Acts of leadership, and creativity

Despite, or perhaps because of, my commerce background (both theoretical and practical) I am very wary of taking business practice and trying to apply it to educational leadership, organisation, or practice. I do not believe that the competitive market model has served schools and our young people well.

With that mind-set I read this recent article from McKinsey and Co on creativity and business. I continue to believe that we need more creativity in schools, that we need our young people to be more creative. My specific interest still lies in those leadership practices that give us more creative schools i.e. what specific, deliberate, and intentional, acts do we need to see from Tumuaki, senior leaders, HoDs.. in fact all teachers and school staff, that will make schools more creative places for our rangatahi, places that nurture creativity amongst rangatahi and kaiako alike?

The acknowledgement from McKinsey and Co about the importance of creativity to business awas, I thought, a god start.

As obvious as it may sound, creativity and innovation need to be business priorities. Even more important, a company needs to execute on those priorities in its daily practices. This can be difficult, given the relentless pressures on business leaders to hit quarterly financial targets.

It is however the few lines in the article that look at specific leadership practices that caught my eye:

In companies within the top ACS quartile, senior executives serve as role models for creativity and innovation. They don’t simply encourage their people to pursue those objectives—they see themselves as personally on the hook to deliver creativity and innovation. 

In addition, almost 60 percent of companies in the top ACS quartile self-identify as industry shapers or innovation leaders versus slightly more than one-third of their peers. In the most creative firms, a strong narrative has permeated the enterprise: people inside the organization believe in what the company is trying to do and that they can help to achieve it.

And this next statement I think supports the view that this focus spans all levels of the organisation, from front facing customer service right through to governance:

This commitment is reflected in a mind-set that prioritizes creativity and innovation. Thirty percent of the firms in the ACS top quartile discuss creativity and innovation at more than half of their board meetings versus only 20 percent of peer firms.

I don't think there is in fact anything here that is rocket science. There are generalisable lessons that apply whether in business or education (that makes a change, eh) .

• More creative schools will come about when leadership and governance value creativity
• We will have more creative schools when leaders and Board members both 'talk the talk' and 'walk the talk' i.e. when they keep talking up the value of creativity, challenging colleagues to imagine what this all looks like, and when they act in ways that show that they believe this
• You get what you focus on

A simple Google search on leadership and creativity immediately yielded this result. The post led with this quote: 

“The role of a creative leader is not to have all the ideas; it’s to create a culture where everyone can have ideas and feel that they’re valued. So it’s much more about creating climates. I think it’s a big shift for a lot of people.”

– Sir Ken Robinson

This diagram took my eye:

There is far more in this one article alone that deserves unpacking, but that's enough for now.

Better schools won't come about when we test learners more relentlessly. Better schools will come about when we focus on what really matters, not the measuring but the thinking, the acting, the doing. It would be hard to disagree with the views Bali Haque expressed in this recent article.

So my challenge to all school leaders is this: what will you do each week, each day, each hour, that makes it clear to all that you value creativity? What will you do to "create a culture where everyone can have ideas and feel that they’re valued." ?

And if you don't accept the belief that creativity is important, what will it take to convince you?