoyed not having to argue, I
was drawn into mindless conventional commitments. She could have a
remunerative and sensual life, but certainly not an examined or creative
life.
--Kent Myers myersk@us.net
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>