Creativity in management

The world is changing fast, so how can organisations deal with the increasing levels of chaos, complexity and ambiguity that they're beginning to face?

What does Einstein have to do with business management?
David Brook believes that he can help organisations make a quantum leap in the way they think about interacting with their environments. He encourages them to use principles that are not commonly applied to organisational development – music, poetry, theatre and even quantum physics.

Most current organisations have been founded upon Newtonian ways of thinking – as a great machine with parts and elements that interact with each other and can predict and deliver predetermined outputs.

However, when we look at quantum physics, we find that, when you look at subatomic levels, everything is made up of the same stuff – particles and waves. This is similar to the problems that organisations are facing. They say "I'm in marketing" or "I'm in finance" but really there's no difference between us – we're on a continuum.

Production team

The other relevance from quantum physics is that everything is made up two elements:

1. Relationships between particles and waves.
2. The energy that's there.

Organisations too are all about relationships and energy.

Einstein once said that everything is relevant, and making things relevant is key to being able to deal with an ever increasing picture.

One of the tenets of quantum physics is holism, of looking at wholes of things, looking at ever increasing bigger pictures to see the interconnectedness between things. Organisations tend to fragment and reduce their problems to their lowest form. They don't look at the big picture and then are suddenly hit with an unexpected, chaotic event.

Production team

Wonderment, play, adventure and exploration are evident all over the Techniquest Centre that we visited with David. He says that these are exactly the attributes organisations need in order to be more creative and better able to cope with the change and chaos that they are currently facing.

Take it further

Creative Management
J Henry, Sage

Creativity
M Csikszentmihaly, Harper

The Social Psychology of Creativity
T Amabile

B822 Techniques Library
J Martin, Open University Press 1999

Techniquest Centre.

For more information on all our courses in business and management, look at the OU's business and management website.