A teacher finds a new way to convey the idea of photosynthesis
to the students.
An industrialist finds a simpler way of packaging a product
which reduces the bulk by 40% yet continues to protect the
product.
A manager on the fourteenth floor of an office building uses
stair climbing as her physical fitness routine and meets two
objectives at the same time.
A lack of creative capacity can seriously undermine managerial
effectiveness, therefore here we examine :
The psychological barriers to creativity.
How you can systematically apply creative methods to solving
problems.
Some ideas on applying creative thinking to work teams and
organizations.
Consider how creativity can be woven into organizational
innovation.
CREATIVITY IS EXPRESSED BY PEOPLE IN ALL WALKS OF LIFE:
BARRIERS TO PERSONAL CREATIVITY
Lack of perseverance : creativity demands endurance, time,
patience and effort. Giving up prematurely does not promote or
complete the creative process.
Traditional habits: all people develop routines of movement
work expression, and thinking. Habits can be enemies of
creativity.
Excessive tension: being creative often involves feelings of
uncertainty and confusion. You do not know the answer before you
begin , and this lack of a secure foundation can provoke excessive
tension.
Muted drive: no significant development occurs without a need
for change being felt, which is the fuel of creative endeavor . The
need to innovate can be from within or without.
Insufficient opportunity: some of the most sufficient
innovation in history were conceived by individuals prevented from
conducting their lives normally through illness , imprisonment or
even temporary disgrace.
Over-seriousness: creative expression often requires a
willingness to play with or be open to ideas ; sometimes solutions
lie in bizarre and extraordinary suggestions. This playful
receptivity or openness is not compatible with excessive
seriousness and an obsession with rationality.
Poor methodology ; the lack of appropriate and effective
methods of problem solving and decision-making inhibits creative
effort . Although, creative work involves novel thinking , it is
possible to find ways of structuring such work to increase the
probability of success.
ASSESSING YOUR BARRIERS
Creative problem-solving: the tech. for Creative
problem-solving require special skills and the process involves 5
stages:
STAGE ONE-exploring the problem: problems have to be explored
in depth to provide a basis of generating solutions. A superficial
understanding of them is not enough. All the dimensions must be
understood. One should avoid trying to find an answer before the
question has been fully understood. There are three additional
benefits to exploring a problem in depth :
a scale of the assignment can be estimated realistically.
the task objectives and criteria of success can be identified
.
an appropriate human organization and work method can be
planned.
form a group.
issue each person with paper for noting.
designate a topic.
ask each person to brainstorm silently and write each idea on a
separate sheet of paper.
insist that each note is completed.
gather the ideas into groups.
evaluate the ideas for utility and innovation.
choose a topic or problem.
write down the topic, preferably on a blank flip chart.
establish a definite for stopping the session.
during the brainstorming period write down all ideas, no matter
how outlandish or weird or apparently irrelevant they may seem, but
do not evaluate them.
after the session, list the ideas in a logical order, explore
and evaluate them.
STAGE TWO - Generating ideas: the techniques for generating
ideas is known as brainstorming. The procedure for brainstorming is
as follows.
STAGE THREE: screening ideas for application. Each idea should
be reviewed against the following five criteria:
-will it add value to customers (internal or external).
- is it likely to be effective?
- can it be made to work?
- is it the best choice among the available options ?
- do we want to make this idea work?
STAGE FOUR : planning innovation
An idea is the embryo of innovation and, if the promise is to
be fulfilled, the idea must be applied and tested.
Implementation has to be planned, or you could risk
failure.
For innovation to be successful one needs to clarify objectives
regularly and reflect on what is happening. This places a special
demand on the manager/person responsible. Many problems are bound
to arise, each requiring a solution before the project can proceed.
However, if the manager becomes over concerned with detail, he/she
loses a broad perspective on the overall process.
Clear, direct communication is needed if the innovation process
is to unfold systematically.
Individuals must develop a concept or role within the overall
scheme and understand how their work relates to that of their
colleagues. Here, individual initiative is valuable, bout for it to
be useful, it must be coordinated within a framework and with the
team in mind.
SATGE FIVE : Feedback and Review
The process of innovation is rarely neat and tidy.
New factors constantly appear and each new piece of information
can influence the development of the process.
For this reason, a means of frequently reviewing progress and
realigning objectives and plans is needed.
Sloppy personal organization and muddled priorities can inhibit
creativity.
Because the nature of creativity increases uncertainty, ways
must be found to periodically review and collect feedback. This
reduces the risk of energy being expended in irrelevant or confused
activities and ensures that focus is maintained. Maintaining a
methodical approach collecting feedback on tasks, performance and
accomplishment, reviewing procedures, and adjusting plans and
objectives is a managerial responsibility, and it is severely put
to the test when innovation is required.
Creative Groups and Organizations
A deeper examination of progress in innovation shows that much
has been achieved by teams, organizations, or communities. Creative
accomplishments have often been a consequence of the pooled talent
of many people.
A team or organization that has nourished the creative output,
giving individuals the resources and back up they needed were
successful. The space programmers are excellent examples of
organizational innovation brought about by teams.
A creative team requires a balance of skills . For example, a
finance team will need people to translate estimated future plans
into financial strategies, to maintain the capital structure so as
to balance between risk of insolvency and higher returns.
Leadership is crucial to the groups success because the manager
will want to build a resourceful and balanced team containing a
broad mixture of talents.
MAIN PROBLEMS CONFRONTING CREATIVE TEAMS
Emerging objective: creative groups may lack clear objectives ;
objectives may change as new ideas emerge; tasks may be imprecise
and the utility of their output may only be evaluated after
completion of the task. Often it is not possible to set objectives
and simply move towards them a more flexible approach is
required.
