Creativity Conquers Cyclical Challenges

A frozen lake taught me about vicious and virtuous cycles.

“Look at the ice on that!”, I exclaimed, pointing to a frozen lake.

“Yes, Simon, it’s ice. So what?”, countered my wife.

“Ice has two awesome properties. Firstly, it’s lighter than water. Secondly, it insulates. It is only because of these two properties in combination that, when water turns to ice, it rises to the surface and insulates the lake - protecting all the fishes within. The colder the temperature, the thicker the ice, the greater the insulation.”

“Are you rehearsing a new LinkedIn article on me, Simon?”, retorted my wife.

As my wife rolled her eyes, something in my head clicked.

Whilst the above is an example of a virtuous cycle, we can also observe many vicious cycles in life and in organisations.

Dr Stuart McGill talks of a vicious cycle in physiotherapy: “Much like a scab forming on our skin, our backs are constantly trying to patch and heal themselves. However, by repeating harmful movement patterns in our daily lives we cause re-injury. We are essentially ‘picking the scab.’”

Escaping this vicious cycle requires us to understand our back, and how our movements affect it, so we stop hurting ourselves.

In organisations, there are two frequent vicious cycles we may see.

Firstly, executives are often under pressure to deliver short-term profits. This pressure may be released though cost-cutting - exercises that trim away extra capacity, often in the form of staff. Whilst this helps an organisation deliver short-term results on paper, the organisation now has less capacity with which to deliver future results. More cost cutting must ensue.

Escaping this vicious cycle requires us to shift efforts from cutting costs to increasing revenue. This requires creativity.

Secondly, we may find interdependent teams are continuously disagreeing about priorities. This disagreement means more time must be spent talking about work, leaving less time to do the work. Delivery slows, deadlines are missed, pressure increases. More time spent talking about work must ensue.

Escaping this vicious cycle requires leadership to have an agreed and understood overarching goal, so there is an unambiguous sorting algorithm for all work. This requires creativity.

The takeaway? Whilst escaping vicious cycles requires creativity, this is what keeps our organisation from ‘sleeping with the fishes’.