Holding the Tension Between Creativity and Risk - 3 Tips to Figure it Out

I believe all humans have a creative capacity – look at how children create stories and games and engage in make-believe.  I also believe we are hardwired to mitigate risk.  This creative capacity and this survival instinct can sometimes be at odds with each other.  In our work, creativity and innovation involve risk – the possibility that something could fail.  This is where the survival instinct kicks in - to protect, to sustain, to mitigate risk.

As individuals, and as organizations, we are at our best when we honor both of those instincts and hold them in balance.  We need some form of structure and we also need flexibility and freedom to create & innovate.  Why?

We are no longer in a “set it and forget it” world.  The world is changing at a rapid pace (and this is driving our survival instinct CRAZY!), and so, while an idea or solution may have worked for a season, it needs to evolve, scale, sunset, or shift to keep up with the current pace of change.

This is where we need systems and agreements in our organizations that help us to not simply hold our instinct for survival and creative capacity in tension.  We also need systems that encourage both to work together towards a common vision and goal.

The challenge is that we tend to get stuck in a zero-sum mindset.  We can be safe or we can be creative; which should we choose?  It's time to break that mindset. 

Here are three things you can do to start breaking that mindset in your organization and your life.

1. Acknowledge the reality of the risk.  Don’t pretend that the constraints, risks, or challenges aren’t real.  That’s not reality.  Instead, find ways to use those things to your advantage. This leads to the second thing…

2. Ask different questions.  Instead of binary “either-or” questions, ask” how might we” questions or questions that challenge the assumptions we have about the risk, constraint, or challenge.  This acknowledges the challenge and opens us up to possibilities in that challenge:
   - Given XYZ risks, how might we use our strengths to grow?
   - Given ABC constraints, where do we have influence that we can use to drive change?
   - What are the assumptions that we have about our constraints? Are those actually true or are they inaccurate? If they’re inaccurate, we may need better assumptions or information to drive change and support stability.

3. Place small bets before placing big bets.  We don’t have all the information we need when we are implementing changes or creating solutions.  One of the best ways to get more information is to prototype ideas, test them, and learn.  This limits risk while simultaneously encouraging creativity.

As we move forward in our lives and our organizations, we thrive best when we take meaningful risks using our creative capacity.  If we can foster that in our teams and our personal lives, we will get better, more impactful ideas that move our mission forward.

If you really want to geek out on this stuff, here are some books that I recommend to help shape your thinking:

Change by John P Kotter, Vanessa Akhtar, and Gaurav Gupta
Atomic Habits by James Clear
The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge
Think Again by Adam Grant
Strong and Weak by Andy Crouch
A Beautiful Constraint by Adam Morgan and Mark Barden