The HR hot seat Comment
Creative collaboration isn’t
just a nice to have for HR professionals,
it is key to how we can help
our teams to innovate and adapt
There is no ‘one size fits all’ when
it comes to describing creativity.
The key is that we can work in
different creative ways to access our
inner wisdom and bypass our
conscious minds, which have a
tendency to hold us back by filtering
information. Our conscious minds
also prefer what we already know to
the unknown when faced with
something new.
Creativity and creative
collaboration can help us to break
through our limiting beliefs, to
transcend our fears and manifest our
ideas, hopes and aspirations. So
creative collaboration isn’t just a nice
to have for HR professionals, it is key
to how we can help our teams to
innovate and adapt.
Creativity can also act as a catalyst
for profound change. In other words,
it’s central to business agility,
resilience and competitiveness. The
Coronavirus is a good example of
how creative solutions can emerge in
a period of significant disruption. In
the past I have seen flexible working
described as a negative option, a
recruitment deal breaker and even as
‘counter culture’.
Now, however, employers are
doing everything they can to ensure
that staff are fully supported for
home working. This goes to show
that when we have developed the
creative muscle to respond in the
moment we can get to these
collaborative solutions with more
ease and speed.
So how can HR professionals equip
themselves with creative credentials?
As creativity is essentially a
state of mind it requires us to fully
understand what it means to be
‘human’ at all times. In other words:
a creative leader is someone who is
curious and also understands how to
listen to themselves and to listen to
others – what’s known as deep
listening or ‘deep democracy’. It
also energises people and helps to
optimise their creative potential
if they know that they are being
truly heard.
Recently I was able to use creative
collaboration to help facilitate a
retreat for LGBT+ people of faith at a
646-year-old chapel in Essex. One of
the objectives was to help the group
come together in a way that would
enable them to find nourishment and
support from each other, as well as
provide a network moving forward.
Once trust was established we
opened up to play. Having fun is very
important when it comes to creativity
as it helps to bypass the conscious
mind and access a deeper inner
wisdom and truth.
In my experience a receptive and
open culture that can support
creative collaboration is one that also
ensures that the voices that often
don’t get heard are encouraged and
supported. The focus is on tapping
into everyone’s inner knowledge, our
collective and shared wisdom.
HR has an important role in
helping to create a culture of trust
and psychological safety, a place
where it’s OK for people to make
themselves vulnerable and tell their
truth. This is critical because it takes
courage to create and it can be all too
easy to kill the idea and discourage
the person who had it if feedback
is inappropriate.
Leaders of creative collaboration
would do well to be bold and to
embrace disruptive thinking and
challenge the status quo. It’s about
asking difficult questions, challenging
assumptions and encouraging
experimentation. It’s easy for teams,
even whole organisations, to get into
the rut of ‘this is the way we do things
around here’ and ignore or smother
dissenting voices.
HR has an important role to play
in leading this creative charge. While
it can take bravery to disrupt things,
for those who are willing to try new
creative approaches and new ways of
working it will pay dividends. And
when we listen deeply to our people,
are curious about the unknown, and
provide a supportive environment
this in turn creates the conditions for
more compassion and humanity in
the workplace. HR
Liz Nottingham is former executive HR director EMEA at R/GA
hrmagazine.co.uk April 2020 HR 15
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