Enhancing creativity in the workplace is not just for artists, writers, musicians, and designers anymore. Creativity and innovation are critical factors for a company’s success in today’s intensely competitive business environment. In order to compete in this environment, a company must create a culture of innovation in which every employee is encouraged and empowered to innovate – whether it’s in processes, products, or services (Bayt.com, 2014). Innovation is everyone’s job.
Although many organizations profess that they would like to have a more creative, innovative environment, their workplace may actually be negative and stifling to the genesis of creativity, thus inhibiting true innovation. Several factors such as leadership style, group dynamics, and both physical and psychological environments have an effect on an employee’s creativity and innovation.
While scouting for office space for a new start-up company called Mentis Healthcare Partners, I made several observations with regard to the effect of the physical environment on promoting creativity and innovation. I will discuss the factors observed in two different locations and why one was chosen over the other as being more conducive to creative ventures. The first space, the Crescent, is located on the sixth floor of a midlevel high-rise building in the Denver Tech Center. The Crescent is a nicely appointed, traditionally decorated space with a reception area, and both private and shared office spaces.
Today the way companies are running has changed. The world is driven by intense completion. The demands for workers that have out of box ideas and are creative thinkers have greatly increased. Organizations across the globe however often complain that there is a serious shortage of such creative thinkers with new ideas. Why is there a shortage of such creative employees? It to answer this question that one should read this book. Ken Robinson has successfully answered this question in his book along with other critical questions to provide an effective solution to infuse creativity;
After watching the wonderful presentation about creativity by Tina Seelig. I got the chance to learn numerous new things about creativity. Like the way you ask a question determines the type of answers you get. The two most essential things I gain from her lecture is to listen and pay attention. By listening to people you learn new things and by paying attention you experience the learning. It all depends on the business owners how his/her employee’s to be creative or lazy because the staff can be a key asset for innovatively pushing limits that assistance your business succeed. There are numerous things that you can use to energize the staff by like promote free thinking is a way of creating culture as Tina said in her lecture that culture
This TED-talk provided by Catherine Courage, focus on the importance of creativity in the workplace. Catherine establishes a comparison between the aspects of the environment of a child and the environment at the workplaces. The first thing I learned from this talk was that the most crucial factor for business success is creativity. Some of the most important aspects debated in this talk are the tendency on the decreasing creativity in the workplace. Catherine explains that there might be a mistake in the perception of creativity. First, it is established that creativity is available to every single person. This has the goal of challenging the perception that only deals with the inclination for the arts can be creative. Thus, the most successful
The capability of Edison to develop the light bulb, Steve Jobs to develop the personal computer – all these inventions emphasized the importance of creativity, which helps to improve society life. But, cannot find one generally accepted definition of creativity. In fact, there are as many ways of defining creativity as there are writers in the area. C. Andriopoulos and P. Dawson state that „creating something from nothing, being inspired to compose a symphony of lasting beauty, to imagine the new within the constraints of modern thought, and to think outside of traditional beliefs and conventions, all point to aspects of what we might commonly term „creativity““(Andriopoulos&Dawson, page 19,2009). Moreover, nowadays using our creativity for commercial goals has also payed the attention of a growing business community. Correspondingly, Senior and Fleming argue that to create more flexible organizational forms for growing business we need to engage employees. „The realization that strategic competitive advantage can be achieved through exploring creative and novel ways of achieving company objectives has led to a focus on cultures that promote shared values and attitudes whilst also encouraging the generation of new ideas“(Andriopoulos&Dawson, page 19, 2009). Likewise, creativity has always been regarded as a benefit for individuals and also organizations, it traditionally been connected with somewhat mystical, magical process.
My score indicated that I display more characteristics of creativity, which surprised me. My view of creative thinking has been skewed towards individuals suchs as musicians, actors, writers, and artists. According to Robbins and Judge, “Both companies and business schools are trying to increase the creative potential of their employees and graduates” (Robbins and Judge, 2009). I thought about the changes I have planned, organized, and implemented as an employee and more recently as a manager in my organization. I created programs for heart failure patients and cancer patients. I restructured staff compensation to motivate them, but also lowered labor costs and implemented new ideas to increase non-dues revenue (Personal Training, Massage Therapy, Guest Fees, and Group Exercise Classes). All these ideas take ingenuity; a trait that I did not realize I preferred before completing this assessment. As stated in the analysis, “For Managers, creativity is useful in decision making. It helps them to see problems and alternatives that others might not” (Pearson Prentice-Hall, 2008).
