Work is a busy sounding word. After all, time is money and we need to get things
done. That means that in many businesses, we are encouraged to think fast, make
quick decisions and mistakes can be expensive - so don't make them! Once you
know what it feels like to be blamed when something does go wrong, or have
your boss criticise you in front of others, you learn to play it safe. You
learn to critically judge ideas, both your own and those of others, before
risking wasting time on them. The office can start to feel like a hospital
emergency room, as we quickly analyse make quick decisions and do what we know
will work. As most ideas do not emerge fully formed, this kind of working
environment will kill creativity. ?WhatIf! The Innovation Company, introduced a
simple method to encourage a culture of developing creative ideas. They called it
Greenhousing. The gardeners out there will already be familiar with
greenhouses - they allow plants that would not normally thrive in the "Four Seasons a Day"
British climate to flourish. The greenhouse provides access to sunlight
and warmth, whilst protecting plants from some of the harsher elements, and so
provides an environment that allows them to thrive and grow,
essentially by letting in the sun and keeping out the rain. ?WhatIf! describe a
typical response to a creative idea as one of critical judgment; an initial
reaction that is often based on our own patterns of behavior and assumptions
about the idea, rather than an actual understanding. This kind of judgmental
behavior is described as "emergency room thinking".
When hearing a new idea, the natural response for many people is to
immediately react before fully understanding the idea. They assume that
they know what the idea is, by hearing it through their own perception filters;
bringing their own assumptions rather than listening with an open mind to what
the other person is actually suggesting. As thinking is not aligned, each person
then attempts to promote or push their own ideas rather than hearing and
working with other people's suggestions. They try to insist that they are right.
Novel ideas are quickly killed or lost in the debate that follows.
You can easily spot a conversation taking place in the rain, as they will include
statements like "yeah but" or "we tried that before" or "sounds good in theory, but.."
New ideas do not emerge fully formed. Creativity is rarely a sudden flash of
inspiration or a Eureka moment that leads to the perfect solution. Ideas need
time to grow, to take shape and to evolve. The Greenhouse is a shared behavior that
allows novel ideas to be nurtured. It involves adopting positive language that
encourages others to explain their ideas, and for others to build on them or support them.
Greenhousing behaviour allows the Sun to shine on new ideas, and
creates the space that allows them to grow. First we suspend judgment. Now this
is easier said than done, but it involves not reacting to the idea - good or bad.
Reserve judgment and instead pause for two minutes to think about it. Look for
the positives and think about how you would want others to react if the idea
had come from you. Seek to Understand. Explore the idea by asking open
questions. This will elicit more detail about the idea and gain a real empathy
with the person that came up with it. What makes it a good idea for them?
How did the idea come about and what prompted it? Then nurture and build on
the idea, and make it stronger. Some ideas might not offer an opportunity to build
but even these can be nurtured. The trick is to seek the value within the idea, of
what motivated it, to find the angle. It is also an opportunity to find
alternatives, so that we leave the Greenhouse with a number of good ideas.
To learn more about Greenhousing, we recommend that you read "Sticky Wisdom" by
?Whatif! or their other book "How to Start a Creative Revolution of Work",
which we think is a better read. We often use the Greenhouse method in our
workshops to encourage positive participation. To learn more about the
services that we offer visit our website at www.optimatraining.co.uk