Numerous books and websites provide recommendations on how to cultivate creativity. Fortunately, more and more sources are turning to giving advice around managing creativity in organizations. Most talk about how indispensable it is to have a favorable work environment. Furthermore, there is already a respectable stream of empirical research proving this imperative in various companies in various countries.
But beyond the central place of a creative work environment, what else is needed? I will try to answer this question.
The cult of creativity in companies must involve, to mention first one of three central elements:
RECEPTIVITY to new or original ideas
It turns out that a constant of the companies that stand out for their outstanding creativity management is their permanent alert about the new and useful.
This radar is multidirectional. They are organizations attentive to ideas with potential, wherever they come from. Whether they are your collaborators, clients or any other involved. If anyone from these business communities expresses a concern with possibilities of being developed due to their probable profitability in money or prestige, such initiative is supported.
If someone communicates or picks up an idea that is already being used in another context, it is also analyzed, thus examining its possibilities for the company.
In short, these are organizations with a 360-degree view. But, to exploit the immense possibilities of the findings that this approach brings, a second element is required.
Another central element of creativity-oriented organizations is:
A DELICATE BALANCE BETWEEN RESPONSIBILITIES AND FREEDOM
They are “plastic” entities that, by prioritizing novel results, can be flexible about their rules, regulations, hierarchies or methodologies.
As Einstein said, let's not expect anything new if we use the same old procedures.
These companies have already incorporated the predilection for patient cultivation of the projects. That is, if certain forms or controls are to be mitigated for a novel idea to prosper or take shape, these companies are willing to take the risk. Or perhaps the word should not be risk but projection.
The counterexample are organizations tied to their rules and regulations that prevent them from seeing new options.
This brings us to the third element, equally essential is that the company's human talent be inoculated with:
CREDIBILITY
The most successful companies for their innovations have earned the loyalty of their staff by acting consistently and without doubts.
Employees know that talent is protected and developed in such organizations. They know that they are in the virtuous circle of talent, in which each challenge overcome attracts a more challenging one.
They have and live with the support of the entire command line.
Perhaps the most complex task is not how to reward creative ideas. Actually, the trickiest may be how to permanently motivate people with creative potential.
