The Creativity Imperative

by John Harrison

The Action Research Roundtable on Creativity was created in January 2005 by the Canada School of Public Service to examine the barriers that inhibit public sector creativity, and develop a solution for executives in the workplace. Canadian Government Executive spoke with Diane Vincent, executive vice president of the Canadian International Development Agency, about her role in leading the Roundtable and fostering creativity.


How did this current focus on creativity emerge?

Creativity is an imperative for modern public organizations. The Canada School of the Public Service put the Action Research Roundtable on Creativity together to look at how leaders could foster an environment that could unleash creativity. This is not about creative people. This is about creative organizations and the role of leaders at all levels.

There is a renewed interest around the world on creativity, not only in academic and business circles in Canada and in the United States, but also in Germany, France and more recently at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where leaders reinforced ‘the creative imperative’.

I think the timing is excellent for the executives of our public service to reengage a dialogue on creativity. The Roundtable members see creativity as mission critical and want to provide support to our leaders in the public service.

We want to reach out to leaders of the public service. We are engaging in a dialogue on why creativity is mission critical, how it provides value for Canadians and how it can build trust in our public institutions. We think that effective leaders of the 21st century will be the ones who can foster environments in which creativity thrives. This requires focus, hard work and leadership at all levels of our organizations.

Supported by the CSPS, the Roundtable has developed a leadership guide on creativity that will be launched at the Leadership 2006 ‘The Creativity Challenge’ conference March 22 and 23.

The guide summarizes what we have learned about the barriers to creativity and the factors that enable creativity within the workplace. It provides practical techniques, a diagnostic tool and an action path on the type of things leaders can do to promote creativity within their own back yards.

Although the literature is thin on creativity in the public service – few attribute major breakthroughs such as the inventions of the internet to the public sector – research demonstrates a lot of possibilities to unleash creativity.

In the guide, Creativity at Work, we cite a survey of 436 prize-winning innovations within US and Commonwealth public institutions that says a great deal about the relative prevalence of implementation obstacles, at least within success stories. “Resistance from outside of government (e.g., opposition from interest groups, the general public and private sector companies) accounted for 24% of obstacles faced. Resistance from ‘political’ forces (e.g., laws, regulations, inadequate resources, and opposition from politicians) accounted for 23%. The remaining 53% were obstacles within the public service, including coordination problems, logistical obstacles and obstructive attitudes. This means that a large portion of innovations spearheaded by public servants are hindered by their colleagues (advertently and inadvertently). To a large extent, these internal obstacles result from the tendency of innovations to uproot long-standing occupational patterns and power structures.”

For me, this means that action could be taken now. We can make a difference in fostering creativity in our workplace. Success belongs to each of us. This is a leadership responsibility that I consider very important, and I hope many share this view.

What sorts of creativity success stories can we celebrate?

There are all sorts of successes from our public service where creativity was put to work, the Connecting Canadians agenda, Government Online initiative (a finalist at the UN Public Service Awards), and Canada’s response to the Tsunami crisis and other international emergencies. These are all examples of creativity reaping rewards for Canadians. I am sure your readers could name some examples as well. Unfortunately, the public does not know about them.

How does this focus on innovation and creativity square with the emphasis on the need for better controls and accountability?

The evolution that took place in the thinking of Roundtable members around the relationship between creativity and controls is interesting. At first, we thought creativity and controls were in opposition; we changed our minds along the way, and arrived at the conclusion that they must be in balance. We found similarities between the discipline around controls and the discipline we need to foster creativity. Creativity is about surfacing and tackling difficult issues, producing valuable solutions and implementing them. Leveraging the power of creativity requires focus, discipline and hard work. It doesn’t just happen one day; we have to deliberately create the opportunity for creativity to flourish.

How can we recognize and support creativity?

At the Leadership 2006 conference, we will have the opportunity to open up the dialogue on creativity by asking the question: so what’s our creative agenda? We’ll try to come up with broad recommendations around learning, rewards and recognition. We’re hoping the CSPS will look at the recommendations and support learning opportunities on creative processes, for example, by developing case studies on creative workplaces. We’re also hoping that public sector executives will use the leadership guide and take responsibility for their own creativity agenda. In the end, a creative workplace and creative processes are not ‘add-ons’ on our long list of management responsibilities, but a powerful way to accomplish our mission. It becomes a performance driver.

For further details on the conference, visit the Canada School of the Public Service website: http://myschool-monecole.gc.ca/events/conferences/leadership.