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CREATIVE ORGANISATION

Forces that stimulate organisational innovativeness:

- Turbulent operating environment where market or other changes are frequent.

- Organisation that is vulnerable due to competition, due to its small size.

- Sophisticated/demanding clientele.

- The outputs of the organisation are novel, variable or custom built.

- A management that seeks a unique status for the organisation.

- A management that has set for itself high targets in diverse areas like profits,expansion, public image, employee welfare, customer loyalty etc.

-An organisation facing a crisis that threatens its survival or its operating viability.

-Favorable circumstances such as rapid market growth.

DESIGN OF AN INNOVATIVE ORGANISATION

-The various organisational choices to generate a stream of successful innovation are asfollows.

1) GROWTH STRATEGY:

Being first in the field: - Pioneering new products, services or activities done for the

first time in the country . Ex: BHEL

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Creative imitation: - Taking somebody elses invention and then adapting it to uses notoriginally anticipated.

Ex: Computer developed by University of Pennsylvania picked up by IBM.

Opportunistic diversification: - ideas about new products, activities, services or

applications.Ex: Reliance Industries went in for related products such as cotton textiles, polyester,chemicals, petrochemicals, communications, electronics.

Intra preneurship: - A small team consisting of engineers, technicians, designers etclead by an entrepreneur type of a person called skunk work and given the mandate and

the resources to develop a new product or activity area. The skunk work is providedaccess to the top management by having its head report to a member of the topmanagement.

Having several such skunk work groups in the organisation ensure that at least a fewstar new products would be available for marketing in the future.

2) COMPETITIVE STRATEGY:

- Identifying niches, i.e. poorly served market segments and a forceful attempt tocapture the dominant market share in that niche. Ex: strategy pursued by Reliance co.

- Aggressively cutting costs by automation, energy conservation etc.

- Strong customer and market research orientation

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3) INNOVATIVE SCANNING:

(i) External environment: by paying attention to such features of the externalenvironment such as competition, technological change, government policies,demographic changes, the emergence of new knowledge, cultural changes and changesin perceptions

Ex: In the textile industry, Reliance did what others were not doing.

(ii) Internal Environment: by looking into its own policies, structure, procedures, plant,management systems etc.

-Periodic springcleaning is necessary to remove bureaucracies.

Ex: IIM Ahmedabad sets up a faculty task force every five years called the thecommittee for future directions to review the institutes activities, programs, structureetc.

4) STRUCTURE TO FACILITATE INNOVATION:

-Structure of an organisation can impede innovation because the principles governingstructure are specialization, standardization, routinization and control while thosegoverning innovation are cross fertilization of ideas, going in offbeat directions,individual and team initiative and so forth.

- Decentralization, flat structure:- has few hierarchical levels, it frees time for decisionmakers to engage in divergent thinking. It also provides initiative and sense of

responsibility to those to whom authority is delegated.

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- Flexible organisation can be changed quickly in response to a need. A division can bereadily pulled of one department and attached to another department.

- Team management with complementary skills and through training and job rotation,members of the team are encouraged to learn each other's roles.

- Groups for strategic functions:

The tendency is to move from a functional structure to a divisional or matrix structure.

In functional structure, people are grouped by specialist departments such as in a firm,production, marketing, finance, personnel etc.

In divisional structure, all the specialists needed for an activity are grouped together asin corporate profit centres or in the different faculties of a university.

In a matrix structure, people from different disciplines are temporarily assigned to aproject or activity, either on a full time or part time basis, or they may be assigned toother projects when the current project is over

5) CONTROL TO FACILITATE INNOVATIONS:

Self control: of individual members of the innovation group can give better results,rather than the authoritarian control/bureaucratic control.

Peer Pressure: Colleague can exert pressure on the individual for doing his best. Theindividual does his best because of his identification with his team, and his concern forthe teams performance.

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6) CULTURE BUILDING FOR INNOVATION:

- Early choices in life: The choice of organisation charts and form, mission oforganisation, mode of making decisions, the first chief executive and other strategicindividuals recruited in the early years of the organisation matter the growth of theorganisation.

