Speaking of creative thinking

We want to move from ‘gatekeeper to Business Partner’. “Then why?” Was my question to the client. Because, as a team, we have a facilitative, legal function, but are currently only called in when it is (almost) too late. Then we regularly say “we can’t do that” or “that’s going to be really difficult” and “we’re really going to have problems with that as an organisation”. It’s an annoying role to have to take. We would like to be involved earlier in the process and really have an impact.

A complex problem

The metaphor of the gatekeeper and business partner immediately resonated. I could totally picture it. It reminded me of a few years ago, when I had to find a solution with my own team to the fact that we had no customer contracts. That sounds very serious, but according to our purpose and core values, we were working from trust and little went wrong there. In fact, we had built an intense bond of trust with our client community precisely because of that attitude. But time caught up with us and with the GDPR law, there was no escape.

‘1001 love letters’

Only it didn’t feel right at all to come up with a contract. That didn’t fit into our values-driven way of working. Until we brought our collective thinking together and came up with the following metaphor: we were going to send ‘1001 love letters’. That felt much better. It beautifully reflected our intense, warm relationship and made us look at this huge project very differently. And because it was such an intense and lengthy project (just try signing a contract with your client afterwards instead of at the beginning of the relationship), we needed many colleagues from different disciplines who were going to and wanted to pull this cart.

Creating movement

This metaphor helped us position, experience and set up the project differently. It created support among both colleagues and customers. It gave handles to go into the project with a certain intention. And although it was to be a long-term project and later embedded as a standard process, we would not have managed it without this inspiring metaphor. 

Different view, different behaviour

Back to the Gatekeeper team; they started talking about their role, their contribution, their behaviour and how they could best deliver value to their stakeholders. They came up with a nice metaphor for the kind of Business Partner they wanted to be and how they wanted to relate to colleagues and the organisation. This made them look at themselves and their stakeholders differently, and different behaviour followed. Not at the back, but side by side. Acting together in equality, as the role of Business Partner is really meant to be.

A powerful source of energy

Metaphors give access to our subconscious; a powerful source of energy. They trigger a feeling or an image, which you can recharge through a story and language. This makes them incredibly valuable. And they can get whole teams, organisations and projects (moving again) without too much effort …. 

The skill of the future

We should use our creative thinking skills a bit more often to tackle complex issues differently. By thinking outside the box, we can discover new perspectives and find unconventional solutions. Creativity stimulates innovation. It allows us to be flexible, respond quickly to change and is thus a skill that is increasingly important.