How creative are you?

We all have creative ability but each of us express it differently according to our thinking style.  Thinking style is an inherited personality characteristic that influences where you look for information, the sort of information you prefer dealing with and the type of environment you prefer working in.  When solving problems and making decisions, we tend to fall into one of two camps - adaptors and innovators.

Adaptors accept problems at face value and focus on solutions that do things better.  They prefer structured environments, established ways of doing things and concrete information.  They process information in a rational and sequential way. Innovators are the exact opposite.  They dislike established structure and routine, have little regard for rules and look for solutions that focus on doing things differently.  They prefer intuitive thinking and are comfortable in situations where there is incomplete information.  Feeling comfortable in ambiguous situations, innovators adapt quickly to change.

These differences appear to influence the occupations people choose – for example, entrepreneurs tend to be more innovative perhaps because they have to create their own organizations because they don't fit within established ones.  Adaptors on the other hand fit in well in most large organizations and make good corporate citizens.  When solving problems they tend to come up with solutions that represent fine-tuning or continuous improvement rather than radical shifts.  This is what many large corporations value and reward.

These differences in thinking style seem to be associated with several other personality characteristics that affect how people perceive each other.  For example, adaptors often perceive innovators as abrasive, risky, unsound, too challenging or even reckless whereas they see people with the same style as safe and reliable.  On the other hand, innovators often perceive adaptors as conservative, inflexible and pedestrian whereas they may see other innovators as like-minded revolutionaries.

These styles represent opposite ends of a continuum - most of us are neither very adaptive nor very innovative but somewhere in between.  There is a place for both styles in most organisations just as there is a place for continuous improvement and radical innovation.  The secret is to recognise the validity of both styles, understand your own style and in certain situations adopt features of the opposite style where that style would help achieve your objectives.