Can government agencies be truly creative and innovative? Of course, you say. We just have to get government officials to attend a creativity and innovation meeting where:
- Paradigms shift and problems pass through bizarre redefinitions.
- People offer hundreds of loopy ideas.
- People combine nutty ideas to make weird proposals.
- Workable, useful, highly effective solutions emerge to solve important problems.
- All this happens during the three- or four-day meeting.
Sound easy? Well, I have a prickly feeling in the back of my neck that tells me truly creative and innovative government won't happen soon.
I have seen many government idea-generation sessions fall short of attacking problems creatively because people fear that offensive or foolish temporary ideas will go public, invite criticism, and spoil future career opportunities.
I remember one creativity session I led for the executive council of a large, prominent university. One dean quietly asked a student assistant to secretly destroy a flip chart because she disliked one of the ideas. She later said it had offended and insulted her.
Far-fetched brainstormed ideas cannot easily survive in a practical political world that does not understand their temporary nature or their necessity for achieving useful solutions.
But all my experience with semi-creative creativity sessions pales in comparison with a paraphrased April 25, 2010, BBC News report.
The UK's Foreign Office apologized for a foolish document suggesting that the Pope could open an abortion clinic, bless a gay marriage, apologize for the Spanish Armada, or sing with the Queen for charity during his planned visit to the UK. The Foreign Office stressed that the ideas did not reflect its views.
The document had resulted from a brainstorming session involving three or four junior staff members working on early planning for the papal visit. According to the report, the group had been asked to do "blue-skies creative thinking about how to make the visit a success," but the discussion had become "a joke that has gone too far."
Recipients objected to the memo's tone, prompting an investigation. The document had not been cleared by ministers or senior officials, and it was withdrawn once senior officials became aware of it. The person responsible was transferred to other duties and formally told that the incident was a serious error of judgment.
Wow. What a commotion. Such a fuss. Which government official in the UK, or anywhere else, will hold meetings like this? Any official who requests secrecy opens his or her career to a possible default, especially from offended coworkers.
On the other hand, hope exists. The mere fact that the Foreign Office held such a brainstorm indicates that some people in government want to foster more creativity and innovation in their work.
Decades ago, many of the same problems with brainstorming that exist in government also existed in corporations. Look how prevalent these meetings are in corporations now.
Edward Glassman, PhD, was President of Creativity College® and Professor Emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he led the Program for Team Effectiveness and Creativity.