By Pam McGee

Research indicates that most technical companies don’t consider themselves to be creative. They describe themselves as good solid businesses, technical businesses, a good solid vertical business, and/or having a great product. It’s hard for businesses to describe themselves as creative because it seems so nebulous or so out of norm. There may also be the perception that creative businesses are for advertising firms, media companies, and art businesses. That’s an old argument that I won’t repeat here, but I think you get what I mean. After roughly third grade, we tell ourselves that we are not artists, we are not creative, and we are not writers. It gets knocked out of us because most of what we do in school is left to the scrutiny of someone else. Teachers themselves have been shackled with critiquing and grading, not empowering and inspiring. I once was in a pottery class in fifth grade, and most of the students were making clay dishes. I made a coffee mug with an elephant snout. Anyway, this isn’t a debate on the state of art education in America; it is however, the beginning of a great debate stating that anyone, any company, or any team can be creative if they want. Yes; anyone!

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Here are some guidelines for wearing red shoes in a board room. That is, guidelines for unconventional ways to exceed customer expectations:

Rule #1: All creativity needs to begin and end with the customer.
When I made my coffee mug with the elephant snout, I just knew my mother (the customer at that time) would love it because she loved elephants and she loved coffee. I was right. For 42 years, she displayed it prominently in her curio cabinet.

From a business sense, think about H&R Block®. They are scrambling because they have forgotten who their customer is. In 2006, more people filled out their tax returns online with TurboTax than went to H&R Block. In 2007, you see phony gimmicks like get $100 worth of groceries or an iPod if you go to H&R Block. That’s not creativity. It’s a scramble to do something because you’ve lost sight of who your customer is. Their customer is someone who is fairly computer literate, someone with a simple tax structure, and someone who could do their taxes themselves with a little online coaching. Had H&R block had the customer in mind, they would have realized that eventually their customer could enter information in an online form, just like their representatives were doing. They offered very little tax planning, financial planning, or even ways to save money on your taxes. Now they’re spending millions of marketing dollars on gimmicks that still don’t meet the customers’ needs. How in the world does an iPod or a $100 worth of groceries benefit a tax customer? See the point? Rule #1 for being a truly creative team is to have customer conversations about what the customer is telling you they need now and in the future. It also includes conversations on what they don’t even know they might need. The customer is always right; however, they might not always know what they need.

Rule #2: Dedicate time in each team gathering to be wild and starry eyed dreamers.
A common mistake made is that an idea comes up, and if there is no obvious implementation path, the idea gets lost. Leaders can win in the creativity department by simply asking the following questions often and without any clear implementation expectation:

• What are our customers complaining about the most? How might we, in a perfect world, fix that?
• What would you like to give a customer for free, and how might we do that?

• Outside our business, what’s the best experience you’ve had as a customer? How could we translate that to our business?

Notice there is no mention of what the competition is doing. It is common that businesses want to beat their competition, but in creativity, what needs to be beaten is a customer expectation or pain point. Build the questions above into your weekly team meeting, your consultant project recap, and/or your 1:1s. Be creative; maybe the questions should be asked at lunch or maybe even over beers on Friday. Could you have your employees submit answers to the questions every time they board a plane or eat Chinese food? You decide.

Rule #3: NEVER EVER start a creative department.
This also goes hand in hand with starting a creative task force. Make it the expectation that everyone in the company is creative. I once worked with a small company that charged four committee members to come up with creative ideas to reinvent their product. The downside that may already be obvious is that a committee implies that there is some order to creativity. There isn’t. It just needs time and attention, and it will appear. It’s like saying that from 8 to 10 a.m. on Mondays, I’m going to be creative. It doesn’t’ work like that. Research actually has proven that when people say that an idea came to them in the shower, they are absolutely normal. Creativity comes to you when you let your mind wander and relax. It can’t be planned or charted or graphed. It needs to be fostered, experimented with, and enjoyed. Often an unexpected trip to the junk store will leave you with an idea of how to coach a problem employee. Maybe an afternoon gardening will leave you with an idea on how to market your business in another geography. I don’t mean to leave the impression that creativity is laissez-faire and you let it control you. What I’m trying to impress upon you is that creativity will happen if you are open to it and allow some downtime to just let your mind go where it needs to go. By assigning people and time to creativity, you may be spinning your wheels.

Rule #4: On a quarterly basis, review how creative you’ve been.
What changes have been made to an internal philosophy or practice? How have you added new customers? Solved an old problem? Invented a new marketing tag line? Tried something different? Whether it worked or not, the fact that there is accountability given to creativity goes a long way. Not every wild idea can be implemented, but every idea can be acknowledged. It will also help you surface an H&R Block problem, because if you are never reinventing something, you may not be in touch with your customers, and they may one day TurboTax you. Don’t let that happen.

Rule #5: Experiment with a little oddness in your company.
I bet if you did wear red shoes to a board room one day, it would subliminally help people think a little more out of the ordinary. Better yet, what if you didn’t wear any shoes at all? It would definitely imply non-mainstream thinking in the meeting. Clothes are a must, but shoes could be optional, right?

The point is that leadership can and should set the stage for creative thinking and set the limitless boundary rule that experimentation, thinking, and acting creatively are the norm, not the exceptions. Wearing red shoes in a board room won’t change your company immediately, but it is a step in the right direction.