More than integrity (52%), global thinking (35%), and influence (30%), the 1500+ CEOs interviewed by IBM for their bi-annual study said that creativity (60%) was the most important leadership quality necessary for the next five years. The CEO's also said that the ability to deal with complexity was the biggest challenge they faced.
We believe that there is a direct correlation between those two insights, as creative thinking and innovation leadership (which we've been preaching and teaching about for a couple of decades) is critical when dealing with tough decisions and complexity. One of the other things the CEO's noted was the importance of making decisions quickly given the increased complexity and overwhelming data that exists.
This brings to mind a favorite quote from Bob Galvin, a former CEO who oversaw Motorola's growth. Galvin said, “If you have a hard decision, I respectfully suggest that it is because you have not done sufficient creative thinking… How can you make the best decision if you haven’t got the best option? Most of the time when we sit in sessions in institutions, somebody lays out the problem and a few options, but they’re probably not optimized yet. You’ve got to go through the process of being very creative in coming up with that extraordinary option. Then it’s easy to select.”
In other words, to deal with complexity, focus on creative thinking.
Mr. Galvin had been a proponent of creative thinking for years during his time at Motorola (which lasted from 1959 to 1986). Which brings to mind another phrase, "the more things change, the more things stay the same."
So what are you doing to develop your ability for creative thinking?
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