A colleague and I were talking the other day about optimism and the power of positive thinking. It reminded me of a professor of creativity with whom I once had the pleasure of working. He was often asked what the secret to creativity is. His answer was always preceded by a big smile and then he pointed to a button he always wore on his lapel which said “What’s good about it?”

I didn’t get his point at first. So he explained that creativity and excellence are often the victims of societal conformity. Have you ever watched children at play? They are enormously creative. Using nothing more than their imaginations they can turn any situation into whatever they wish. They can be whomever they wish, whenever they wish.

But society comes along and asks them to conform. ”You must color the sky blue and the grass green. And do it neatly. Stay inside the lines.” And before you know it they grow up to be better at criticizing and finding fault than at creating. They learn to say, “That’ll never work” and “Here’s what’s wrong with your idea”.

When I visited the Sagrada Familia basilica in Barcelona which was designed by Gaudí I was awestruck by the raw creativity of it. It reminded me of how people reacted when Picasso’s giant cubist sculpture was erected in the center of Chicago, a gift from the artist to the people of the city. It was received with no more grace than the tie your mother-in-law gave you last Christmas.

But what was the message of that button my professor friend wore? He explained that creativity is the ability to suspend judgment and criticism, focusing instead on the potential in any situation. The question is not what’s wrong with it or why won’t it work, but what is good about it.

Imagine this scenario: a company prints high-end calendars which are given away for promotional purposes by a consulting company. You know the kind, a large wall calendar with a page for each month and on each page is a glorious color reproduction of a quality piece of art.

Now imagine that the company has just completed its biggest order ever, just in time to be distributed by the consulting company to all its customers for the new year. While the boxes sit in the mailroom, an executive casually pulls one out to admire the excellent workmanship. Paging through it he suddenly discovers a horrible error. The month of April has been printed with day 31. May starts on the correct day, but April is a problem. And the calendars can be taken apart to replace the page without ruining them. He immediately recognizes that there is no way to glue a sticker over the 31st without destroying the quality image of the workmanship.

He thinks: we’re ruined. There is no time to get new paper stocks and totally reprint the large order. The deadline for delivery is absolute. We’ll be the laughing stock of the industry. He thinks, “Someone’s head will roll for this”.

But the young mailroom clerk has an idea. At minimal cost he has a very simple sticker printed and affixes it NEXT to the number 31 on the month of April. Though skeptical, the boss allows him to ship the calendars without comment to the client. And they hold their collective breath.

No complaint. Better yet, the invoice is paid in full. And a year later the consulting company calls to place a larger order than the previous year with the caveat: Make sure to do that thing with April 31st and the sticker which read “Using our service is like having an extra day in your month”. Everyone talked about it.

If you want to change the tone in your organization and crank up the creativity quotient, start by getting rid of the blame culture. Then you might take the step of exploring the concept of appreciative inquiry.

That is a system which promotes the best in people, their organizations, and the relevant world around them. In its broadest focus, it involves systematic discovery of what gives “life” to a living system when it is most alive, most effective, and most constructively capable in economic, ecological, and human terms. AI involves, in a central way, the art and practice of asking questions that strengthen a system’s capacity to apprehend, anticipate, and heighten positive potential.

- Herb Nestler

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