Do you agree with the statement ‘Creativity loves Constraints’

My belief of being a conventional thinker was confirmed by reading through Martin’s (2007) article ‘how successful leaders think’. In light of this I thought to analysis the statement ‘creativity loves constraints’, I needed to gain an insight (and possibly an opposing view) from an integrative thinker who has lots of creativity. This just happens to be a work colleague who works in our marketing department. Her response to the statement was that she would always prefer to work without constraints. However, she went on to add that she is more effective when she is working to a deadline.
Mayer (2006) believes that there needs to be a balance between providing a creative environment and having some constraints in place that assist with placing focus on delivering an outcome. Drucker (2003 p126) believes that “innovation requires knowledge, ingenuity and above all else focus”. My work colleague would be less likely to focus on an outcome without a time deadline.
According to Drucker (2003) successful innovators use both the left and right side of the brain when generating ideas or problem solving. Once the innovative idea has been developed they will then turn their attention to the potential users and analyse their expectations and needs. This analysis creates constraints, other constraints as pointed out by Mayer (2006) include resourcing and time.
Kanter (2006) believes that a common leadership mistake is to “strangle innovation with tight controls” (Kanter, 2006 p79). The article goes on to add that a remedy for this is to add flexibility to planning and control systems as well as surrounding innovators with a supportive culture of collaboration.
A business needs to find a balance between creating an environment that fosters creativity whilst having the suitable constraints that enable the focus