Creativity and Complexity – Viewpoint from 1500 Leaders Worldwide
Creativity and Complexity - CEO Study From IBM
First let me thank IBM for committing to excellence and curiosity. This is their work and it’s probably the best “thing” you’ll read this year and the shortest at 76 pages but worth every moment you spend. Enjoy!
Here’s what the site Design Mind (thanks and love the site) had to say and where I originally found the link to this report, I guess I’ll call it a white paper but it’s so much more.
IBM has just released its fourth annual survey based on 1500 face-to-face interviews with global CEOs. Past studies have been rich sources of understanding the trends that company leaders are seeing shaping their businesses. The opening statement by IBM’s own CEO, Samuel J. Palmisano, sets the stage for this year’s study:
“[E]vents, threats and opportunities aren’t just coming at us faster or with less predictability; they are converging and influencing each other to create entirely unique situations. These firsts-of-their-kind developments require unprecedented degrees of creativity — which has become a more important leadership quality than attributes like management discipline, rigor or operational acumen.”
Having written a lot about the new breed of complex problems businesses are facing today, this rang true with me. In fact, the study’s findings line up well with the challenges and approaches I describe in Innovation X. Here’s a small sample and the main brief from IBM’s findings:
Embody creative leadership: Creative leaders invite disruptive innovation, encourage others to drop outdated approaches and take balanced risks. (In Innovation X I refer to this as divergence)
Reinvent customer relationships: In a massively interconnected world, CEOs prioritize customer intimacy as never before. Globalization, combined with dramatic increases in the availability of information, has exponentially expanded customers’ options. (Immersion)
Build operating dexterity: CEOs are revamping their operations to stay ready to act when opportunities or challenges arise. (Adaption)
Stella Pop says, it’s all about harnessing and setting free all at the same time, your organizations creativity and ability to approach problems with an open mind.
