{"id":3744,"date":"2025-04-02T17:47:31","date_gmt":"2025-04-02T17:47:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=3744"},"modified":"2025-07-09T15:12:56","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T15:12:56","slug":"how-leaders-can-overcome-roadblocks-to-creativity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/how-leaders-can-overcome-roadblocks-to-creativity\/","title":{"rendered":"How Leaders Can Overcome Roadblocks to Creativity"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher<\/a><\/p>\n

Leaders need creativity to innovate, grow, and adapt to fast-paced changes in the business world spurred by rapidly evolving technologies such as AI. As scholars note, however, creativity embeds inherent tensions between introducing something radical and novel while also being useful and practical.<\/p>\n

Academy of Management Scholar Wendy Smith<\/a> of the University of Delaware notes that these tensions are oppositional but also interdependent. Focusing on usefulness can create constraints that inspire more novelty, while ensuring that more radical ideas can foster more divergent thinking that can ultimately result in something that will be more valuable to the organization and its stakeholders.<\/p>\n

\u201cEmbracing the paradoxes of creativity inherently enables more creativity,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

In the 1970s, psychiatrist Albert Rothenberg noted that geniuses such as Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso, and Virginia Woolf all generated their greatest insights by juxtaposing oppositional ideas. For example, Einstein\u2019s theory of relativity emerged by exploring how an object could be both in motion and at rest at the same time. Rothenberg called this process Janusian thinking after the two-faced Roman God Janus who could look forward and backward at the same time.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn important part of the creative Janusian process is changing the question,\u201d Smith said. \u201cIf we point out that conflict and ask people to create something, they\u2019ll try to maximize either the novelty or the usefulness.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if we say, \u2018Those things are in conflict with each other, but they also reinforce each other,\u2019 and ask the question, \u2018How can you create something that is both novel and useful amid that conflict?\u2019 people will be much more creative in what they develop and create over time by bringing them together,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo situationally, just changing the question makes a huge difference in boosting creativity.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the business world becomes more complex, Smith noted that an essential leadership competency will depend on embracing the paradoxes of creativity.<\/p>\n

\u201cLeaders of tomorrow will need to embrace both novelty and usefulness, coming up with new approaches to respond to our greatest challenges,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher Leaders need creativity to innovate, grow, and adapt to fast-paced changes in the business world spurred by rapidly evolving technologies such as AI. As scholars note, however, creativity embeds inherent tensions between introducing something radical and novel while also being useful and practical. Academy of Management Scholar Wendy Smith of the University […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,19,44,76],"tags":[],"sp_smart_badges":[],"ppma_author":[70],"class_list":["post-3744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-innovation","category-leadership","category-motivation","category-performance"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow Leaders Can Overcome Roadblocks to Creativity - Academy of Management Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/how-leaders-can-overcome-roadblocks-to-creativity\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Daniel Butcher\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/how-leaders-can-overcome-roadblocks-to-creativity\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/how-leaders-can-overcome-roadblocks-to-creativity\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Daniel Butcher\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d1297a59039d9ca7bac9d9f0952e508c\"},\"headline\":\"How Leaders Can Overcome Roadblocks to Creativity\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-02T17:47:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-09T15:12:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/how-leaders-can-overcome-roadblocks-to-creativity\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":348,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/how-leaders-can-overcome-roadblocks-to-creativity\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/dart-breaks-wall-to-hit-target.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"INNOVATION\",\"LEADERSHIP\",\"MOTIVATION\",\"PERFORMANCE\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/how-leaders-can-overcome-roadblocks-to-creativity\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/how-leaders-can-overcome-roadblocks-to-creativity\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/how-leaders-can-overcome-roadblocks-to-creativity\\\/\",\"name\":\"How Leaders Can Overcome Roadblocks to Creativity - 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As scholars note, however, creativity embeds inherent tensions between introducing something radical and novel while also being useful and practical. 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