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Success calls for creativity
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February 4, 1997: 7:43 p.m. ET
Expert says companies need to avoid status quo and aim for adventure
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Doug Hall, who tours the country teaching executives and employees how to unleash their creativity, has a message for Corporate America.
"It's grow or die in today's world," said Hall, founder of Richard Saunders International, a firm that specializes in creativity consulting. "If you're not innovative, then slowly but surely you will close the doors."
During an appearance on CNNfn's "Business Unusual," Hall, who named his company after the pen name Ben Franklin used to write "Poor Richard's Almanack," complained that many U.S. corporations are far too regimented in the search for new ideas.
He said that often, companies merely order employees to sit in a room and be creative.
Hall said a better plan involves building a spirit of adventure in the workplace. (QuickTime Movie 2.2M)
"Businesses where people have a sense of adventure -- a sense of fun, compassion -- those are the places where you find creativity," he said. "Adventure means (that) sometimes things work and sometimes they don't. It isn't a matter of trying to get it right all the time. It's a matter of taking chances."
As Hall sees things, people learn from their earliest days in school that success means finding an answer that a majority of a person's peers agree with.
But he said people "have got to be willing to take the education you've got and shake it up a little bit. If you don't, some upstart in a garage is going to take you out."
In a nutshell, Hall said that people have to jumpstart their brains, explaining: "You have to swing to hit home runs."
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