The creative touch - industrial brainstorming

The Creative Touch

Imagine the scene: The office conference room is small and crowded. A sign on a chalkboard states, "There are no stupid ideas, only stupid people." Each person has an itemized agenda of points to be covered during this brainstorming session. The manager keeps tapping at his wristwatch to remind employees of the time they are wasting. He criticizes most ideas as "impractical in our corporate environment."

Now picture a totally different scene: A small group of employees gets together in a meeting room at a local hotel. They are dressed casually. The atmosphere is friendly yet charged with excitement. The manager uses the board to outline the objective of the brainstorming session, and then he leaves the meeting. The employees can spend as long as necessary finding creative solutions to meet corporate objectives. The manager checks in occasionally to answer questions and see if he can help in any way.

Those scenes are drawn in extremes to highlight contrasting ways of generating ideas and promoting creativity among employees. For most companies, some combination of both the hands-on and the hands-off techniques might be best for encouraging employees to be creative. As you formulate the best approach for promoting workplace creativity within your firm, consider these recommendations drawn from the comments and experiences of experts:

Decide if you really want your employees to be creative. "How much control are you willing to give up?" says David Hills, research associate with the Center for Creative Leadership, a leadership-development organization based in Greensboro, N.C. "How many risks are you willing to take? How many mistakes can you tolerate? These are some questions you need to answer for your individual corporate situation."

If your corporate structure is rigid and intolerant of those who think differently, creativity is not likely to be rewarded, and so it won't flourish. The question for each manager is how open he or she is willing to be to the change that can flow from creativity.

Avoid the possible deterrents to creativity. As a way to stimulate thinking on ways that workplace creativity can be promoted, Richard Wright, vice president and chief scientific officer of Mead Imaging, in Miamisburg, Ohio, describes ways that it can be stifled: "Build rigid systems that force people to conform. Develop arbitrary systems. Eliminate team play; make it difficult to share ideas. Put your employees into an environment where taking risks is unacceptable. Make it painful to fail."

Wright explains the corporate culture he fosters: "Ideas come from individuals, but implementation requires a team, so everyone has to work together. I spend a lot of time and energy in dialogue. Everybody's idea is OK, but we work together to develop the best one. I explain the direction of the company, so my creative employees really understand how their work impacts the future of our business."

Recognize creativity as a survival tool. In small and midsized businesses, creativity often is synonymous with survival. "We're a little company compared to the competition," says Wright. "We have to out-invent the other guy. We find that the answers to our most important questions don't come from our top executives, they come from our scientists, engineers, and marketers. We must allow creative input from all levels of the company to be successful."

Some corporations are so large that they must have a certain structure so that they can maintain focus and control. But that structure may also inhibit the creative process. Consequently, if they have the creative flexibility necessary to advance, small companies can gain an advantage over their larger competitors.

Find out who is creative. Opinions vary on who the creative individuals are. Researcher Hills contends that everyone is capable of creativity. "It is not a trait reserved for the select few," he says. "Studies of creativity suggest that the biggest single variable of whether or not an employee will be creative is whether he perceives he has permission. Is it evident that creative behavior is welcomed, or do you want polite, predictable behavior that doesn't rock the boat?"

Roland Elgy, vice president for marketing and international sales for McMillan Computer Group, a Carmel, Ind., company that produces how-to books for using computers, feels that creativity is inborn to some extent. He maintains, however, that less creative people can be coaxed into looking for opportunities for expressing creativity. "Month to month, our market changes," Elgy says. "New products demand new attention. We all have to be creative. I need my employees to be creative not just in marketing but in sales and distribution. Anyone who is in a position to influence the buyer must think of ways that we can do it better."

One change that grew out of the company's search for better ways to work affects the operations of the telephone-sales staff. No longer do salespeople only take orders by phone; each call now typically includes a conversation exploring the customer's ideas for new products that MacMillan could develop.

Even in a factory with unskilled labor, managers can encourage a creative environment. Take the experience of Period Furniture, a manufacturing company in Henderson, Ky. Dale Nesbit, vice president and general manager, tells of an employee's innovative solution for a nagging problem: "We had a concern about screws on the floor of the plant--they were a safety problem, and they often flattened the tires of our hand trucks. One employee suggested putting magnets on the bottom of all of the vehicles that drive through the plant. The magnets pick up the screws, and that cleans the plant, saves screws, and keeps our hand trucks from getting flat tires."

Find ways to channel workers' creativity. "Creativity is only useful if it is channeled and directed," says Jeff Harper, manager for corporate marketing for the Indiana Farm Bureau Co-op, an agricultural supply and marketing organization in Indianapolis. "Our challenge is to be objective-driven without compromising creativity," Harper says. His method is to focus on the objective and let employees be creative about accomplishing it.

"You need creativity in any business," Harper says. "Everybody can do the normal. For a business to be successful, it has to be 1 percent better. To do that, you have to have unique approaches to standard situations. You have to be creative."

Pamela DuBose, executive vice president and director of consumer marketing for Burson-Marsteller, a New York public-relations agency, says: "Creativity unrelated to a business plan has no value. The idea has to be doable. The challenge is to find a way to allow creative people to do what they need to do within a corporate environment. I try to put myself into their heads. Instead of managing them the way I would want to be managed, I try to manage them the way they want to be managed." She finds it worthwhile, for example, to steer paperwork tasks away from the more creative staff members so they can concentrate on what they do best.

Learn ways to motivate creative employees. What motivates creative people? Often not the things that typically motivate other business people, some experts say. Pamela DuBose expresses one view: "Creative people aren't necessarily motivated by money or titles, they may not want a larger office or more work, they don't often want more responsibility. They want to see their ideas implemented. They need to feel they will make a difference."

Susannah McCall, a Houston-based analyst of commodity-price forecasts, says, "Creative employees in a rigid structure feel like a cow in a stall going to slaughter." She offers her own thoughts on what creative employees need in order to be motivated:

* The creative employee needs mental stillness. Managers should not second-guess or belittle others' ideas, or constantly interrupt those doing a task to check on progress.

* Creative employees need to know what the corporate rules are. What are the objectives and the cash restraints? How much time is the employer willing to have employees devote to the task?

* Finally, creative employees need positive recognition. While money does not necessarily motivate such employees, their self-esteem requires that they be paid according to their performance and be recognized for good ideas.

"Look at it this way," McCall says. "A rare plant in your back yard starts to bloom. You're not sure how you acquired this plant, but you don't want to do anything negative or harsh to it, or it will go dormant and blow seeds everywhere else. Employers need to nurture their creative plants."

Jennifer Katz is a free-lance writer in Indianapolis.

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