“I keep six honest serving men (they’ve taught me all I knew)

Their names are What and Why and When

And How and Where and Who….  Rudyard Kipling

Athletes on the track win by a split second...canoeists by an oar stroke…horses by a nose…football teams by one creative pass. The winners have just a slight edge over the rest of the field and this we call The Leader’s Edge. In business it’s also the all-important difference between leading the field and being one of the “also-rans”.

You can attempt to gain a leading edge by practising good tried and true management skills such as time management, delegation, negotiation, personnel management, team building, goal setting etc. These skills are very important  But none of these acquired skills can be effectively applied if you are not thinking creatively about how to apply them.  How you think about problems, how you assess opportunities, how you decide on a course of action, how you provide solutions...it all boils down to how creatively you can apply your mind.

Your mind, like your body, needs regular exercise, stretching and bending to keep it supple. And it requires a healthy diet of stimulation, imagination and positive out-of-the box enthusiasm.

Begin by thinking about how you are thinking. Are you actually using your mind, or is it just droning away at the back of your head and leading you where it wants?  Try to regain curiosity. Don’t just look at things. Wonder how they work, how they were invented, how might they be used in some other form or context. What changes would you make to create an improvement.  A curious and enquiring mind sees solutions to problems that others may not see. Try this exercise; write down twenty unusual ways to use a paperclip. Do such exercises regularly and you’ll be amazed how your ability to generate good ideas will develop.

There are various exercises you can use to develop your powers of creative thinking. S-C-A-M-P-E-R is a good one. It stands for SUBSTITUTE, COMBINE, ADD, MAGNIFY or MINIFY, PUT TO OTHER USES, ELIMINATE, REVERSE.  Examine your project under every heading having first made quite sure you understand the problem.

For example can you substitute an unfamiliar ingredient for a familiar one? Can you substitute one machine for another? Combine is the next to try if you are looking for more ideas than substitute could give you. Can you, for example combine the strength of one product with the softness of another to create more consumer appeal?. Can you combine any two elements of your business, or any two ideas, to make one solution to the product before you? Add is the next keyword to consider. Can you add more ingredients to make something more useful, or something additional to change an appearance?

 

Magnify or Minify…is there any advantage to increasing the size beyond expected levels? Or making it smaller eg enlarging your delivery area, or reducing the size, or number of your vehicles, enlarging user benefits, making smaller the amount of paperwork customers must fill out? Put to Other Uses…allows you to explore endless new possibilities and new ways to look at old and familiar problems.                                                                                                                         

 

Did you know that the turbine was first invented by Tibetan monks for spinning their prayer-wheels? There are not really any new ideas..everything is based on some other thought or previous idea. Gunpowder was used in China for fireworks before it was used to propel bullets. It was simply put to another use by someone’s creative thinking.

 

Use the keyword eliminate . Can you eliminate lost and damaged tools by putting in an incentive scheme? Can you eliminate expensive packaging? Can you eliminate loss producing product lines?  Reverse is the final keyword. Can you reverse a schedule so that you get better results? Can you work out of your client’s premises instead of your own?

 

S-C-A-M-P-E-R is just one very powerful lateral thinking technique that we recommend because it forces you to view the problem from eight different perspectives. The main rule to apply is that you jot down anything that comes to mind. There must be no censure or criticism, or evaluation of ideas until you have gone right through the process. The bigger the volume of free flowing ideas the better, no matter how wild and unworkable or impractical some may seem. (The more ideas you put down on paper the more successful will be your evaluation at the end). Your mind is literally forced out of rutted thinking avenues and preconceived ideas that inhibit free thinking and prevent the leader from approaching the opportunities of change in a creative manner.

 

Practise looking at usual things in an unusual way. Don’t listen to people who immediately say “it won’t work!” But do learn to accept constructive criticism. Leaders accept criticism. Dictators don’t. Don’t be afraid to have a vision of things that rock the boat and threaten preconceived methods and workings. And learn to enjoy facing and creatively solving problems. In their solution is your success as a leader.

 

 

 

By Phil Sinclair from the Leader’s-Edge management training programme for Small Business, 12 titles available at low cost on audio Cd’s. www.leadersedge.co.za