Choosing the Right Creative People

PHOTO: RAF Mildenhall

In his book No Limits, John C. Maxwell lists nine abilities of the right people to have in your meeting. As he puts it: "When you ask creative people to help you, your goal isn't just to have people come together for a #creativity session. Your goal is to have the right people at the meeting."

He looks for:

• Fluency -- the ability to generate a number of ideas, so there's an abundance of possible solutions

• Flexibility -- the ability to produce many different kinds of ideas in varied categories

• Originality -- the ability to create fresh, unique, unusual, or different ideas

• Complexity -- the ability to drill down and conceptualise difficult, intricate, or multifaceted ideas

• Boldness -- the willingness to be daring, try new things, and take risks

• #Imagination -- the ability to #invent, see, and conceptualise #ingenious new ideas

• Security -- the willingness to appreciate others' ideas and not protect their own

• Values -- the ability to think and create in accordance with the culture's values and priorities.

Think about this list before recruiting your next #brainstorming session. (And long before that, ensure your #culture is encouraging these abilities in your people!)

This article first appeared in LinkedIn