South African Conversations on Creativity, Part 1
Welcome to the first in a series of short interviews on Creativity at Work.
Throughout this series of interviews, we’ll be looking to understand two things:
- How do business leaders in South Africa understand creativity in the context of work?
- How are they enhancing the creative abilities of their teams and improving the conditions for creativity in their organisations?
The role that creativity will play in our work will only grow with research showing that despite initial fears, the limits of Artificial Intelligence and the neural networks on which they are built, mean that machines cannot match true human creativity.
In his journal article on the subject, sociologist Anton Oleinik argues that “Creativity is hardly possible without one’s capacity to think metaphorically, to coordinate proactively and to make predictions that go beyond simple extrapolation”, all things neural networks cannot do.
In this edition, we spoke to Karl Gostner, COO of Primedia Broadcasting.
Karl holds a Masters degree in Industrial Sociology and has, since 2002, held various leadership roles in media. Previously, for five years, he worked in Industrial Policy research and consulting.
Gostner’s role at Primedia requires leading innovation and strategy development at the confluence of new and traditional media. His role also requires him to inspire and manage organisational change in order to meet current and future challenges.
- Who are you and briefly, what is your backstory?
KG: Karl Gostner, COO of Primedia Broadcasting. I’ve worked in Radio and in Media for 18 years with 26 years in various strategy roles across the economy.
2. How do you define creativity in the context of work?
KG: First and foremost, creativity is an attitude and a capability. It is the desire and competence to bring newness into life.
Of course, practically, for our business that includes creative output — the creation of visual and radio ads; radio shows; multi-platform campaigns; stellar events — but ultimately each of those elements are an expression of a broader desire to create and bring new experiences to life.
In order for this to happen, it needs an organisation of people who care about their work and are willing to make the effort to continually refine it for the best output. It’s a generative mindset and approach to work; creativity and generation are parts of the same continuum. So, we need to focus as much on creating an environment that enables creativity as we do on refining the final product.
Environments that enable creativity make people feel safe, they provide them with the possibility of connection to self, to others, to inspiration. They challenge them to improve through affirming innovation, discovery and evolution.
3. Do you believe there are any tangible benefits to enhancing creativity in the workplace? If so, what are they?
KG: Unmistakably, the general engagement of one’s staff is an immediate benefit, for one. People have an innate desire to feel like they’re part of evolving something. It allows for personal contribution and there’s a lot of research that shows that there are benefits to enhancing creativity at work. Rote work and heightened controls contribute to depression and alienation — toxins for creativity. Building an environment that builds creativity also means that you’re building a work environment that fosters engagement.
This enables general societal happiness — the person who leaves the office happy affects society, too. It sounds ephemeral but our organisations don’t exist in a vacuum and happy societies have less violence and abuse.
For business, it’s an ongoing evolution of adding value. Creativity can remove cost and time by employing people who are constantly looking to improve and make things better.
The investments I’ve made into enhancing creativity have always generated positive results. This has resulted in new product lines, new ways of connecting with audiences and more optimal processes. Optimising process is an interesting one to engage in because better processes create more organisational time, the lifeblood of creativity.
4: How does Primedia enhance creativity at work?
KG: Very practically, it’s about enhancing the hard creative skill. Editing skills, copywriting skills, etc.
Other components are more general but critical. They revolve around investment into people’s personal capabilities — creating the capacity of people to self-manage and create new possibilities, to connect with colleagues in new and interesting ways. It may sound philosophical but if your people can’t manage stress, communication, and they live hyper-aroused and stressed lives then they probably aren’t going to be particularly creative.
Relations and investment across silos are important too, bringing together diverse skillsets and experiences. This allows for conflict and disagreement, the raw material for creativity and we need people to be able to listen and understand each other to unlock new possibilities.
5. In your experience, what enables creativity at work?
KG: It’s definitely the above, plus space and time. It’s an interesting time we live in, especially in terms of the impact of social media. When I talk to friends who work as therapists, they tell me they’re seeing a rise in anxiety-related stress disorders. The literature shows that hyper-arousal burns capacity for creativity, requiring a mix of both contemplation and periods of intense work.
An example would be great visual artists, they have contemplation and output phases. In the modern world, we’re seeing an ‘always on’, ‘always connected’ state that detracts from our ability to contemplate.
The space and time to do deep work is often missing. This is coupled with an increasing obsession with measurement, ongoing reporting and trying to squeeze complexity into Excel. This reductionist approach to the complexity of life means that creativity is often sacrificed in the drive to conformity.
6. On that note, what does creativity at work look like for the majority of South Africa’s workforce who may not have ‘knowledge work’ type roles?
KG: Interestingly, creative and knowledge work is also morphing into mass-production type of work with people losing satisfaction in it too!
But more to your point, making purpose clear and empowering people all the way down the ladder, giving people power to make calls that optimise against that purpose would be a start.
This would create a mutually reinforcing cycle where any person/worker could try something against the organisation’s purpose; they’d get feedback and keep trying as they’re nudged closer to a positive outcome. That would open up a greater set of possibilities. However, empowering all kinds of workers requires a conscious, mindful orientation towards people.
7. What’s the hardest/most difficult part about creating the right conditions for creativity at work?
KG: Firstly, there are forces that take time away from creative work. Creativity is a complex process and not necessarily predictable or linear. Corporate expectations are heavily biased towards ROI and it’s not always easy to create a line of sight between creative work and financial metrics.
Other difficulties are time pressures and finding yourself drowning in ‘busy work’.
For example, we could get a client brief saying ‘We need this brief in 24 hours’, which means you need to generate something quickly instead of taking time to really deeply explore the brief.
We also need to be pragmatic and differentiate between what needs high levels of innovation and what needs simpler solutions. A 24 hour turnaround can be appropriate and even useful to push out something that is simple to imagine and execute.
Stay tuned as BetterWork uncovers more insights on the nature of work in South Africa, and the role forward-thinking business leaders are playing in activating creativity in their teams.
