Creativity and Leadership
This week’s reading was almost too much of a good thing. Annabel Beerel is an international consultant specializing in leadership and ethics, leadership theories, critique, and interdisciplinary approaches. Perhaps this array of specializations is what made Rethinking Leadership so enticing. While trying to do an inspectional reading, all the goodies drew me in deeper. Not only was everything just so interesting, but the many references to authors we have read tempted me to explore new connections. There were so many rich avenues to mine for learning and for blogging! In the end, it was the word creativity which grabbed me. I am beginning to recognize a connection between leadership and creativity, which I had never noticed before. I would unlikely have seen it all except for something Karise Hutchinson said on Monday. I will revisit her remarks and their impact on my thinking as a foundation for additional gleanings on the intersection of leadership and creativity from Beerel.
Although Illuminaire had a section on creativity, I did not engage it until Hutchinson spoke about creativity as a pathway to hope by challenging us to rethink the purpose of leadership with the question, “What if the job of leaders is not to ‘fix’ problems, but is actually to create to make?”[1] Hope came in through the theological reflection that while individuals cannot fix the world’s enormous problems, they have access to the power that created the world. My heart filled with hope while considering that even though broken systems may not be fixed (restored to some idealized past version), we can create new things. What a grand alternative to fear when facing unconquerable giants.
Creativity is implicit in Beerel’s definition of effective leadership as “the ability to respond in an adaptive manner to emergent, dynamic, and complex situations.”[2] She explicitly unpacks the connection between hope and creativity, saying, “Leaders also need to be inspirational. They need to hold up the light that creativity and innovation can blossom in times of crisis, and that everyone has a creative spark within them that can be ignited too.”[3] In times of crisis, leaders can rechannel fear towards creativity.[4] These ideas demonstrate that creativity is not just part of being a leader. It is also the leader’s responsibility to develop creativity in others. Doing so will improve the organization.
Leaders need these three essential skills to guide others toward creativity and hope in the 21st century:
- Systemic thinking
- Ability to create clarity even when there is uncertainty
- Ability to help others determine their purpose & find meaning.[5]
Turning to the chapter on Systemic Leadership, I expected charts and graphs and step-by-step. Instead, I discovered that Systemic Leadership looks at networks, patterns, and relationships. The chapter described a way of thinking about leadership that frequently referenced creativity. This approach is non-linear, not controlling, and potentially slow and messy – the opposite of what I expected to discover.
In Beerel’s review of essential voices within the development of Systemic Leadership theory, several emphasized the theory’s creative aspects.
- Cyrus Achouri, in Modern Systemic Leadership: An Inter-Disciplinary Approach (2010)
- “Allowing the organization to self-organize sets free creativity.”[6]
- Geoffrey Coffey, in Systems Approach to Leadership (2010)
- “Leaders are designers, creators, and transformers of systems.” [7]
- In The Fifth Discipline (1992), Peter Senge claimed a new type of leadership is needed.
- One that “centers on shifting the collective focus from reactive problem-solving to co-creating the future.”[8]
The energized feeling I had during our Zoom with Hutchinson has stayed with me all week, reinforced by my recognition of the power of leadership to unleash creativity theologically and theoretically. In discussions of current events or organizational quagmires, hopelessness and fear are common. I am bringing an alternative point of view. Overfocus on trying to fix systems connotes backward-looking, but creating, even better, co-creating, is looking forward to what can become.
Hutchinson said that creativity becomes innovation when ideas become action.[9] We have such powerful tools to take action: Wisdom and the precious Word of God. Beerel wrote, “In a living system, the need to develop and be creative is part of its life force and energy. If only business organizations could take cognizance of the fact that they are living systems imbued with an inherently creative, energetic life force, which is waiting to be tapped and harnessed and expressed.”[10] If the living systems of a business organization can be construed as having a creative energetic life force, how much more so a congregational or ministry system comprised of living stones illuminated with the Holy Spirit?
[1] Karise Hutchinson, Zoom, 3 February 2025.
[2] Beerel, Rethinking Leadership, 6.
[3] Annabel Beerel, Rethinking Leadership: A Critique of Contemporary Theories (Routledge: London, 2021), 172.
[4] Beerel, Rethinking Leadership, 173.
[5] Beerel, Rethinking Leadership, 25.
6Beerel, Rethinking Leadership, 204.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Beerel, Rethinking Leadership, 206.
[9] Karise Hutchinson, Zoom, 3 February 2025.
[10] Beerel, Rethinking Leadership, 198.
About the Author
Julie O'Hara
14 responses to “Creativity and Leadership”
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Thank you, Julie, for your post. It makes me think of system, leadership, and creativity; I’ve learn a lot from it. One question I have is, if you could give an example of where system leadership and creativity not only intersect, but influence each other? Thanks again for the post.
