One of the best things you can do for your organization is to be a champion for the creative process within yourself. Time after time, groups, companies and churches have made incredible breakthroughs and quantum leaps in their mission or strategies because someone had an "aha" thought, idea or perspective that changed everything: the way people looked at the product, outcomes, the resources required, or the agenda. There really isn't a way to overestimate how valuable this can be.

Now, you may be a highly structured and linear thinker and think that you aren't qualified in this area. Many organized leaders wonder if this is something they simply need to outsource to others. While it's true that there are gifted and trained people who are unusually talented in this area, creativity is also part of being in God's image. It is the heritage of every person and every leader. Remember Adam's creative mandate as the first leader of all: "So the LORD God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and the man chose a name for each one (Gen. 2:19)." With that in mind, let's look at some ways you can also stimulate your own creative process and help your group.

Understand the nature of creativity. Creativity isn't some magical or mystical experience that takes you over. It's a lot more understandable than that. At its core, creativity is simply recombination. That is, you take elements or pieces of a problem or situation and combine them in a way that is new and unique. My point is that creativity begins with the known and familiar. It's the recombination that is different. For example, you may look at your company's products and organize them in a way you haven't before, just to start the juices flowing. This can result in a new product, or a hybrid of a couple of them.

Separate yourself. This is an important aspect of creativity. To be separate is to own your own experiences, thoughts and emotions as yours and no one else's. You are the Petri dish of the creative process! When you can be aware of your reactions and perceptions, you are better able to notice things or ask questions that others aren't asking. Conversely, the leader who struggles with people pleasing is often hampered in being separate. He becomes too entangled in the experiences and happiness of those around him, and he loses access to himself. Learn to hold on to your views and thoughts, while respecting and listening to those of others.

Tolerate confusion. Not easy for the linear person, but essential to creativity. By its nature, creativity is delving into what is unknown and unfamiliar. Let go of the need for everything to be black and white. Allow ambiguity and confusion to exist, knowing that you are on the path to some answers. Psychologists have researched a mentality called foreclosure. This refers to the tendency to need to have answers before you have all the facts. Everyone knows a leader or two who is foreclosed, and they simply can't think outside the box. One description is that they are always certain, but often wrong. Confusion is your friend; it just makes you more curious.

Be with a no-shame team. This is related to the confusion piece, but it's significant on its own. You'll say and think things that make no sense and are bad ideas. Be sure you have some safe colleagues who don't care about that, but want you to keep thinking. No shame, no condemnation, no humiliation. With the creative process, especially in the early stages, it's all grace and no criticism from your friends! Take risks, and let your team support you.

Be diligent. It's counterintuitive that diligence, organization and structure help creativity, but they do. People often think about the mad scientist like the professor in Back to the Future as the prototype for creativity. Sometimes, however, a lack of structure can prohibit the process. Being diligent and organized helps by allowing you to put other matters aside, knowing you won't have some emergency while you are brainstorming. It also keeps you focused on the task, instead of being diverted. Sitting there and thinking is a good thing! Additionally, it keeps the elements of the known in front of you, so that you can shuffle them around in new and different ways.

Be a growing person. The tormented artist model looks great in movies, but he is really no more creative than the healthy pastor or businessperson. Your personal, spiritual and emotional growth support your creativity and help you engage in this process, as opposed to having to continually wrestle with your demons. I was talking to a good friend of mine who is a highly respected musician, composer and faculty member of a prestigious music academy. I asked him about happiness, torment and his composing. He said, "The better my life and my marriage, the better my compositions." So stay a growing and changing person.

I hope you enjoy your creativity as a leader. You can help your church, your people, your business, and perhaps come up with the next Big Idea for our culture. God bless you.

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

(2 Timothy 1:7, NIV)

A one-week
intensive workshop for leaders
with Dr. Henry Cloud
and Dr. John Townsend

Upcoming Ultimate Leadership workshop
in San Juan Capistrano, California

July 15 - 20, 2007

What one leader had to say about the Ultimate Leadership workshop experience...

After 30 years of pastoring I had become very aware of some chinks in my own armor. Desiring to "finish well" the course that God has set before me, I knew that something inside of me needed to be explored at a deeper level. Thus I signed up for the Ultimate Leadership Workshop. In a setting that was permeated with grace and acceptance, God was able to open up my heart and allow me to see to the root of some things that have dogged my steps and rendered parts of my ministry and leadership style ineffective. Ultimate Leadership was a painfully glorious experience. Painful, as God opened my eyes to some things desperately needing attention. Glorious because along with these revelations came waves of grace. I feel I've been given some tools that will help truly "apprehend that for which I have been apprehended of Christ" (Philippians 3:12). You and your staff are the best! The message of Cloud-Townsend Resources is even more powerful for me because I've seen and experienced first hand who and what you all are. Thank you once again for being a conduit for the Spirit of God.

Wayne Hoag, Pastor
Sierra Bible Church
Truckee, CA

 

 

 

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DR. HENRY CLOUD AND DR. JOHN TOWNSEND PRESENT THE ULTIMATE LEADERSHIP SIMULCAST SERIES-VIA SATELLITE!

In their ongoing work with hundreds of leaders, psychologists Drs. Henry Cloud and John Townsend have identified issues and challenges relevant to leaders everywhere. A few years ago, they created Ultimate Leadership, a one-week intensive workshop designed to address these leadership issues. Workshops are held throughout the year in Southern California.

Now, in conjunction with CCN (Church Communication Network), Drs. Cloud and Townsend present a monthly simulcast series that continues and complements the leadership training offered in the Ultimate Leadership workshop. Each one-hour simulcast provides key leadership insights and practices, all solidly based on biblical principles of leadership and character development. Each is designed to help fulfill the desire all leaders share: to become better leaders!

Making Small Groups Work

by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend

 

Here's an excerpt:

Realize that groups really are about the stuff of life and growth. Their power and potential cannot be overestimated. Groups provide a unique opportunity for many ingredients of growth and healing to intermingle. For some people, the group context can be the best, most profound, and most growth- producing set of experiences they have ever had or will have.

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