Boosting Organizational Creativity: The Power of Defaults and Templates
Introduction: Unleashing Organizational Creativity Boosting organizational performance and sparking creativity often hinges on the overlooked power of everyday tools: templates and defaults. Recently, I've been thinking about the balance between standards and templates, and the role of structured thinking in decision-making. Consequently, this week's blogpost centres around this topic.
At the heart of a thriving creative environment are well-structured systems, structures, frameworks, and processes – our 'defaults'. These defaults shape our workflow, foster teamwork, and influence decision-making. They construct a platform that allows teams to focus their cognitive efforts on innovation and creative problem-solving.
In preparing this blogpost, I was able to draw on the books I’ve read in the last years.
Checklists and Organizational Benefits In many ways, the benefits of defaults are like the benefits of checklists, as championed by Atul Gawande in "The Checklist Manifesto". In the same way that a pilot's checklist streamlines operations and reduces errors, defaults in organizational processes can streamline workflows, align efforts, and reduce cognitive load.
The Manager's Toolbox Defaults serve as the manager's toolbox. As Andy Grove discusses in "High Output Management", one of the key responsibilities of a manager is to establish the right system. A well-designed default process serves as the scaffolding, providing the structure that supports the organization's creative efforts. It frees team members from the mental load of navigating ambiguous systems or designing their own processes, allowing them to focus more on creativity and problem-solving.
"Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things." - Peter Drucker
Designing Versatile Systems But defaults aren't one-size-fits-all. As Donella Meadows explores in "Thinking in Systems", systems need to be carefully designed and continually adjusted to remain fit for purpose. The system must align with the mission and strategy of the organization, much as Richard Rumelt outlines in "Good Strategy Bad Strategy". Systems must remain open to feedback, allowing organizations to respond effectively to changes in the environment.
Systems Thinking and Learning In "The Fifth Discipline", Senge emphasizes the power of systems thinking that sparks organizational learning. He suggests that managers need to understand the interrelationships between different components of their organization, rather than seeing them in isolation. Default processes and templates allow individual teams to take the system complexities into account without needing to spend their creative energy on mapping out all the potential interconnected stakeholders.
Making Implicit Structures Explicit Claire Hughes Johnson's "Scaling People" provides a detailed roadmap for managers of managers, focusing on creating the right systems and structures for teams to flourish. Like an artist needing cheap turpentine to clean brushes and prepare the canvas, a manager needs these frameworks to create an environment where creativity can thrive. The notion of making implicit structures explicit, as Johnson argues, enhances transparency and enables the team to work within a common understanding.
Defaults as Learning Tools A robust default process or system can serve as a powerful learning tool. When best practices are incorporated into the system, they become part of the organizational DNA. This is the same principle that drives Stripe's OKR and QBR guidelines (written about in Scaling People), which codify effective goal-setting and review practices into a template that all teams can follow. This practice echoes the themes in "Super Thinking: The Big Book of Mental Models" by Gabriel Weinberg and Lauren McCann, where the power of mental models and shared knowledge are emphasized for decision-making and problem-solving.
"The world is full of problems to solve. The frameworks you use to solve these problems spark the next set of problems." - Daniel Ek, CEO, Spotify
Balancing Uniformity and Variability Documenting and communicating structures turns them into defaults or templates that can be easily replicated and scaled as the organization grows. And then there's the balance between uniformity and variability. Too much uniformity can lead to stagnation, while too much variability can result in chaos. One shouldn’t still prefer chaos over clarity. Defaults and templates can offer a middle ground, providing enough structure for efficiency and consistency, but also enough flexibility for innovation and adaptation.
Writing: The Undervalued Skill Similarly, defaults and templates also offer a standardized mode of communication. Writing is often an undervalued yet vital aspect of organizational functioning. As Eeke de Milliano states about Stripe's writing culture in Scaling People and this podcast episode, writing can be an equalizer, enabling clear, efficient, and inclusive communication. This mirrors the ideas presented in "The Scout Mindset" by Julia Galef, wherein rational, clear thinking and communication aid better decision-making.
"Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.” - Steve Jobs
Designing Defaults to Foster Creativity However, a key tenet in designing defaults is ensuring that they don't stifle creativity. Frederic Laloux, in "Reinventing Organizations", puts forward the idea of evolutionary purpose, where organizations are viewed as living entities with the capacity to evolve creatively beyond their current form. To do this, constraints are needed, but the right kind. These constraints should act as boundaries that focus energy and attention, not as suffocating rules that limit possibilities. The concept of "bounded creativity" suggests that certain limits can, paradoxically, free up creativity by providing a clear direction and reducing the paralysis of choice.
Ensuring the Evolution of Defaults Moreover, introducing templates and defaults is only the initial step in leveraging their potential. The more challenging aspect lies in their adoption, iteration, and ensuring feedback loops are in place to constantly update and maintain their relevance. This aligns with the insights from Scaling People, where the author emphasizes the importance of a robust system. Without these continuous updates and feedback, the templates risk becoming obsolete and ineffective, a part of organizational debt.
Conclusion: Beyond Creation of Defaults In conclusion, well-designed default processes and templates can act as powerful tools for unlocking organizational performance and creativity when correctly implemented. However, for these defaults to remain effective, they require regular review, iteration, and maintenance, informed by feedback from team members. This iterative approach ensures that these defaults stay relevant and productive, continuously supporting the organization's growth and development. Therefore, the challenge lies not only in creating effective defaults but also in ensuring their continuous evolution and adoption within the organization.