Are you stuck on the how to of forming new ideas to drive your business forward?
We have identified some of the key barriers and some steps to change your work culture, foster ideas and grow in 2012.
It is often a re-examination and identification of current barriers and obstacles that can indicate new ways i.e., innovation.
We found that participants from small to medium size enterprises felt they worked in more innovative cultures than employees in large organisations; however, within SMEs male employees were significantly more likely to report that they work in innovative cultures than female employees.
Females perceive more barriers than male employees in terms of exchange of ideas between departments in larger organisations.
In Australia, the Australian owned companies were reported by their own staff to have more creative cultures than the overseas owned companies in Australia; particularly in the areas of: managers having an innovation goal; an innovation fund being available to support new ideas; and an explicit and well understood innovation strategy.
An ideal creative culture:
- Be open and receptive to ideas
- Continuously experiment
- Take risks and occasionally fail
- Have fun
- Retain a focus on results
- Operate at the edge of chaos
The idea is the hero, not the person: A culture of idea receptivity also implies that ideas can be openly discussed, challenged and enhanced, regardless of the source of the idea.
It is not a big bang, it’s a regular flow: Progress requires a regular flow of new ideas that are tested and providing new opportunities.
Take a risk, talk about it: To never fail may mean paradoxically that not enough risks are being taken.
Fun is part of the journey: It is not just the fun you have at a party or down the beach, but the fun of trying things, taking risks, pushing ones self and achieving individual and/or team goals.
Create and remain accountable: A creative environment is not a soft one where people sit around and play with ideas.
Express creativity within clear directions: Create an office with energy and interaction – with lots of planned and unplanned interactions.
How to build a more creative culture
The physical environment impacts on creativity: We found that SMEs provided an environment, which employees reported, encouraged creativity significantly more than those from large organisations. Within SMEs female managers and male employees were significantly more likely to agree with this than female employees.
Informality builds a creative culture: The more formal the interactions across and up the hierarchy the less likely the organisation will be creative.
Design informal meeting places: Creative interactions tend to be spontaneous, relaxed and emergent; so create idea spaces to encourage these.
Have different places for different types of thinking: Desk, walking, swimming, cafés…
Values are the glue: You need values of openness, trust and respect for others; then creativity is more likely to emerge.
Create thinking time: Some ideas come quickly, some need to incubate.
Embrace the Four Creative Tensions:
- Efficiency and creativity
- Create new ideas and guarantee results
- Spend time thinking and act
- Harness the creative individual and the team
Work with paradox:
- To try new things people have to feel safe and secure
- Become independent, yet interdependent
- The more successful, the more chance of failure
- Compete with others and yourself
- Be an industry leader, yet remain free of conventions
Kate Tribe [Tribe Research] and Dr Ken Hudson [Idea Centre] co-designed and developed the Innovation Benchmark 3 Factor® [IB3]. It represents a validated, reliable and comprehensive assessment of your staff’s perception of current performance of the three key innovation drivers in your organisation: Idea Development, Market-Place Orientation and Innovative Culture.
