Managing creativity
EVERY company, big or small, will be eager to come up with innovations that can capture the public imagination; which in turn can strengthen its image and brand name.
To face today's complex challenges, you need to incorporate a wide range of styles, skills and perspectives. This is true particularly in multi-functional organisations, where people carrying out different functions and working in different divisions have to get together to resolve mutual problems and come up with solutions that are universally acceptable.
While individuals can exude creativity and innovation, only team effort can ensure that something worthwhile comes of it. Organisations, on their part, can create an ambience where creativity flourishes. You can do a lot to inspire employees and facilitate free exchange of ideas within the organisation.
When everyone in an organisation falls into the trap of approaching problems too similarly, there can be little or no creativity. Encourage your people to think innovatively about your business, your industry and your customers. Egg them on to ask questions - different questions, or even ask them to word the same question in a different way. By approaching a problem, response or a prospect from a different perspective, you create an opportunity for new understanding and new learning.
Everybody has a different agenda. Customers want quality products and services, employees want better compensation, recognition or career opportunities while companies want greater profits and a better market share. Learn to recognise and develop empathy for diversified needs, even if they are very different from yours. After all, the best solutions are those that embrace people's differences.
Encourage focussed and insightful observation of the right people - people who are naturally creative or those who do things a little differently. Observe them in motion, in their natural settings; combine careful watching with occasional well-chosen questions. Such people often have the ability to inadvertently spark off brilliant ideas or solutions in an offhand manner, sometimes even without realising their value. Inspiration often comes from seeing, hearing, feeling and being there. Sensory immersion is a powerful source of innovation. So, make sure that you keep close to where the action is.
Make brainstorming a religion, practise it every day, and weave it into the cultural fabric of your organisation. Cross-functional collaboration, exchange of ideas, concept creation and sharing of knowledge virtually at every level of the organisation are needed to manage and fully harness the potential of inspiration and creativity. In fact, free flow of ideas should be encouraged not only within the organisation, but also between the organisation and other companies and businesses as well.
Make cross-pollination of ideas an integral part of your workplace - expect to find answers from unusual places.
As business today is about passion and winning and creating new things, fun has become a big element in the business strategy of many highly successful businesses. Make fun a part of the workplace culture. It not only keeps the team in good spirits, but also creates an atmosphere where people naturally tend to take chances to resolve issues or come up with innovative suggestions. Lastly, do remember that winning solutions are not born in a compliant environment. They are often the product of a vortex of divergent perspectives, paradoxical beliefs, conflicting emotions and cross-pollination of ideas rather than a narrowly focussed search for an answer.
BINDU SHRIDHAR
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