Challenges: Free Choice v Authorization

Activation of Creativity

The controllers of creative outputs are the same whenever and wherever they appear:

► Challenge–Courage ► Immersion–Breakthrough ► Perseverance–Vantage

RsH-G7 RsH-G6 RsH-G5

Energies in creativity are also similar whenever and wherever they are activated.

► Willpower–Autonomy ► Conviction–Confidence ► Enthusiasm–Support ► Commitment–Capability

RsH-G1 RsH-G2 RsH-G3 RsH-G4

There are two sharply distinct contexts for the activation of creativity.

• Personal i.e. challenges are actively chosen and owned by you. It is your judgement of quality that matters most.
  
• Group/Organizational i.e. challenges are authorized and assigned to you. The group as a whole, or more usually some designated person, then makes the judgements that matter about progress.

In both contexts, the challenge may be identified by you or suggested by someone else. In both cases, you must accept the challenge to activate creativity. The big difference is:

• You own the challenge and take full responsibility for it.

  or

• A larger entity owns the challenge and expects to exert some control.

Implications of Group Control

An exceptional employee (like you) may well be ready to «own the challenge». You become the champion for the challenging project, which may be primarily technical or more service-oriented or social. However, no matter how committed and capable you may be, there is no possibility to proceed for too long against management policy or management rulings in regard to «your project».

Succeeding through breaking stupid rules or offending political sensitivities, will lead to grudging gratitude at best, and possibly even condemnation. So extreme perseverance-RG5 in the face of obstacles and failure becomes almost impossible.

Even more disheartening, the challenging project may be shut down for political reasons, or as part of a cost-cutting exercise—often just as you have made a break-through or are near its completion.

It's not always like that, because…

Employees with considerable autonomy and small projects (as in technology companies) may simply reject management's decision to shut down their pet project. Either they work away secretly, possibly in their own time, determined to show that they are right. Or they resign from the company and pursue the challenge with their own resources and wider network.

Note that either option may serve the organization rather well. Such options reveal the hold that inner creativity has over a person as explained further in the next section dealing with the dynamics of being creative.

Bottom Line: Any person pursuing their own goals single-mindedly is unavoidably disruptive within a group. Any management that does not put the good of the whole above the interests of one person is not doing its job.

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With this perspective, the scene is now set:

• Apply the THEE creativity framework to work challenges within organizations.

Originally posted: 17-Feb-2012