MGHC02H3 Lecture 7: Leading Others to Think Innovatively Together: Creative Leadership
Problem Solving / Creativity
Leading Others to Think Innovatively Together: Creative Leadership - Basadur
• Everyone differs in their creative problem solving styles
• Efficiency and adaptability
o Effective organizations display 2 characteristics simultaneously:
▪ Efficiency
• Efficiency allows an organization to implement and follow well-
structured, stable routines for delivering its product in high
quantities, higher quality, and at lower cost than its competitors
• Effective organizations also adapt/react to change quickly to
unexpected events
• However, in this changing world, efficiency is not enough
▪ Adaptability
• Allows effective organizations to master process of changing its
routines, deliver new problems to solve, and find new things to do
• Adaptability requires looking outside of the organization, anticipate
new opportunities and problems, trends, tech, methods to improve
• The process approach to applied creativity
o Adaptability driven by organizational creativity - continuous process of thinking
innovatively or finding and solving problems and implementing new solutions
o Applied creativity - process pertaining to finding or solving complex problems and
having a plan as final result
o A circular process of applied creativity
▪ This process acknowledges that as new problems are discovered and
new solutions are developed, new problems and opportunities arise
▪ Model has continuous cycles through problem finding, problem solving,
and solution implementation
o To execute this process well, must help others execute creative thinking skills to
overcome shortcomings in each of the 3 phases
• Leading people to think in new ways
o Shortcoming in problem solving
▪ When confronted with new ideas, people are prematurely critical and shut
down the flow of productive thinking
▪ People search for what is similar than what is unique in a new problem
and use available solutions than consider new ones
▪ To overcome, leaders can model open-minded thinking and reinforce
training intended to improve performance in creative problem finding,
problem solving, and solution implementation
o Shortcoming in problem finding
▪ People tend to wait for others to find problems for them to solve rather
than take the initiative to seek out or anticipate problems
▪ People assume prematurely that ‘‘it cannot be done’’ when they know too
much about their work and fail to inquire challenge
o Transfer ownership
▪ Leaders must transfer ownership - involving people early during problem
finding permits them to exercise full creative potential
o Shortcoming in problem defining
▪ When confronted with problems/new situations, people evaluate before
investigating and respond without carefully thinking
