Friday, August 10, 2012

Thought of the Day - The Connection between Creativity and Ownership

There is a connection between creativity and complete ownership. To do any job well, to take complete ownership for a job, more or less indicates to me, that some seriously creative work would follow. While dealing with youngsters at work, or team members who are not pulling their weight, I hear their parents, teachers and managers despair about how their wards never push that much more.

It is an interesting issue because ownership really is about creativity. All creativity needs you to walk a rather lonely path, to put up your work for evaluation, and that could be rather scary. Fear, could certainly be a factor in a person not taking complete ownership.

But when one takes the plunge and takes complete ownership for his work, one is no more worried about rejections (or even if he is, grits his teeth and goes on), is up for criticism and moves on and creates, irrespective of what is happening around him. He looks anew at the work, seeks to find ways to improvise, looks for new meanings and addresses it accordingly. Even if he did manage to do something like tallying his balance sheet (supposedly left brain and analytical stuff) through the ownership route, it is a creative process in my dictionary, mainly because he has explored a new area in his mind, seen a new pattern.

That then is about creativity and courage and ownership. And the key to good work. To address this issue as a teacher, mentor or coach, I feel one must work at the aspect of the fear that holds the ward back from exhibiting his creative work.