Creativity and Strategic Vision: The Key to the Army's Future
Abstract
Creativity is important for the Army because it is so essential to strategic leadership. The Army, like all institutions, is dependent on strategic leadership, but like most institutions distrusts creativity. A large degree of that distrust is caused by viewing creativity as artistic inspiration outside the realm of science and management, a view that is widely accepted in modern society. Scientific research into creativity, however, indicates that this romantic view of creativity is a myth. Although creativity can not be delivered on demand or even predicted with accuracy, it is subject to explanation and understanding by scientific methods. The knowledge gained by scientific research offers ways for the Army to come to terms with creativity and take steps to ensure it has creative strategic leadership in the future. Matching what is known about creativity with the characteristic of the Army's processes, procedures, and culture shows that the Army is doing very well in certain areas required to produce creative strategic leaders; however, there are also areas where the Army is either missing opportunities to stimulate the development of creative leaders or is actually inhibiting creativity. These uneven results are caused by the Army's tendency to leave the development of creativity to chance. A systematic approach is needed. The approach and recommendations suggested in this article are the first steps in applying scientific knowledge about creativity to ensure future strategic leadership
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 21, 1993
- Accession Number
- ADA264876
Entities
People
- Ronald D. Daniel
Organizations
- United States Army War College