Enhancing Creativity: Enriching the Organization and Workplace
Case Study #1: Citations and important passages
1. Risk taking is acceptable to management: a. Management must recognize the risk/reward relationship and find organizational mechanisms for handling it. And it must communicate a clear understanding that reasonable risks are acceptable, since they are the handmaidens of progress. On the innovative front, two methods are available for dealing with risk: diversification and cheap failures. They can and should be used in concert. i. Diversification- allows companies to spread risk over many rolls of the dice, as opposed to betting the company on a single roll. Because one can never know in advance which ideas will be winners and which will be losers, having a diversified “portfolio” of ideas in play makes sense. ii. Cheap Failures- project or experiment that is terminated with the least possible outlay of resources—just enough to tell managers that “This isn’t going to work.” They back promising ideas with small budgets and look for ways to test them with the least input of resources. Like card players, they quickly fold when they recognize that they have a weak hand. Conversely, they increase backing for strong ideas.
2. New ideas and new ways of doing things are welcomed b. The worst environment for creativity is one that is unwelcoming to new ideas. “We’ve been successful over the years by doing things this way, so why should we change?” An organization with this attitude is heading for trouble. In fairness, management is compelled to shoot down good ideas when (1) those ideas lack a strategic fit with the business, or (2) the organization lacks the resources to pursue them. In these cases, how- ever, management has a responsibility to communicate its reasoning to employees. Beyond welcoming new ideas, the organization should view innovation as a normal part of business—not a special activity practiced by a handful of employees.
3. Information is free flowing
1. Risk taking is acceptable to management: a. Management must recognize the risk/reward relationship and find organizational mechanisms for handling it. And it must communicate a clear understanding that reasonable risks are acceptable, since they are the handmaidens of progress. On the innovative front, two methods are available for dealing with risk: diversification and cheap failures. They can and should be used in concert. i. Diversification- allows companies to spread risk over many rolls of the dice, as opposed to betting the company on a single roll. Because one can never know in advance which ideas will be winners and which will be losers, having a diversified “portfolio” of ideas in play makes sense. ii. Cheap Failures- project or experiment that is terminated with the least possible outlay of resources—just enough to tell managers that “This isn’t going to work.” They back promising ideas with small budgets and look for ways to test them with the least input of resources. Like card players, they quickly fold when they recognize that they have a weak hand. Conversely, they increase backing for strong ideas.
2. New ideas and new ways of doing things are welcomed b. The worst environment for creativity is one that is unwelcoming to new ideas. “We’ve been successful over the years by doing things this way, so why should we change?” An organization with this attitude is heading for trouble. In fairness, management is compelled to shoot down good ideas when (1) those ideas lack a strategic fit with the business, or (2) the organization lacks the resources to pursue them. In these cases, how- ever, management has a responsibility to communicate its reasoning to employees. Beyond welcoming new ideas, the organization should view innovation as a normal part of business—not a special activity practiced by a handful of employees.
3. Information is free flowing