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Creativity and Innovation in Business: Culture Transformation
Creativity and Innovation in Business Home . Creativity
Hiring Tools . Culture Transformation . Current Creativity in the Marketplace
I could use a hundred people who don't know there is such a word as impossible.
~Henry Ford
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Does your company culture inspire or stifle creativity?
To truly profit from new employees, companies must transform and create a climate conducive to creative criticism and ideation. Hiring creative employees and throwing them into a stiff, policy driven operation will crush their ideas and drain their every creative vibe. Yet changing a mature seasoned culture is not easy and presents challenges of its own.
Procurement and Implementation
In order to flourish your firm's culture must encourage and nurture ideas rather than kill them. If an employee has a great idea and has it quickly squashed and mocked by their superiors they tend to stop sharing their thoughts in fear of more rejection and humiliation.
An antagonistic company culture that fights change of any kind is the ultimate idea crusher and will not be able to keep up with a fast changing society. Larry Yukron, owner of Adventure Experts and former Qwest Communication executive, related that several firms in Silicon Valley have installed a "five minute rule".
The rule permits anyone to suggest an idea. Then for the first five minutes after the idea is expressed only positive comments can be made. By the time the idea is talked about for five minutes it has usually spun into an impromptu brainstorm session that cultivates truly great ideas and some form of the discussion is often implemented.
Firms today must enthusiastically welcome new ideas and suggestions. An off-the-wall idea, given the proper attention, just may become a solution to a problem, the next great marketing campaign, or even the perfect incubator for your next innovative product or service.
Use it or lose it
After encouraging idea generation and receiving valuable input, viable ideas should be put into some form of action as soon as possible. This sends a clear signal to all employees that the company welcomes such input. On the other hand, if ideas must be rejected, a clear justification should be given to the idea-generator so that he or she understands his or her input was valued and will be welcomed again in the future.
Empowerment
Ideally, empowerment of employees results in increased initiative, involvement, enthusiasm, innovation and speed, all in support of the company's mission.
The word empowerment means to authorize, enable, and to permit. Defining and encouraging empowerment is the job of leadership. However, traditional leadership in a multi-level organizational structure may be wary of empowering their subordinates in anxiety that ideas and initiatives from 'below' may undermine their authority and ultimately their position in the firm. This is indeed a struggle but may be overcome by clear, ongoing communication and commitment from the top of the firm down.
Middle management needs to be assured that subordinate empowerment is for their personal gain as well as the collective good of the firm.
If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success. --John D. Rockefeller
Communication
Communication is absolutely essential to give birth to a creative workplace environment in a mature, seasoned culture. In fact creativity in communication is key to implementing a culture rebirth. As we have mentioned, major changes in organizations often evokes resistance based on fear.
Imagine a CEO talking about the need to restructure for greater efficiency through innovation. S/He talks about trends, budgets and so forth. So far, so good. But let that same executive mention the word downsize and all of the rationale behind the need to reorganize gets lost in the ensuing panic.
Leaders need to communicate the corporate culture change initiative in a way that energizes and excites while simultaneously overcoming their crew's hesitancy to embrace this same proposition.
Believing in your People
Many times people are looking for someone to be interested in them and to be accountable to. When they find this individual they will produce. It is essential during a cultural transformation that each person in the firm has someone that believes in them and is counting on them to succeed.
Harvesting Emotional Energy
Values give meaning to people's lives. Organizational performance is directly related to its ability to tap into its human potential. For many people work is one of the most important ways they are able to give expression to who they are in their search for fulfillment. When a person works for a firm whose values mirror those of their own they will respond by fulfilling their potential and tapping into their deepest levels of creativity.
Align your company's mission statement under a clear set of humane values and through living those values your corporate culture will harvest the emotional energy and the creative potential of your employees.
Accommodating Personal Idiosyncrasies
Accommodating personal idiosyncrasies may help the creative mind to flourish. Whether it be eating a candy bar at a meeting, a brainstorm session in the wilderness or taking off all day and writing up the proposal all night people must have freedom to create and produce how and where they want.
If firms permit their employees to create the plan to get from a to z rather than dictate each step in the process they just may spur an otherwise average employee to new heights of creativity and accomplishment.
The biggest mistake people make in life is not trying to make a living at doing what they most enjoy. ~Malcomb Forbes
Positively influencing intrinsic motivation
Intrinsic motivation highly correlates with increased creativity levels. High level encouragement toward innovation, immediate supervisor encouragement, autonomy and sense of control, optimal challenges, and tasks matched to interests all positively influence intrinsic motivation. Therefore, firms should seek to have their employees do what they love and love what they do.
For businesses the first involves matching work to an employee's expertise. The latter involves creating the environment that will allow employees to retain the intrinsic motivational focus, while supporting their exploration of new ideas.
Enthusiasm is the mother of effort, and without it nothing great was ever achieved. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Freedom to fail and change pace quickly
Many companies are extremely cautious not to make errors and some are so shielding that they spend enormous amounts of money, time and human effort to research plans thoroughly in an effort to avoid mistakes. Yet case studies in business schools show us time and time again that regardless of this effort mistakes are bound to happen.
In addition, the accelerated pace of change and current ease of new entrants to new markets due to technological advantages leave no time for companies to research every possible in and out. For example, by the time that IBM and Compaq decided to create an online sales strategy it was too late.
In fact IBM and Compaq did not seem to notice when Dell decided to sell computers over the internet. How could this be? Well, people develop habits. They have emotions. They become blind to things that are familiar. They have their own unique points of view.
These factors produce cultures and dynamics that paralyze efforts to do something new. Including keeping an eye on small start up firms, like Dell, as a competitive threat and making a quick jump to new, innovative technology.
Now IBM rarely makes PCs and Compaq looks foolish for even suggesting that they will be able to compete with Dell online.
Clearly freedoms must now, more than ever, be in place to allow employees to change strategies quickly and without scrutiny. Doing more with less, in less time, is now a survival necessity for firms of all sizes.
We are here for the greater good, live your dreams with people that share your same dreams and together you will be rewarded ~Amanda Besemer
Innovation Forums! Why not join or start an innovative discussion on our new improved Creativity and Innovation forums, aka, 'Talking Communities'. Enjoy!
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