Episode D.033 Build a Creative Culture

Show Objectives
“The joy is in creating - not maintaining.” -Vince Lombardi
Today’s show is about building a creative culture. When creativity is valued, new ideas are tried and innovations are made. This type of culture leads to an abundance of new products and services and a working environment that is filled with inspiration. Just maintaining the status quo is not enough, especially in today’s post pandemic world. 

Choose your Zone
When it comes to innovation, an organization (and people) tend to fall into one of four zones. The zone you choose to be in impacts how we live, how we lead, and what success we are able to achieve. 

1. The Cruise Control Zone - Your life is on autopilot
2. The Comfort Zone - Your life is programmed
3. The Challenge Zone - You include risks
4. The Creative Zone - You think outside the box

Mental Blocks Keep You Stuck
Mental blocks crush our creative potential. Which mental blocks do you identify with? Awareness is the key to conquering them.

1. Must find the RIGHT answer - it’s wrong to believe there is only one right answer to any question or challenge.
2. Must be LOGICAL - Knowledge is limited. Creative imagination turns possibilities into reality.
3. Must follow the RULES - Most revolutionary ideas happened by violating a set of established rules.
4. Must avoid UNCERTAINTY - Life if full of contradictions and paradoxes. Everything can be understood in more than one way.
5. Must avoid FAILURE - Embrace risk and see failure as a friend on the journey.
6. Must be ACCEPTED - All great dreamers looked foolish to someone. How you are perceived is less important than how effective you can be.
7. Must overcome SELF-PERCEPTION - If you believe you are not creative, you won’t be. This self-perception is a barrier to opportunities and ingenuity.

​Build a Creative Culture

1. Take responsibility for promoting creativity and building a creative culture. Do this by fueling passion, celebrating ideas, fostering autonomy, rewarding courage, minimizing chain of command, reducing rules, welcoming failure as a stepping stone, and starting small.
2. Look for ways to make everything better.
3. Make plans but continue to look for better options. Determine your course of action, set goals, adjust priorities, notify your team, allow time for acceptance, take the first step, expect problems, adjust your plan, try again.
4. Welcome new ideas and place a high value on creative thinking. Gather ideas, test ideas, analyze failures, adapt and question, then try again.
5. Listen to many voices. Creativity thrives when one subject is viewed from many different angles.
6. Take risks. 
7. Seize opportunities. Ask questions, network, take action. Be prepared for opportunities then act on them.

Written by: Donna Kunde

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