knocking your right brain

CREATIVITY & INNOVATION

LECTURE FOUR: Fostering Creativity and Innovation

BM006-3-2 CRI: Creativity and Innovation Lecture 4

3 Components of Business Creativity


Managing Creativity

• A project manager needs both soft and hard skills to lead effectively. Achieving the right mix of structure, creative freedom, and support will create the conditions for communication, innovation, and productivity for a team.

• Researcher Teresa Amabile’s 2004 study on team perceptions of managers revealed that individuals most value the following characteristics in their project leaders: awareness of work activities; “socioemotional” support; public recognition of performance; and inquiry and utilization of subordinates’ ideas. Conversely, the study found that team members bristled at leaders who provide too much or too little interest in their activities; avoid emerging conflicts or problems; and offer unclear objectives.


Creative Leader’s Role

• It can be a challenge to be an involved leader without being a micromanager. The following strategies can assist in achieving the proper balance.

• Communicate Objectives and Expectations – Establishing guidelines does not have to stifle

creativity–even a painter is limited by his or her canvas. Providing clear project objectives and team expectations, and revisiting them on a regular basis, helps to maintain project structure.


Creative Leader’s Role (continued)

• Become Involved in the Project – By investing personal time and effort in the

development process of a project, rather than directing from the outside, you can maintain involvement without micromanaging. Effectively delegate tasks by establishing the “what” and the “when,” and allowing the team to decide “how.”



• Become Involved in the Project – It may be helpful to think of yourself as a

facilitator of a self-managed group, where the objectives and goals are determined by the team as a whole. Such a system maintains structure by mutual agreement; individuals are accountable to the team rather than the manager. As the manager, your role is to simply reflect the will of the team.



• Publicly Recognise Ideas and Accomplishments – Create a supportive atmosphere where

performance is recognized and rewarded. – Make a special effort to give individual team

members public kudos for small and large successes. This can be accomplished in a meeting or by sending a group email.



• Encourage Creativity – To be creative, team members sometimes need to question

a manager’s authority rather than bow to it. Encourage open discussions where all ideas are taken seriously. While a creative team may feel unstructured and even volatile at times, you can maintain productivity by encouraging controlled conflict based on creative differences of opinion, as opposed to personal and social issues. Whereas personal conflicts are a counterproductive waste of time and energy, creative conflicts are energizing and enlightening. Give your team room to “think outside of the box” and permission to respectfully disagree.



• Address Conflicts Early – Office politics can quickly interfere with morale

and productivity. Address potential conflicts early before they snowball into an insurmountable problem.



• Be Emotionally Available • Team members have unique personalities, family

responsibilities, and reactions to stress. This is easy to forget when faced with the pressure of a looming deadline. It is important to show that your interest in your team goes beyond their role in the project: – Accommodate flexible schedules when possible. Team members

will appreciate the ability to control their work, and will be more productive in the long run.

– Organize occasional team lunches where “shop talk” is banned.– Engage in “water cooler” chats with your team.– Be approachable regarding problems.



• Steer Clear of Office Gossip – By engaging in office gossip, you threaten your

credibility with the group and may place your job in peril. Any issues that you may have with an individual should be addressed in private with that person.



• Use Technology to Enhance Communication with Your Team

• Email and web-based technologies provide numerous benefits to managers, including: – The ability to unobtrusively monitor individual progress.– The ability to forward information and documents to

multiple team members simultaneously.– An electronic forum for discussions.– A written documentation of the project’s progress.



• Use Technology to Enhance Communication with Your Team – For managers who feel uncomfortable or awkward

complimenting team members verbally, email may provide a more natural means of delivering praise. However, be careful that such methods do not take the place of human interaction. The tone of an email is also important; without the softening effects of body language, concise emails can feel cold or critical to a sensitive reader. Be sure to soften your emails with polite inquiries and expressions of gratitude.