Hi Noel – What an excellent and a difficult question. My response is imaginary for now. I imagine a pastor in a new ministry assignment who takes some time to observe the way things are. This pastor sees patterns in the organization and in the lives of the congregants. Some of it seems ‘broken’. The pastor takes the time to get to know people, to show that they care, and to discover some of their gifts. Then the pastors begins to encourage the people to ‘make’ new ways of doing ministry. Maybe it is the way they incorporate children in ‘big’ church and maybe that has influence on the families within the congregation. This is beautiful in my imagination 🙂 And I recognize that it takes a great deal of time.
Julie,
I love that you highlight the aspect of creativity and making. Essentially, it is a theology of culture-making. I think that Andy Crouch has written about engaging and making culture. Sometimes though, what we create can be a mess. So, how might we create good conversations or good movement and how might we limit the mess we make along the way?
Hi Adam,
I’m pretty sure that ‘messy’ is part of being creative! I place a really, really struggle is patience – and Patience seems to be necessary to truly engage in culture making. So: Patience for listening, and patience for staying “in” systems that are broken (like staying “in” relationships with people who resist change, see Friedman). Patient listening allows people to get out their upset, then hopefully come along for the change. No listening equals resistance, sabotage and social media diatribes…that’s messy!
Great connections here Julie, thanks. How would you describe the “living system” that is your leadership context and what sort of creativity are you considering for the future, now that you have some “tools in your toolkit”?
Hi Debbie,
The main context is on the edge of change, but connected to a bigger entity which deeply resists change. (Denominational Region vs. Global) My NPO is actually a wonderful opportunity for creativity and the workshops provide means I can engage many. I serve on a couple of deadly dull councils that are very rooted in the past. I find myself as an ‘outsider’ who says things that shake up the room. The creative change doesn’t happen in the moment, but there is a bit of fresh wind in the cultural atmosphere. I am choosing to stay connected, stay humble, and keep speaking new ideas which seem to be soften the soil for creative new things to grow.
All my “Imago Dei” theological concepts are bubbling up with this post. There’s something beautiful about leaders mining for creativity, as Hutcheson wrote, “A leader doesn’t manage creativity, they manage ‘for’ creativity” [Illuminaire, 125]. Beerel picked up on this with a pull to Maslow’s greater self-actualization that helps others embrace ‘being’ values rather than ‘doing’ values – such as wholeness, justice, beauty, goodness, and truth (Maslow, 2014, p. 75) [Beerel, 386]
In your Living systems / living stones picture, how might you try and shake off the strong default many churches have towards “doing”, rule-enforcement, and tradition-keeping, to inspire co-creation in fresh ways?
Hi Joel, Your question challenges me as a person who still struggles to shake off rule-keeping and doing. How I might do it would depend on the role from which I had influence. Currently, as I help district licensed pastors on their journey toward ordination I continue to build questions about spiritual practices into the annual interviews. I feel our district culture has shifted to valuing them as leaders, which in turn is beginning to shape congregations. We are shifting the ‘expectations’ of the role. It takes time!
Love this post, Julie. We both work in similar environments and I do find that co-creation is not always valued. What are the barriers and pathways toward co-creation in your context?
Hi Graham, I notice barriers when there are endless 2 and 3 days meetings in some of our entities to discuss the past…what time remains to think new thoughts and dream new dreams? Your question caused me to realize that the grant I direct is a pathway. Our team has created something completely new and change is happening. WOW. My mind is blown. Thank you, Graham! Your question helped me see a different level of impact for the work I am doing.
Hi Julie, I enjoyed reading your post.
You elaborated on leadership and creativity. As a leader, what is your approach based on Beerel’s statement, ‘“What if the job of leaders is not to ‘fix’ problems, but is actually to create to make?”?
Hi Shela, I am sorry if I wasn’t clear. That statment was from Hutchinson and it got me thinking about creating, that’s why the theme kept popping out at me in Beerel.
In light of these new learnings, I am encouraged to keep moving forward and I feel increasingly bold. Sometimes I have been tentative out of excess respect to others who have been around a long time and possibly represent the past. I think I can create and be respectful at the same time.
Julie, I appreciated you highlighting the connection between leadership and creativity, emphasizing that leaders should not merely fix problems but create new possibilities. However, I have noticed how many organizations, especially in crisis, default to control and problem-solving rather than fostering creative innovation. What practical steps can leaders take to shift organizational mindsets from reactive problem-solving to forward-looking co-creation, particularly in environments resistant to change?
Hi Chad, I’m not sure if this will rightfully answer your question, but something that comes to mind is helping people develop the mindset that not everything needs to be fixed. Sometimes things stop working. We can honor them and let go. The leader/s needs to be able to withstand the discomfort in the team when they are in new places and long for the leeks and onions of the past. I wish we could have conversation – your question is so interesting! I’d love to have some context around it and brainstorm.