Creativity Isn't Just for the Corner Office

My middle school English teacher told me, "Writers write best about what they know." Even in genres like science fiction, where the setting is foreign, the themes are still very likely intimately connected to the author. They're writing about what they know.

In the corporate world, we often hear that creativity is welcomed and rewarded. But as Erica Lamberg reports in Fast Company, too often the only people with the key ingredients for creativity, time and permission, are in executive seats. While well-intentioned, they're often too far from the very work they're trying to solve for. On the other side of the coin are field-level roles, highly engaged with their market, customers and product. But because they're stuck in constant delivery mode, they rarely get the room to think outside the box.

So what's the answer? Like many things in life, there isn't an easy button. The annual offsite or internal think-tank competition is sure to produce some flashes of genius, but they may be just that: flashes. Consistent creative innovation requires the hardest thing for any business to commit to:

• Space and time (for all)

• Agency to experiment (for all)

• Safe feedback loops (for all)

On space and time, organizations that run on the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) should already be practicing Clarity Breaks.

A Clarity Break is dedicated, uninterrupted time set aside to reflect on the business from a high-level perspective, rather than focusing on day-to-day operations. A Clarity Break is NOT a break from meetings to work the to-do list, catch up on email or finally get back to the client who's been hovering over your shoulder. The goal is to gain clarity, restore confidence and make strategic decisions that line up with the long-term objectives of your role and the business. A Clarity Break works best when it is:

• Pre-scheduled and treated as sacred time

• Outside your normal space (go for a walk, visit a coffee shop, sit in a different room of your house)

• Disconnected from technology (leave the phone, close the computer)

• Done with a pencil and notepad to capture ideas

• Focused on answering strategic questions

When we talk about creativity, we often think about artists and less about boring ol' desk jobs. But while art is a product of creativity, creativity itself is a process that can be applied to almost anything. An artist's 9-to-5 may look different than ours, but artists are the first to admit to their ruthless discipline, consistency and freedom of practice. That's where their best creative work is born.