Strategies to Develop Talent and Enhance Innovation

• 1. Make sure your vision and mission are clearly communicated.– Ron Matthews, CIO of Phillips Hager and North, offers

this advice: "You want innovation directed where it will provide the biggest return. Executives must cascade strategic plans down to the employee level. Employees need to know where the ship is headed so they can direct their energies to what is important to the business."

– Communication of organizational and project changes, decisions, and policies should be available to everyone.


Strategies to Develop Talent and Enhance Innovation (continued)

• 2. Remove the obstacles of bureaucracy that strangle creativity.– Welcome open ended inquiry and experimentation in

the workplace.• 3. Create a climate for an open flow of ideas,

collaboration and knowledge sharing. – Encourage interdepartmental conversation. Sierra

Systems and SAS incorporate design and aesthetics in the workplace, to enhance creativity and employee well being.



• 4. Freedom and trust are key to pushing the limits in creativity.– A highly collaborative environment demands a high trust

culture. Not all creative endeavours lead to success, and smart companies turn failure into learning opportunities.

• 5. Embrace diversity.– Sierra Systems hires or contracts expertise from non-

technical areas, including a doctor for their health practice and professional foresters for their forestry practice.



• 5. Give employees an opportunity to reap the rewards of the success they helped create. Money talks.– IBM Canada initiated the Team Achievement Plan, to solve the "it's

not my job" issue and ensure everyone is fully accountable to customer service and profitability. 5% of an employee's income is held back until an aggregate Customer Satisfaction target is reached, (3% better than Best of Breed) measured by an outside organization. Another 5% is also held back and tied to achieving profitability objectives.

– If a target is missed the employee gets nothing. Individual performance is recognized with scaled payments, i.e. top performers receive a premium, others less. IBM Canada's Customer Satisfaction is now 5.2% better than best of breed of all its competitors with a four fold increase in stock value.



• 7. Cultivate Continuous Learning.– Sierra Systems motivates people by giving them the

opportunity to stay at the forefront of new technology, and giving them a variety of assignments in a fast paced environment.

– Although employees are responsible for their own career development, they have a career advisor who assists them with positioning. Employees are provided with the tools and training they need to grow, including access to self help instruction and tutorials on the intranet. Staff are mentored for success.



• 8. Revitalise by cultivating outside interests.– (i.e. music, art, and nature). Microsoft has a Work Life

Initiative to help employees maintain a balance in their lives.

– To encourage a wide variety of interests, they created public folders (electronic bulletin boards) on topics from child rearing to public art. Staff are also free to go for a run or play pick-up basketball to clear their heads—no questions asked.



• 9. Innovation requires strong leadership and support from the executive level.– "It is up to management to sustain a culture that

encourages creation and innovation and enhances opportunities for success." (3M)

– Fostering an idea-friendly environment encourages groups to develop their imagination, unleash breakthrough ideas, and generate solutions. This is the motive force that results in a thriving, fun and productive organization. Harness the creative resources of your people, and you have the energy that fuels revenue growth.


Foundations of Innovation(Ian Lin, 2001)

• Traditional foundations of innovation– During the innovation process, an enquiring, curious and

imaginative mind gathers new information, creates new knowledge and develop new perspectives that lead to new ideas.

– These new ideas in turn stimulate the need for more information, thereby creating more knowledge, developing more perspectives, generating and thus the cycle continues on.


Foundations of Innovation

• Foundations of innovation in the networked world– New information

• In the past our main sources of information came from our own particular area of interest and expertise.

• In the networked world, for the purposes of innovation we will need to spread our information net much further afield into many other areas of knowledge.

• Information economy provides us with access to unlimited amounts of continuously updated information, our opportunity for innovation is also limitless.



– New knowledge networks• If we try to increase diversity of our knowledge by doing

everything ourselves, we will suffer information overload.

• The only way to prevent this is to create our own network of

associates who have expertise and experience in other

relevant fields of knowledge.

• These people will understand the type of information we

need, and can become our information filter in their areas

of knowledge.



– New mental perspectives• Developing new mental perspectives, by taking a diversity of

new viewpoints and seeing things from different angles – this

is a major catalyst for innovation.

