The Creative Civil Servant
As part of an Advanced Leadership Programme, the National School of Government has been teaching top civil servants how to get creative.Here Anthony Landale outlines the approach taken and reports on some of the key techniques they have been learning.
Every organisation wants to encourage creativity in its people. Why? Because it is through creativity that innovative cultures are developed, efficiency savings are made and service improvements are delivered.
But do we really want creative thinking from our civil servants? Isn’t there an argument to say that rather than creativity we want better performance, better value for money and more effective working?
…The reality is that creativity is perhaps even more important in the civil service than elsewhere in business or industry…
If that is your view then it doesn’t stack up. The reality is that creativity is perhaps even more important in the civil service than elsewhere in business or industry. In government the budgets are often enormous, projects extremely high profile and the impact of thinking frequently has national significance. Whether it is about new IT projects, joined-up government or improving users’ experience of services, there is intense pressure across government for ideas that work, for thinking that releases potential and for projects that deliver innovative solutions.
And it is for this reason that as part of its Advanced Leadership Programme, the National School of Government, that part of the Cabinet Office which is looking to develop leadership in the top civil servants in the UK, has included creativity in its curriculum.
According to Winston Sutherland, Director for the Advanced Leadership Programme at the National School of Government the need for such input is clear: “The top civil servants who come on this programme want practical ways of harvesting the best ideas. In this respect this programme has to be powerful, practical and relevant. These guys can pick up ideas fast; they know the challenges and the imperatives they face and they need effective processes that they can use to address them. That’s why we asked a company with a proven track record to provide a creative toolbox that would add real value to their current thinking.”
The company that the Advanced Leadership Programme has chosen to deliver this programme is Illumine - a training company with a leading reputation in the field of Mind Mapping, creativity and problem solving. The lead trainer who has been working with the civil servants is Rebecca Stewart and she outlined the approach she has been taking.
…often people get stuck in their ways of thinking about problems and have difficulty changing their lens…
“First and foremost the civil servants I’ve been working with have wanted a practical approach to creativity. They are thirsty for ways of thinking that open up possibilities and are extremely self-motivated. More than this they all clearly want to move at pace. They know what the hot issues are in their departments and want processes that help them get results. In this respect I provided them with effective models and perspectives which they then worked with and started to apply to the real issues that they are facing.”
The creative toolbox that Rebecca Stewart has unlocked for the National School of Government has included some interesting idea generating tools. One such is the reversal thinking method which can be explained as follows.
Often people get stuck in their ways of thinking about problems and have difficulty changing their lens. In this context a creative way to stimulate a breakthrough is by reversing the situation or problem. Take, as a simple example, the case of the leader who needed new ideas on how to run an effective and stimulating meeting. Situation reversal helped this leader by asking how she could ensure that the next meeting she ran would be a complete failure. Looked at from this perspective she was quite clear on what she could do to ensure the meeting would waste everybody’s time. She would:
- invite the wrong people
- fail to inform people what the meeting was about
- ensure she gave people no advance notice
- interrupt whatever people were doing
- make the room too hot or too cold
- give people little or no chance to contribute
- fail to arrive at any actions
- wander off the agenda
The point of this process is immediately apparent. Once you come up with a list of what doesn’t work it immediately highlights what to avoid and in so doing points to what you should be doing instead.
Another creativity technique familiar to some but still not used widely enough is Mind Mapping.
In essence Mind Maps are a way of organising and presenting information in a visual way which correlate with the way our minds actually work. We don’t think in lists or long essays - we think in images and key themes, shapes and patterns, all connected one to another.
But is Mind Mapping a serious business tool? Absolutely. Mind Mapping is a technique that is proven to help learning, aid memory and is efficient in recording and storing information. As to how it relates to creativity, one example is in the way leaders can use Mind Mapping to help teams brainstorm for new ideas. “By using the techniques of Mind Mapping a leader can help a team to gather all the key ideas and present them in one big visual,” explained Rebecca Stewart. “Mind Mapping is a non-hierarchical process that encourages group thinking and allows people to build on themes as they arise. When teams are trying to combine their various perspectives and ideas around key issues or projects such an associative thinking approach is extremely productive.”
…it is then the task of departments and agenciesto deliver and a key part of delivery is in civil servants being creative…
But if idea-generating techniques are one part of the equation there is also another hugely important aspect of creativity that is at stake here - and that is how to evaluate the ideas that are generated. In this context The Six Thinking Hats model that Illumine introduces into their programmes is particularly powerful.
Explains Rebecca Stewart: “”The Six Thinking Hats method is simple. The team leader or facilitator outlines six imaginary hats, each of which has a different colour. When the team ‘puts on’ any single hat they then agree to operate exclusively in that mode of thinking. And when they change hats they change their thinking mode. So for example, ‘White Hat’ thinking is like a white page and encourages people to look at a problem from the perspective of ‘what information do we need?’ It provides a neutral, information gathering perspective. In contrast to this ‘Red Hat’ thinking provides the opportunity for the team to look at the problem from what they feel about it - from their gut instinct or intuition. Alternatively ‘Yellow Hat’ thinking gives the team permission to address the benefits of the issue … to say what will work.
”The beauty of Six Hats is that it allows a team to have productive discussions based on different perspectives. Instead of adversarial thinking it promotes cooperative exploration,” she said.
These, of course, only represent some of the ideas that are explored in the creativity programme but they represent an approach that has been welcomed by participants who have already applied them to their projects. Indeed the initial success of the programme has already led its inclusion as a regular feature on the Advanced Leadership Programme and it has also now being run at DEFRA as a direct result of its impact.
As Winston Sutherland concluded: “In the civil service changes are often launched because of either political or ministerial pressures such as efficiency drives. However, it is then the task of departments and agencies to deliver and a key part of delivery is in civil servants being creative. In this respect we see the need for counter-cultural thinking, creative behaviours that need to be rewarded and methods for finding innovative solutions. Illumine has been helping us with exactly this challenge.”
Find out more about the range of creativity courses that we offer.
Tags: Case studies, Creative thinking techniques, DEFRA, Mind Mapping, Public Sector Specific, Six Thinking Hats - Edward de Bono (Training)