Insufficient approach: because organizations are notorious for
withdrawing support from creative groups, such a group must
overtime communicate to gain acceptance and ensure support ,
especially when results seem elusive.
Uncoordinated activity: when searching for solutions or ideas
individual activity is often difficult to coordinate. As a result,
a situation can quickly develop in which all the group members are
engage in unsystematic initiatives, in such circumstances the cost
escalate and performance suffers.
Loss of heart : snags and setbacks can occur as a project
proceeds. They can seriously demoralize the participants and lead
to a collapse of the groups confidence, initiative and energy.
Communication overload: creative teams need to communicate
extensively. Sharing, brainstorming and discussing clarify issues.
However, too much data can overload system, preventing key topics
from being identified. Sometimes a special computing technology for
sharing data and ideas, can provide breakthrough in managing
communication.
Inadequate review: as new ideas and data are generated, tasks
change in character and scope . Because it is not easy to stay open
to change, continuing to work on outdated guidelines can seem the
easy way out . This temptation should be counteracted by review and
replanning.
PERSONAL CREATIVITY
The task of being creative requires exceeding usual boundaries
and operating on a higher level of imagination. The reaction some
people is to strain in effort to concentrate on getting the best
from themselves. Such inner straining in-fact has an opposite
effect, because creative capacity can be diminished by strain and
undermine by forced imagination.
Individuals may approach a problem with preconceived
expectations, fail to be fully aware of the challenge or the
changing factors and try to hurry towards a solution.
While working on the creative assignment, the person can be
sapped of strength by a stream of doubts, criticism and strain.
Therefore it is not surprising that true creativity, which is a
subtle human attribute, fails to thrive under such a hostile inner
psychological situation.
Personal creativity can be enhance by finding ways of calming
the parts of oneself that promote tension.
It is necessary to search into ones mental makeup to find
personal barriers to creative expression.
ORGANIZATIONAL INNOVATION
Almost every industry is undergoing radical change and although
there will be periods of stability, such change is inevitable.
Change means that managers must be innovators, capable of
generating ideas, both big and small , and then managing change
procedures to implement new products and processes.
Innovation operates at all levels : radical and incremental,
and both are important although the skills needed for each are
different.
RADICAL INNOVATION
A pharmaceutical firm decides to outsource 80 percent of its
research and development work.
A railway company moves from being owned by the public to being
a commercial business.
A hierarchical organization removes several layers from its
structure and empowers each front line employee.
IN PURSUING RADICAL INNOVATION A MANAGER SHOULD:
Analyze comprehensively the current strengths and weaknesses of
the organization;
Compare against best practices;
Show willingness to be radical in thought and deed;
Be able to create a broad vision;
Involve and engage others;
Design and implement subtle organizational change
programmes;
Be able to take difficult and, sometimes harsh, decisions if
necessary;
Motivate others constantly through times of upheaval;
INCREMENTAL INNOVATION
Incremental innovation also known as continuous improvement is
based on a different but complementary philosophy of organizational
development. Here the principle is that sustained change is
achieved not through broad changes but by a myriad of incremental
innovation. For example, a project cannot be implemented with a
concept idea alone .
It requires meticulous planning, each module or stage being
well thought out, assignment task and responsibilities , constant
reviewing, adapting where needed etc. before it can be successfully
completed.
IN PURSUING INCREMENTAL INNOVATION A MANAGER SHOULD ;
Show willingness to believe in the creative power of people
;
Inculcate problem solving and opportunity finding skills in
every employee ;
Reward all creative ideas ;
Implement every idea with merit;
Be open to innovation in the workplace ;
Change from a directing to a coaching management style;
Use specialists as supporters in the problem solving
process;
Adopt a stance of creative discontent , i.e.. Seeing every
situation as capable of being improved ;
HOW MANAGERS CAN LEARN AND DEVELOP
There are two modes in learning which impact what is being
learnt and that which is developed . These are single loop learning
and double loop learning.
Single loop learning involves solving problems with their
current definitions and a minor change in solution.
Single loop learning is appropriate for routine issues
Double loop learning occurs when individuals or organizers
review the definitions and the circumstances through which the
issues requiring learning occurs.
In principle development depends on where the executive wants
to be; where the executive is now ; and how the executive might
progress.
UNDERSTANDING WHAT HAS TO BE DEVELOPED
One approach to deciding what the executive needs to develop is
to first understand what the job requires and the qualities needed
to fulfill these requirements and comparing this to what qualities
the executive possess. the resulting gaps then becomes the focus of
attention.
Though both the requirements of the job and the qualities
needed to perform in the role will need to be customized at an
individual level, it is necessary for an executive to know in
general how the capabilities can be developed. These can be grouped
into 4 categories:
executive understanding: included in the first group are those
abilities which primarily concern the executive knowledge and
understanding.
executive behavior: the second group covers those abilities
concerns with improving executive behavior and action; that is, the
interpersonal abilities of influence, integration and leadership.
While all three are important , the need for effective leadership
to transform organizations is increasingly viewed as particularly
critically senior levels.
executive mind: how executive think, their breath and focus as
well as the mindset they adopt, fundamentally influences how they
operate at senior levels. The cognitive and maturity abilities are
therefore included in this group
self directed development: the development ability is not only
about what is understood and applied, but also on how one goes
about this process. As the business environment is changing so
rapidly, it is necessary that executives are strong self-learners
or cultivate the habit the of self learning.