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After years of disappointing and gradually declining sales for Barbie, the CEO of Mattel, Barbie’s parent company, knew something needed to change. He had been thinking about making a Barbie Hollywood movie for some time. Now, the time had come to put this into action, and he started his search for a producer, director and writer.
Margot Bobbie was the first to come on board and would produce the film for Mattel in collaboration with Warner Bros. Bobbie suggested that Greta Gerwig would be a fantastic director, as she had shown that she could bring a fresh perspective to a stale genre. But Gerwig would be a bold pick because she was mainly known for her compelling, emotional narratives and deep characters — qualities that were not associated with Barbie.
Initially, Gerwig was asked only to direct the film, but she became so fascinated by Barbie that she persuaded Bobbie to write the script as well. As she dug deeper into the research, she knew she wanted to come up with a script that was so provocative that Mattel management would undoubtedly reject it. When she finished it and handed it to Bobbie, her reaction confirmed she had accomplished her mission: “This is going way too far. They will never let us do that!”
Nevertheless, Bobbie and Gerwig managed to get the unconventional script approved. The film became a huge success and was one of the 2023 most-watched films. Barbie was back, and Mattel’s sales figures skyrocketed.
Gerwig had a strong desire to create something original. By considering what would be a bridge too far, she wrote a script that criticised the stereotypical portrayal of Barbie while combining satire, absurdity, and philosophy.
Organisations could benefit from such an approach as well. However, often, people believe ‘things are okay as they are’, or the boss will reject the idea anyway. Employees disengage more and more, and mediocrity rules.
Research by the LEGO Foundation shows that no less than 80% of adults feel they are not using their creative potential to the fullest at work. And that is a big opportunity for organisations. Creativity leads to fresh ideas for new products, services, or business models, but its greatest potential lies in solving everyday problems. Often, that is where ingenuity is lacking, and people keep coming up with suboptimal solutions that will cause new problems.
Various studies show that people who are in a creative, stimulating environment become more innovative. But that doesn’t mean putting a beanbag and a ping-pong table on the work floor or organising a brainstorming session once a year. People constantly need to be challenged, for instance, by putting them to work on complex problems, asking them challenging questions, or letting them collaborate with people who naturally come up with many ideas. This way, they train their creativity daily and solve problems they encounter better and quicker.
Yet many managers struggle with getting their teams more creative. These four simple questions will help you to increase the number of ideas and more original insights:
With this question, you push people to think beyond. They need to examine their implicit beliefs about what works, which could lead to discovering unconventional or novel alternatives, just like Gerwig did for the Barbie movie.
This question generates ideas people unconsciously dismiss beforehand because they believe they are impossible. However, these constraints frequently have no basis or date back to when circumstances differed. This question often provides hilarious moments, so in addition to offering new perspectives, the team dynamic improves instantly.
By asking this question, you inspire people to look at a problem from a different angle. The intention is not to copy-paste the answer but to think about its underlying principle and translate that to the issue you are working on.
For example, several stakeholders in your project cannot reach an agreement. Your mother would invite everyone for a delicious and cosy dinner. Translated to your topic, you could initiate an action to bring all stakeholders together in a friendly environment with tasty snacks to have a constructive conversation with each other.
Of course, instead of your mother, you could also choose someone else like Nelson Mandela, Harry Potter or Taylor Swift.
Another way to challenge people to think differently is by looking at successful organisations and learning how they tackle challenges. For example, IKEA is known for its do-it-yourself concept, where customers assemble their furniture at home. Patagonia puts this principle into practice by providing its clients with videos demonstrating how to fix their damaged apparel.
This question is not about IKEA (you could just as easily choose The Red Cross, Apple or VEJA) but the principles and concepts a successful organisation uses.
Giving your organisation a creativity boost doesn’t have to be very expensive. You will be amazed by your organisation’s inventiveness if you ask these four questions. A bonus is that your employees will be much happier.
This article was originally published in Dutch on MT/Sprout, the most popular business and management platform in the Netherlands.
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