It’s rare to hear about creativity in sports. Here’s an interesting story:
BOISE — As the college football world knows, Boise State does things differently, from its blue turf to a roster full of players who were too short or too slow or simply overlooked to its offensive wizardry. So where does coach Chris Petersen find his inspiration?
At times, from a dancer or maybe a sheriff or perhaps a software engineer. This, too, is unconventional: Petersen is a member of an eclectic group of eight creative and innovative leaders in Boise known as “The Gang.”
When the football coach first sat next to the ballet dancer at a Gang meeting, Petersen said to himself, “We couldn’t be any more different.” Then he listened and realized how much they had in common. Brought together by Boise State business professor Nancy Napier,
“We are not creative here. We are football coaches. We try to do the same thing over and over. It’s about routine,” Petersen said. At that point, even the word “creative” sounded too artsy to Petersen.
“After meeting a few times, I had an epiphany. Bam! I started realizing game-plan wise, there wasn’t enough creativity. I started looking at things a different way. We need structure, we need order, we need schedules and we need our system taught a certain way. But within that there needs to be a creativity to keep growing, to keep the energy and the enthusiasm. What new wrinkles do we need to make us better? I think that’s one of the reasons we’re not afraid to take chances and do different things. We have to do that to be who we are.”
Source:Kelly Whiteside,USA TODAY 2010-10-06
In my view every business leader needs a gang, comprised of people from different disciplines to offer perspectives from different points of view. Connecting to a group online is one option, but nothing beats face to face dialogue over food and beverages.
See also:
Can Art Inspire Creativity in the Workplace?
What is Creativity? (And why is it a crucial factor for business success?)
Reflections on Working with Centres of Excellence
