Is creativity born and can not be made ?

Following A. Di Fiore, Scientific evidence has proven just the opposite. It’s a very insightful article.

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/03/creativity_with_a_small_c.html


I would add two thoughts about this article :


- A. Di Fiore writes “According to several of these, most children display high creative thinking before going to school but gradually lose this creativity as they progress through schooling”. In his book, W.E. Deming, The New Economics gives his answer on how and why we stop to be creative. Extrinsic motivators slowly destroys dignity, self esteem, cooperation and joy in learning – all of which are innate in life. (see Deming, the New Economics, the forces of destruction).


- A. Di Fiore writes “Making an enduring company was both harder and more important than making a great product” S. Jobs about his most important creation (creativity with a small C, A. Fiore). Let’s work on the system to foster creativity by creating a creative and a healing workplace where collaborators can learn, experiment without blame for failures, ….

Do you think ST and Lean foster creativity ?

ST purpose is transformation by changing our Management Paradigms – Transformation is innovation - Lean is not imitation – Lean is innovation.

Thinking in System should be considered as a basic knowledge for any Organization. Thinking in system is certainly a basic knowledge and know-how that foster creativity by addressing our paradigms about the work, the customer, the people who do the work,…. Thinking in System should also support our thinking to transform effectively the way we produce by namely integrating all forms of innovation whether technological or not . Structural Transformation fosters also creativity, isn’t it ?
Lean is often considered as a tool box from Toyota delivering the solutions we need to deliver services. If Lean is seen as a tool box or a cook book to follow, Lean is about imitation. But Lean is not about imitation. Lean is about creativity on processes with a little c.

Lean is systemic. By focusing on value as defined by the customers, by building long-term capabilities, by eliminating muda towards value by transforming managers CC in ST Leaders, …lean thinkers focus on the whole organization, on managing the interdependencies and on creating value for customers and stakeholders.Lean Thinking fosters process and system innovation/creativity, isn’t it ?
But ST and Lean create a favorable context for innovation on processes and organizations. But even if I’m a strong believer in Lean ST, I think it’s not enough. Lean System Thinking is currently addressing the dominant management paradigms linked (mass production) with principles allowing agility (continuous process improvement and systemic alignment to demands).

The next challenge we face is to integrate deeply the consequence on our way of thinking of the evolution of our environment/world mainly characterized by more and more complexity, uncertainty and quick changes (technology, network, communication,…) in order to create sustainable companies around long-term capable people.

What are the next challenges for us as Lean System Thinkers ?