Why Your Team Isn’t Creative? How to Build Innovation – Dr. Amy Climer #356
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Why Your Team Isn't Creative? How to Build Innovation #356
Are you trying to foster innovation, but your team meetings end up being repetitive and uninspired? It’s a common challenge for leaders: you have a room full of smart people, but unlocking their collective creative genius feels just out of reach. If you’re ready to move beyond stagnant brainstorming sessions and drive real results, you’re in the right place.
We’ve distilled the key insights from a powerful conversation with Dr. Amy Climer, a leading expert on team creativity and author of Deliberate Creative Teams. Drawing from her appearance on the Super Creativity Podcast, this guide breaks down her proven framework for building highly innovative teams. You’ll discover the three critical elements every team needs—Purpose, Dynamics, and Process—and learn actionable strategies, like using “creative abrasion,” to transform your team’s culture and output.
Get ready to learn not just why innovation matters, but how to deliberately cultivate it.
🎙️ Top 5 Soundbites:
On Intentionality: “If you want to be creative, if you want to be innovative, you have to be intentional about it. I say it all the time: Be deliberate to be creative. It will not happen by accident.”
On Productive Conflict: “We need what’s called ‘creative abrasion’—the ability to disagree about the work. If everyone in the meeting says ‘that looks fine’ but complains in the hallway, that’s not helping anybody.”
On Problem-Solving: “Many teams jump to solutions without deeply understanding the problem. Research shows that if you just spend five minutes clarifying the issue, you can get dramatically better results.”
On a Common Misconception: “I’ve had CEOs say, ‘I don’t want my team to be creative, I just want them to be innovative.’ They see creativity as frivolous, but true creativity is about generating novelty that is valuable.”
On Making Time for Innovation: “Teams always say ‘time’ is their biggest barrier. But are you still doing things you no longer need to? We all have ‘antiquated bureaucratic remnants’—like a report no one reads—that we can let go of to create space for new ideas.”
Takeaways
Innovation Requires a Three-Part Alignment. Successful creative teams don't happen by accident. They require the deliberate alignment of three key elements: a clear Team Purpose (the 'why'), healthy Team Dynamics (the 'who' and 'how' of interaction), and an effective Creative Process (the 'what' and 'when' of doing the work). When one of these is missing, innovation falters.
Embrace 'Creative Abrasion,' Not Relationship Conflict. Productive teams need to engage in task-based conflict, which Dr. Climer calls "creative abrasion." This is the healthy debate and disagreement about the work itself. It's crucial to foster an environment where ideas can be challenged without it becoming personal, as relationship conflict is always destructive to creativity.
Don't Solve the Wrong Problem: Clarify First. Teams often rush to generate solutions before they fully understand the problem. Dr. Climer highlights that even spending just five minutes
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