– Continuously engage in new experiences and meet different

people in new situations

» Allows for cross fertilisation of ideas and diversity of opinions

• Innovation requires the new perspectives that come from

formation of dynamic multi-dimensional clusters of people

and work together with a common vision.


Organisational characteristics that facilitate the innovation process

Organisational requirement Characterised by

Growth orientation A commitment to long-term growth rather than short-term profit

Vigilance The ability of the organisation to be aware of its threats and opportunities

Commitment to technology The willingness to invest in the long-term development of technology

Acceptance of risks The willingness to include risky opportunities in a balance portfolio

Cross-functional cooperation Mutual respect among individuals and a willingness to work together across functions

Receptivity The ability to be aware of, to identify and to take effective advantage of developed technology

‘Slack’ An ability to manage the innovation dilemma and provide room for creativity

Adaptability A readiness to change

Diverse range of skills A combination of specialisation and diversity of knowledge and skills


Right Environment for Innovation

• Organisational Structure– Do we have a corporate structure that is agile and flexible,

and that encourages diverse thought, individual initiative and the development of new ideas?

• Information– Do we have a constant stream of information from many

sources that may be relevant for the future?

• Networks– Do we constantly develop a diversity of new contacts to be

able to quickly gain access to new knowledge and resources?


Right Environment for Innovation

• Cross-cultural communications– Do we develop new perspectives based on operating across and

understanding a diversity of generational, national, industrial, business and ethnic cultures?

• Innovation– Do we have a program to create innovation as a core

competency?• Life-long learning

– Do we ensure that we remain updated and continuously increase our knowledge and wisdom?

• Strategies– Do we constantly review our strategies to adjust for constant

change?


The New Environment - Egological

• According to Ian Lin, the ability of an organisation to innovate will greatly diminish if it fails to look after the egological environment.

• The egological environment is the combination of the physical, mental and psychological environment that affects our motivation, passion, feelings, vision and spirit– just as ecology refers to interaction in our external physical

environment, so egology refers to interaction in our spiritual environment – the interface between thought and feeling that defines our worth and self-esteem


The New Environment - Egological

• The most knowledgeable and creative individuals will be ineffective

if the right spirit is not fostered. Therefore, organisations must

establish the right egological environment to develop such spirit.

• How can this be achieved?

– Right kind of organisational structure

– Right kind of organisational culture

– Right kind of leadership

– Employing the right people

– Right reward and recognition systems

– Promote continuous learning and human capital development


Organic versus Mechanistic Organisational Structures(Trott, 1998, p. 44)

ORGANIC MECHANISTIC1. Channels of communicationOpen with free information flow throughout the organisation

1. Channels of communicationHighly structured, restricted information flow

2. Operating stylesAllowed to vary freely

2. Operating stylesMust be uniform and restricted

3. Authority for decisionsBased on expertise of the individual

3. Authority for decisionsBased on formal line management position

4. Free adaptationBy the organisation to changing circumstances

4. Reluctant adaptationWith insistence on holding fast to tried and true management principle despite changes in business conditions

5. Emphasis on getting things doneUnconstrained by formally laid out procedures

5. Emphasis on formally laid down proceduresReliance on tried and true management principles

6. Loose, informal controlWith emphasis on norm of co-operation

6. Tight controlThrough sophisticated control systems

7. Flexible on-job behaviourPermitted to be shaped by the requirements of the situation and personality of the individual doing the job

7. Constrained on-job behaviourRequired to conform on job descriptions

8. Participation and group consensus used frequently

9. Superiors make decisions with minimum consultation and involvement of subordinates


Reading

• Lin, Ian, Innovation in the networked world in Baker, Carolyn (Ed), Innovation and Imagination at Work, Management Today Series, Sydney, McGraw-Hill, pp. 9-16

• Trott, Paul, 1998, Chapter 3: Managing Innovation within Firms, Innovation Management and New Product Development, London, Financial Times, pp. 83-84

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