Which one is more important for an IT Team: creative thinking or critical thinking? I’m sure you’ll say both! But do you know how to activate your team’s creativity?

A few years back, when I was leading digital transformation initiatives as a CIO, I bragged to my Team about how I could foresee things before they happened. “Anything that could go wrong will go wrong” was my catchphrase. It was my way of saying: “Be careful! There are dragons out there! Be vigilant!”. I wanted my Team to be critical in their thinking so that we could increase our chance of success. So little did I know that it was a self-fulfilling prophecy. By cautioning them of potential failures, I robbed my Team of the very thing that would have made them succeed: being both creative and critical.

The thing about analytical thinking is that it draws upon the past experiences, situational circumstances, and behavioral patterns of those involved and tries to predict and choose the best course of action.

Is this bad?

Not necessarily! It is helpful in project management, quality control, and any data-driven decision-making activity that involves mathematical and logical analysis. But when it comes to being innovative, it limits our ability to be creative and discourages others from even trying to see possibilities. 

Where critical thinking is about analytical thinking and evaluating probabilities, creative thinking is more about generating new ideas and focusing on possibilities.

Where is Creativity located?

Did you know that our rational mind is located at the left side of our brain near the neuro-pathways that cause fear & anxiety? Interestingly, our creative powers are located at the opposite side of our brain. The right brain is where our higher brain functions like empathy, curiosity, creativity, and clear-headed laser-focused fearless action are located. #positiveintelligence

Unfortunately, most IT professionals only know how to access their left brain, and so when it comes to being creative, they use “the wrong brain” for the job: the rational brain.

When we activate the rational brain, instead of generating new ideas and seeing possibilities, we immediately evaluate the possibility of those new ideas and label them as impossible. With each evaluation, we create scenarios in which those possibilities will fail. And it, in turn, activates the brain’s fear circuitry:

• What if I’m wrong?
• What if this idea fails?
• What if we can’t implement this idea?
• What if the CEO or customer says no?
• What if my manager says no?
• What if I speak my mind and my peers or manager says it’s a stupid idea?
• What if our competitor has a better idea?
• What if we don’t have the right people for this?” 

Should I continue? 

In neuroscience, there’s an old saying: “Neurons that fire together, wire together.” Therefore the more we use our left brain to create, the more we generate fear. Fear will literally hijack our brain, overwhelm us, and so we fail to generate creative ideas.

Research shows that fear, especially fear of failure and being laughed at, is the #one enemy of creating innovative teams.

You are responsible

As an IT leader, you’re responsible for creating a trusting space that encourages creativity. You must help your team to access their right brain using scientific methods. IT people have powerful minds, critical and creative. The problem is that we don’t know how to access the correct one on-demand.

So, what can you do?

Here is one technique to activate your creativity:

Conclusion

The #one enemy of creativity is fear of failure, and you can shift from being afraid to being curious by using your right brain. Keep practicing the above steps, and I promise that you will keep generating more innovative ideas than before.

What next?

If you care for your IT Team’s success and are curious about learning mental fitness techniques that will help you and your Team create a sustainable, innovative culture, let’s connect and talk.

Still not sure if you should connect with me?

What are you afraid of?