In considering the type of problems requiring creative thought, Mumford, Hester, and Robledo (2012) list five problem characteristics which are ill defined, novel, demanding, complex, and exploitable. The definition of a creative strategy or solution varies by the field or job involved, but it can be said that creative behaviours result to some degree in identifying original and better ways to accomplish something useful. Some level of creativity might be expected as a requirement across a wide spectrum of occupations (Shalley and Zhou, 2008). Examples of organizational-creativity contexts might include business models, strategic decision making, problem solving, product development, managerial activities, marketing, operational processes, financing, and everyday improvements in workplace routines. It should be recognized that there are opportunities to infuse creativity throughout most organizational
In more and more occasions such as the regular meeting of teams and annual report statements, the concept of creativity and innovation has been frequently mentioned and discussed for that entrepreneurs and managers have been fully aware of the importance and significance of creativity and innovation (Vehar, 2013). It goes without doubt that their meaning and value have been attached with enough attention, however, the
The intangible nature of creativity does not have a specific definition for it. However, creativity can refer to many things that differ and which also over laps many other elements. (jjenna: 2003). “creativity is defined as the tendency to generate or recognize idea, alternatives, or possibilities that may be used to solving problems, communicating with other, and entertaining ourselves and others”(Robert E. Franken: 2002). It also depends on the nature of the person what are his/her characteristics, thinking power and the artistic ability. It is said that managers equate innovation with creativity,
Today, more than ever before, there does not seem to be enough hours in a day for managers to accomplish what is necessary to protect and insulate their companies from the undesirable consequences of the inability to respond quickly to the ever-changing, confusing environment. Organizations can no longer rely on a few dynamic individuals that have perfected the ability to lead and guide the company through difficult times to brighter horizons. Creativity can no longer be assigned to design, research, and marketing departments with a few talented individuals. If an organization is going to compete in a world of instant gratification and actually watching history unfold, innovation and creativity must become part of each department and recognized in each individual working within the confines of the establishment.
Organizational creativity is when employees develop novel ideas as a whole or as an individual (Greenberg 2015). Whereas, innovation is when novel ideas are implemented within the organization successfully by either improving something already established or introducing something contemporary (Greenberg 2015; Ferlic 2008). However, business analysts that rank companies from most to least creative tend to omit the criteria they use to determine what makes an organization innovative (Choudhary, 2014; Ferlic, 2008). Furthermore, the gap in academic research in determining what critical traits are needed to encourage and enhance organizational creativity gives us reason to examine these critical traits (Choudhary, 2014; Goudreau, 2013; Greenberg 2015).
Creativity and design are important features of a well-developed knowledge economy, not only for having a favorable impact on people's well-being and business performance, but also on innovation (Hollanders & Cruysen, 2009). Creating an innovative organization requires more than understanding the design of an efficient development process (Stamm, 2003). Innovation deals more with and organizations or individuals ability to of creating and implementing a successful idea. This idea does not necessarily need to be creative. Sometimes a common sense solution, when implemented properly, can be the most efficient and effective organizational innovation. However, when
4] Riesman, F. K., & Hartz, T. A. (2010).Crafting a Culture of Creativity and Innovation the Talent Management Handbook: Creating a Sustainable Competitive Advantage by Selecting, Developing, and Promoting the Best People.
Creativity is merely some of our countless appreciated human sources which permit an exceptional development in all phase of life while avoiding the similar methods from reoccurring time after time. Particularly, inside the work site when individual sense encouraged and appreciated their creativity subsists at the greatest as they sense a self-challenge to be creative and formulate a transformation within their responsibilities. There is substantial confidence placed upon creativity to discover complications, distinguish discretions, and execute elucidations. Creativeness is not something conserved for particular situations. It is a fundamental function of assessment formulating. When it approaches time to unraveling obstructions and constructing evaluations, it is imperative to initiate an appreciation of purposefulness and construct an ethnicity for individuals to be resourceful and deliberate outside of the frame to get outcomes. Bottom line, there is a purpose with imagination, that be contingent upon your specific personal inspiration and enthusiasm for what you accomplish every day. This is why the situation is so essential to do whatever you enjoy and enjoy what you achieve in order to obtain the accomplishment and contentment in your position and subsidize to the organization’s achievement by way of creativity and innovation.
Employees who are given space to engage their creative locus and to become self-efficient are found to influence innovative behaviour Appendix 1. This is because they are less fearful of the administration, which for most cases control their behaviour, performance, and level of participation. This study intends to show that highly controlled employees rarely apply their innovative sides because of the restrictions that is placed on them. However, organisations that allow high level of participation among its employees benefit from their individual creativity.
How Innovation and Creativity can benefit an organisation, its customers, and stakeholders. The present age of globalisation, deregulation, and acquisitions has led to increased competition and rapid technological advancement. Today’s organisations are increasingly looking toward Creativity and Innovation as a business strategy to enable them to compete and survive. The past widespread use of management initiatives such as, ‘low cost outsourcing’ ‘downsizing ‘business re-engineering’ and over the counter IT enterprise packages ERP, SAP , ‘Six Sigma’/’Kanban’ lean manufacturing have all played their part providing a competitive edge of lower costs and reduced expenses by streamlining internal processes. Nevertheless, with the majority of