- Widespread dissemination within the organisation of information about its mission,operating goals, opportunities, threats and performance should alert the staff toinnovation opportunities.

- Rewarding of initiative, creativity innovation and achievement is also important.

-Inter level dialogues about innovation is also helpful for innovation

7) MOTIVATION TO SPUR INNOVATION:

Meritocracy: i.e. rewards and promotions to those who deserve them by virtue of goodperformance. The impulse to innovate would freeze if people felt that their performanceis not going to be rewarded but rather only their seniority or loyalty to the boss.

Extrinsic factors (money, position, perquisites) and intrinsic factors (sense of challenge,autonomy, sense of making a significant contribution, sense of achievement) motivatepeople to be creative.

8) CONFLICT RESOLUTION FOR INNOVATION:- The conflicts which are likely arise

during innovation can be reduced by face to face resolution and periodic progressreview meetings of concerned staff.

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FACTORS INFLUENCING THE CULTURE OF AN ORGANISATION MOREINNOVATIVE:

1) Credibility: The persons wanting to change the culture of an organisationshould have credibility, otherwise his orders may be ignored or sabotaged.

He should demonstrate his capability, show humility, give others the creditfor the success.

2) Quick pay off tasks: The change agent should provide to the organisation, astream of relatively small success experiences. These small innovations canresult in gaining the confidence of the lower level people.

3) Coalition building for organisational change: The change agent shouldidentify a few like minded individuals on whose support he can count. Themore powerful these are, the better will be the output.

4) Mobilisation of the rank and the file: Involve the lower level people in

diagnosing the organisations weaknesses and form group or task forces tobrainstorm on ways for solving specific problems or accomplishing concretetasks.

5) Professional management: Tools of professional management such asbudgeting, cost control, performance appraisal, management by objective

systems are to be institutionalized.

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NEW DELHI: State-run Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) on tuesday said

that it has won three 'Vishwakarma Rashtriya Puraskars' awarded by thegovernment for innovation in developing low-cost, quality products.The awards will be shared by eight employees from the company'sHaridwar and Hyderabad units.

"BHEL has bagged three 'Vishwakarma Rashtriya Puraskars' for the year

2007," a company release said.

Vishwakarma Rashtriya Puraskars are awarded each year by theGovernment of India for giving innovative suggestions leading to costreduction, higher productivity, safety and quality of products.

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How to make your organisation more creative.Managing changeEffective change starts by understanding your presentsituation. Then, you create a joint vision of how you wantthings to be. When both are clear, you plan how to movefrom one to the other. Thus, you make your organisationmore creative by first clarifying what is happening now.How creative are you now?You can find this out by asking your employees. The bestway is by individual interview, using someone from outsidethe organisation. People will be open when personal

confidentiality is guaranteed. The issues people raise can beexplored in depth. The "Dimensions" above should notconstrain the enquiry. They do not make an exhaustive list.

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Ask questions like: -How easy is it to get something new to happen?How do people react to new ideas?What happens if you suggest a new way of doing something?What happens if you try something and it does not work?How does the organisation encourage creativity and development?

What does it do that discourages creativity and development?You would also explore people's experience of the "Dimensions" directly.Eg You could explore "Purpose" by asking. What is the company here to do? How

important is that to you? Why?

Workshops could explore the same questions. The people attending could be in naturalteams or across the organisation. The choice would depend on the Company'sdevelopmental objectives.The data from the interviews and/or workshops would show which factors the Companyshould work on to make it more creative. Before starting to make plans, you should workwith the people on their vision of how they would like their world of work to be. You can ask people, in a group, to list publicly the words they would use to describe workif "everything was right" and they were "thoroughly enjoying it". I am always amazed how

much people agree and how easily they find a "slogan" to describe their preferredsituation. A group of production workers chose "Everything running smoothly" to describe

their preferred vision.

When you have the situation now clearly understood and a clear vision of a desirablefuture, you can start to plan. I will describe some possible plans derived from thedimensions above. In a real situation only some of them will need work. There will also be

new things that I have not listed.

