5 Principles of Creativity - Why it Works - Part 2: Define the Problem

This is a second post in the series that looks at the five principles of creativity to explain why these work. This post examines why failure to properly define and distill an issue is more problematic in large organizations.

Large organizations may struggle to be creative because the 'problem' is often couched in terms that make it difficult for employees to come up with creative solutions for. There is a disconnection between what the organization wants and how the employees can contribute.  For example asking individual employees to find creative solutions to 'increase shareholder value' is a poor problem statement - even though it may be a key outcome managers are trying to achieve. There are a number of reasons for this, as follows.

Firstly this type of problem statement is too open. This makes it difficult for employees to work out where to start. If it is unclear what the problem is, it increases the risk that the creative ideas miss the mark. In short it may be difficult for employees to find ways to directly connect what they do to this high level outcome.

Even if people can draw a connection between what they do and shareholder value, in most large organizations, individual employees may view that their individual actions only have a minor effect on shareholder value. Employees may struggle to see the point in being creative as the difference they make on the top line measure is small. It takes a lot of mental energy to be creative so there needs to be a meaningful reason for people to want to expend that energy.


The solution to this belongs with the manager. One of the roles of managers in a creative organisation (or any organization) is to bridge the gap between corporate strategy (the 'increasing shareholder value') statement and the work that individual employees do. For example in a service industry the managers may be better setting a specific objective of finding ways for customers to report that they feel more valued. Having customers report that they feel valued will add to shareholder value but is also specific enough for employees to work with. More importantly, it is something that they feel they can control and may be worthwhile putting the effort into.

In short managers need to be able to clearly direct the issues that they want employees to put their creative effort into.