Perspectives on Creativity
Creativity
Strategic Importance
Creativity is all around us.
Creativity may be visually beautiful.
It can be audibly moving.
It can ignite the senses in unexpected ways.
Creativity can be emotionally compelling.
And intellectually captivating.
The best part is creativity can be seen in everything. Even more importantly, it is needed everywhere.
By everywhere, I really do mean everywhere.
Creativity has been the source behind some of greatest solutions to some of the toughest challenges we have ever faced. Creative problem solving is responsible for successes achieved when the stakes have been at their highest. Some of the greatest minds, creators, and tacticians have put into action the approach to creative problem-solving offered by Dr. Todd Taylor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: to think, research, and create.
During WWII, as the Allies faced impending risk of annihilation in their upcoming invasion of Sicily by the far outnumbering German military, creative problem solvers devised a risky and cunning plan to fool the Germans into allowing the Allies to safely reach the Nazi stronghold of Sicily. To succeed in this game of life or death, the plot would need to be so believable that Hitler would misjudge the true location for the Allied invasion and miscalculate the number of troops needed to secure the landing areas. Planners that included British Intelligence Officers Ewen Montagu, Charles Cholmondely, and future 007 writer, Ian Fleming, concocted an elaborate ruse that involved the planting of dead body off the coast of Spain with “secret” documents purporting to reveal landing sites. Guiding the body and the document’s complicated chain of custody, intelligence professionals ensured these planted documents, inclusive of a fully backstopped story and false identity complete with a fictionalized romance, reached the necessary information channels and conduits to feed this alternative reality to Hitler. History reports Hitler and the Germans swallowed this alternative reality and acted on it by moving reinforcements and equipment to Greece and Sardinia, thus leaving Sicily under-defended and primed for Allied success.
What was codenamed “Operation Mincemeat” is just one example of when creative problem-solving has been employed to address strategic challenges where nations, lives, and security hang in the balance. Mincemeat has been referred to as unorthodox, brilliant, bizarre, “not very nice,” lifesaving, and dazzlingly creative.
As the world around us becomes increasingly technologically advanced and interconnected, we will face new challenges at exponentially growing levels of complexity. Creativity, agility, resiliency, and risk taking will all be needed to meet tomorrow’s challenges. Let’s foster an appreciation for creativity and curiosity today to ensure we will have what it takes to succeed tomorrow.
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Interested in learning more about Operation Mincemeat?
Check out the latest Netflix movie Operation Mincemeat
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reach out to discuss anytime