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Making improvements in practicePlayIt will help your staff to play at work if you keep the

rules, procedures and monitoring down to theminimum possible for their part of the business.You can still be clear about the outcomes youexpect and the boundaries they must keep within.

Unreasonable control will inhibit playfulness andcreativity. Can the organisation provide places forpeople to meet, support each other and exploretheir work in a free way? You could involve your

staff by discussing this issue with them in a lighthearted way!

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Flexible PersistenceYou can encourage your staff to support each other, rather than competing. Supportgroups, action learning sets and co-consulting are all good mechanisms for this. Whenpeople know that they have some support, they will persist. If they hit obstacles, then

talking these over will help them find a way through. Influencing skills training can helppeople build good quality relationships with decision makers. When you understandanother person well, you can present proposals in a way that meets their needs (and your

own).PurposeMany successful companies consider they serve many stakeholders. These could be

employees, shareholders, customers, suppliers and the community. Ifallthesestakeholders support a common purpose for the company then it will thrive.You can develop a common purpose at a workshop involving representatives of theabove. You could start the process by asking people to list "What will be happening whenthe company is successful? Then develop a summary statement that all can support with

enthusiasm. You refine this statement by discussion with the rest of the stakeholders. Power

The simplest way to develop personal power is to increase the amount of support in theorganisation. Being listened to is enormously empowering. This works best when peopletake turns. One form is "Coconsulting". Here, one person talks about and explores anissue while the other listens, encourages asks questions and challenges assumptions.Half to three quarters of an hour each way is usual. It is very simple, cheap and effective.If you can encourage your "client" to decideto do something, then their power increases.

A i

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AttentionYou candecide to give someone else some attention rather than concentratingon your own concerns. It is not easy but it is possible. The process of"Coconsulting" above is an excellent way of developing your ability to giveattention. The structure challenges you to do so for half an hour even if you do

not feel like it. When you see the enormous benefits of doing so, most peoplewant to continue. A few minutes' feedback after each half session help this.Both parties can discuss what the helper did that was helpful and how it couldbe better next time. Key employees in stressful positions gain enormously fromsome one-way attention. Meetings of groups and teams work better wheneveryone has equal attention and does not have to fight for this. The team

leader just asks everyone for two minutes contribution on a topic while the restof the people just listen.InspirationThis is difficult to manage by a simple mechanism. You will know what happensin your organisation that dampens peoples' energy and enthusiasm. Avoidthem. Too many rules, too much formality, no laughter, rigid job descriptions,

grey offices all reduce the opportunity for inspiration to happen. It needs spaceand time to grow in. People get inspired in the bath after all. Inspirational ideasoften happen after an intense stimulus like a conference. The pace of workinglife can mean people move from stimulus to stimulus with no time to reflect andbecome inspired.

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AwarenessBeing aware is about thinking broadly and looking todiscover the truth. The aware person attempts to avoidblaming and instead tries to understand why people do the

things they do.This openness to new knowledge and experience developsthrough experiences in which the persons' self expands.Such experiences can be off the beaten track travel, small

group courses, learning new things like pottery, dancing, orsailing, or a close relationship with someone who is verydifferent from you. An aware manager can help his/hersubordinates become more aware by delegating challengingassignments with thoughtful support. The organisation canencourage awareness by seeking the contributions of itsmembers and asking provocative questions. Excessiveinsularity will destroy it.

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FinallyThis article was written to stimulate thought and debate.The components will connect in many ways to suit yourcircumstances. They are not the last word. Please write to

me if you have any insights or comments on the article orthe subject. I would be pleased to hear from you.Using these materialsI am entirely happy for you to use or draw on any thesematerials in any way you think will be helpful. I am keento have my work, and the work of the people I have

learned from, used.Please will you say where you found them? One waymight be to give a link back to www.nickheap.co.uk or toinfo@nickheap.co.uk. This will help these positive ideas

to spread, and help my business, too.

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