Building a Creative Mind
by Christopher Springmann

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Legendary artist Georgia O`Keeffe said that "Creativity is NOT the work of art; it`s the art of work."

Just as O`Keeffe used rocks, bones and clouds as inspiration for paintings, Michael Gray, Gillette`s chief industrial designer, fused art and commerce to design the billion dollar Mach3 razor around the qualities of familiar objects: a feather, spoon and brush.

The Mach3 development is a stunning example of how contemporary corporate creativity uses visual and verbal cues to communicate concepts, build internal support and gain consensus while promoting to employees the intrinsic value of change.

"Our mission statement at Gillette mandates creativity and innovation," said Michael Gray, whose applied cleverness results from a corporate environment requiring that:

-- Brainstorming and problem solving sessions are scheduled regularly, bringing all related departments and outside vendors into the loop early.

-- Management always acknowledges and acts in a timely way on suggestions for improvement.

-- No one laughs at crazy ideas. (Michael Gray covered his walls with brushes).

What is the payoff when a Gillette employee acts more like artist Georgia O`Keeffe? "When you have a superior product, such as Gillette`s, that`s the basis for extracting a market premium for innovation," said John Quelch, dean of the London Business School. "Real job security and the company`s future opportunities depend on continual improvement and value-added enhancement of goods and services."

"A creative software designer is someone who can create something of value from obscure, inanimate things you wouldn`t normally connect," said Steve Schloss, Oracle`s Vice President of Quality. "That`s great. But as the Quality VP, I also want Oracle employees to develop new and original ways to solve a customer`s problems. There is never just one way to approach the challenge. The trick is to step into the customer`s shoes and be empathetic, while generating creative solutions."

Schloss said corporate creativity has a single enemy: fear. "Fear of not being listened to or taken seriously; fear of ideas being co-opted by others; and fear of `making waves` or even getting fired by a company resistant to change."

So work fearlessly. But how do you initiate your own "out of the box thinking" in a world of square cubicles?

The first priority is to keep your creative mind in shape by realizing several key points.

Your desk is a dangerous place from which to watch the world. Inspiration from the culture-at-large frequently occurs away from the office. Walking into a skateboard shop or foreign book store, with no intention of buying, promotes creative connections and linkages, look-and-learn experiences that generate into inspiration. You`re always "on," even when you`re off the job site.

Every solution is a product. Making problems go away is not enough. That "problem" may create an opportunity.

Documenting and sharing insights into enhancing customer service, manufacturing processes and product distribution is consistent with supporting a company`s overall vision and profitability. Your self-equity relates directly to your willingness and ability to convey information.

Leave creative fingerprints on everything you do. Create a work environment that supports your individuality. In a world of cubicles and cookie-cutter furniture, surrounding yourself with found and collected objects can make an important visual statement about your creativity. A camouflage tent covering, a virtual fish tank or a vine climbing across a drop-ceiling send a powerful message to your colleagues: "I like being different and, frankly, I don`t care who knows it."

The consistently curious employee, poking around in seemingly unrelated company departments while asking questions to link together the "big picture" is frequently viewed with suspicion and discouraged from moving "out of their box."

Famed semanticist S. I. Hayakawa observed that the desire for linkage, however seemingly incompatible, separates the creative from the complacent: The creative individual can reach beyond habitual routines and invent new approaches to old problems, solutions that strike people with their appropriateness as well as originality. Those people slap their forehead and say, "Wow, why didn`t I think of that?"