How many individuals, teams and organisations find themselves simply drifting through their days on autopilot?
Comfortable to the extreme and unquestionably following the existing routines without any meaningful thought in terms of long term outcomes.
Unfortunately, this is all too common and unsurprisingly results in less than optimal performance, long term regression and ultimately employee and client dissatisfaction.
Creativity is a response to dissatisfaction with the status quo.
Therefore, individual and collective ideas and existing assumptions need to be vigorously questioned and tested. Employees should be actively encouraged and supported in continuously seeking out new creative solutions.
This can be achieved through the effective redesign of the organisational or company structure and its systems. Creativity is most effective where there is simplicity, lean communication, close proximity to clients or customers, an external orientation, careful recruitment, scope for individual employees and teams to find their own solutions as well as a recognition that the best ideas can come from any level of the business.
So too by incentivising the sought-after type of employee creative thinking and behaviour through both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards.
Those in leadership positions will have to manage both the need on the one hand for stability, so that employees feel secure and have some level of predictability but so too, create a climate of flexibility, creativity and ongoing effective change management.
This seemingly paradoxical position is possible once the values of the company or organisation are clearly understood by all stakeholders and that those in leadership positions have the skills and capabilities necessary.
create10 works with individuals, teams and organisations in clarifying values, redesigning effective systems and structures, eliminating complacency and embedding creativity and innovation into day to day practice and operations. If you are ambitious in terms of improving your own individual or collective workplace performance then check out www.create10.ie for more details.