You don’t have to be ‘creative’ to come up with a better way

Creativity is the in thing today. People go to seminars to learn how to be creative. Managers want creativity, and people whose ideas made them rich are considered creative heroes.

Looking for big ideas and earth-shattering discoveries is fine, but big inventions like steam engines and cell phones are rare.

Professor Robin Hanson of George Mason University hits the target when he says the innovations that matter most are the millions of small changes we constantly make to our daily procedures and work. These changes don’t require free-spirited self-expression. Rather, people naturally think of them as they go about their daily business and social lives.

There is a surplus of big ideas, those that take big money to pursue. People long to be creative heroes. Hanson thinks striving too much for creativity can actually reduce innovation. It tends to make people compete for the credit behind an idea. Some just join the crowd behind an idea, which can distract from really making it work.

Quoted in Business Week, Hanson says we don’t need more creativity exercises. People doing the work have plenty of good ideas. We just need to manage those we already have and reward those who put them to use.

The bottom line is that you don’t have to be an inventive genius to come up with a way to eliminate unnecessary steps or make your work simpler. When you know what to do, tell your boss.