Artistic Executives are Better at Strategic Planning?

Artistic creativity brings rewards beyond the realm of aesthetic engagement and into strategic planning. Strategy requires more than using well worn ideas to solve complex problems. The business world is changing and organizations need to tap new creative sources of knowledge. The artistic executive is an asset to the intellectual capital of an organizations if their full talents are explored and applied to market challenges.

As the business world continues to integrate markets it is necessary to "think out of the box" in order to solve increasingly complex problems. The talent pool is short on truly creative thinkers that can use their divergent thinking skills to master the market.

The artistic creation process encourages better strategic planning through thinking about problems from multiple points of reference. Many people are convergent in their thinking and focus on a narrow set of answers while divergent thinkers who are creative, and often highly intelligent, people can scan for novel solutions.

Ponder the value divergent thinkers offer modern businesses. To excel in fluid and complex markets requires constant change that keeps the company innovative in the face of ambiguous options. Divergent thinkers ensure the company searches for new and novel strategic solutions that help maintain market position.

Art fosters divergent thought processes by teaching executives how to forget the rules and focus on new ways of seeing. There is typically something more in depth to any problem. Solutions are found through changing perspective through new ways of perceiving. Artistic creation is a free flowing thought process limited not by the possibilities available but the cognitive abilities of the artist.

As one hones their skills in creative thinking they can learn to apply that thinking to the workplace. Robert Steinberg's theory on divergent thinking believes that this way of thinking is made up of synthetic intelligence, analytic intelligence and practical intelligence rolled into one way of solving problems. Executives that have this skill can select, define, analyze, and find practical solutions to problems.

Selecting executives with creative potential can help ensure new ideas are forthcoming. Companies should look for divergent thinking matched with openness to experience to help predict management creativity(Scratchley & Hakstian, 2001). They are the ones that don't give the standard answers to seemingly routine questions.

Encouraging executives to get their creative juices flowing opens up a larger realm of potential organizational solutions to pressing problems. Applying divergent thinking skills inherent in the creative process to the boardroom encourages effective strategic planning. Artistic executives are capable of looking at problems from different angles to find market leading solutions.

Scratchley, L & Hakstian, R. (2001). The measurement and prediction of managerial creativity. Creativity Research Journal, 13 (3/4).