How To Stimulate Creativity In Your Company -part 1-
The truth is that most organizations are designed to kill creativity. When he arrived at a company, the first thing I ask is what if someone here comes up with a good idea?
The answer I always hear is, “if I have a good idea, I say to my boss and then the idea dies, either because a) I said that it will not work, b) tells me there is no time or resources to implement c) steals it to take all the credit, which causes that no one wants to give new ideas. Many managers are in fact murderers (serial) of ideas.
However, creativity is essential to any successful business and today more than ever, is key to the survival of businesses. Unfortunately, creativity has not been in the priorities of most managers. This is, perhaps, it is considered as something intangible, elusive and difficult to administer, and we are more focused on obtaining short-term operational efficiencies, instead of thinking in creating the future of the company.
This is compounded when you consider that we have also mystified creativity and see it as something exclusive to artists, inventors and “creative” advertising agency, or consider it as something that applies only to certain areas of the business ( marketing, advertising, R & D). We have forgotten that creativity is a skill that can be leveraged across all areas and all people in an organization. The only difference is that in business, instead of drawing on a canvas, we do it on the market and customer needs, and instead of using paints and brushes, we use strategies, design processes, allocate resources and leverage the capabilities human.
Here’s a practical focus on how managers can stimulate creativity in all areas of your business and use them to turn ideas into innovations that provide a competitive advantage to business.
Generally we believe that creativity is something that happens spontaneously and that, therefore, we leave it free to flourish. Phrases such as “think with a blank sheet” and “the sky is the limit” come to mind. In fact, in my experience and although it sounds counterintuitive, creativity must be focused and restricted to be effective. I have seen many companies tell their partners, glibly, “we want ideas, and then become frustrated because they receive very few ideas relevant to the business.
Creativity should focus on strategic business objectives. For example, employees must be told “we want ideas to reduce costs in this process” or “we want ideas of new services for this market segment.” Creativity should focus on the most pressing challenges and issues facing the organization. This means employees do not want any kind of idea or occurrence, but ideas aligned to company strategy and give a competitive advantage.
Also, while we otherwise stimulates creativity more the higher the number of constraints we have. For example, “deal to create a network of distributors and we have no money.” Recall that the need has always been the mother of invention. One of the most focused resources that creativity is the time: “busy finding a solution to this problem before this date.” Therefore, we must ensure that our employees always have an important set of challenges to stimulate their imagination.
credit to: Mario Morales
Source: www.gestiopolis.com/innovacion-emprendimiento/como-estimular-la-creatividad-en-su-empresa.htm
image source: http://blog.creativityden.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/creative.png