We here at the Geeklawblog discuss a lot on the topics of Knowledge Management, Marketing, Research and Competitive Intelligence. On the surface, these ideas tend to mean the “repackaging of existing data into usable information for the benefit of those in our firm.” In other words, we attempt to create a way to make our “results” greater than the sum of our “parts”.But, when I started thinking about it, perhaps the key word in the previous sentence isn’t “results” or “parts”, but rather it is the word “create.” To me, it is the creativity part of my job that most inspires me. Being able to look at a problem and come up with a unique solution, and implementing that solution makes me want to come in to work much more than the paycheck at the end of the week. And, I’m guessing, that for those of you that have jobs that ask you to be creative, you also value that creative reward more than the financial reward.I watched a talk by Sir Ken Robinson where he discusses creativity, and how something so important tends to be discounted in our educational system. My absolute favorite portion of the talk was when Robinson defines creativity:
- Creativity – “The process of having original ideas that have value.”
Simple, but inspiring for those of us lucky enough who are asked to be creative in our day-to-day functions.
When we look around at our peers, which ones stand out to you? Is it the KM director that has installed and supports a dozen applications? Or, is it that one KM person that created a way to use applications in a unique way, thus creating something of value?? Is it the librarian that billed 2000 hours of research work, thus making money for the firm? Or, is it the librarian that created a system to monitor what the competition was doing, and made sure that the lawyers in the firm got that information in their hands in order to be better prepared and to make proactive decisions?
You get the idea…. All four of these samples are “valuable”, but the creative samples are “original ideas” that not only provide value, they also generate a competitive advantage that can spur additional value on down the line. Take a look and see if your creative side needs a little nourishment.