Does Creativity Have a Department?

Albert Einstein was a patent clerk, Thomas Edison used to operate a train station news stand, Elizabeth Arden was a receptionist, Obama worked behind the counter at Baskin Robbins, and Jane Goodall was an untrained animal enthusiast who made the breakthrough discovery of Chimps using tools!

History has shown us time and again that remarkable ideas come from people who weren’t necessarily qualified to deliver them. Yet, most corporate thinking today still tries to compartmentalize people’s aptitudes and create departments that actually counter the necessary innovation to move forward.

I suppose it’s difficult to convert a production line industrial economy mentality to the networked innovation economy shift that’s already taken place, but does it really have to be that way? Consider that today leading companies are mostly small and agile and compartmentalizing workflow is not only expensive, but it can significantly reduce time to market that the Aerospace industry is already addressing with department agnostic real time collaboration.

If you’ve ever watched the hilarious but sad NASA parody video that prevents a good idea from getting implemented, you already know the trappings of a “process” that kills competitive advantage for the sake of maintaining the status quo. Worst yet, departmentalizing their talents sets up another problem: Experts who think that their contribution is the most important, and disregard the input of people who are closest to the problem.

Today, we are no longer in a situation where outcomes are predictable from one project or venture to the next, so why even implement a process for delivery when delivering what is expected can largely miss the mark? Creativity is not and was never discipline specific, and innovation never really worked as a particular department.

What does work is a multidisciplinary group coming together to solve a problem they are close to. Each person brings their knowledge and perspective rather than the usual suspects who bang their hammer at every problem they think is a nail. Unique solutions have always come from the unlikely, and it’s time we included them early in the mix. Thoughts?