Say the word "creativity," and a certain image tends to appear in people's minds—one that is probably inaccurate. Culturally, we still romanticize the isolated genius working in a quiet room, waiting for that sudden flash of insight.
It's more likely, though, for innovations to come deliberately, and in collaboration. That's certainly true in the tech world, where giant steps in computing and the web came thanks to small groups toiling away at a problem. If you’re looking to change up how your association is rethinking meetings, membership, and new products, the solution won’t come from leaders alone. But it also won’t necessarily come from putting a group of people in a room and hoping for the best.
It’s a complex dynamic, and if you’re looking for one example of how this works in practice, consider carving out seven or so hours of your time to watch Get Back, the new documentary about the Beatles trying to write a batch of new songs in January 1969. The Beatles aren’t a prime example of how to make a creative partnership work, of course—by the end of the year, they’d have all gone their separate ways. But during the period covered by the documentary, the process is fascinating and instructive. They take germs of ideas and keep reworking them, together and alone, until they become finished songs. They invite collaborators. Though they often disagree—and even quit for a spell—they rarely shoot down each others’ ideas outright.
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