paving the way for workplace creativity

Paving the Way for Workplace Creativity

NATIONAL PRODUCTIVITY REVIEW / Spring 2000

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©2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

AVING THE WAY FOR WORKPLACE CREATIVITY

INNOVATION

Innovation is increasingly being recognized as the means to ensure future survival andgrowth. Properly introduced and managed, it can even stir the workforce and create aculture change that is rigorous and resilient. There are three stages in preparing the wayfor innovation: launching the initiative, priming the flow, and monitoring and sharing thefeedback. Overzealous chief executive officers and managers who believe creativity can becontrolled, directed, and accelerated need to understand the nature of the process. ©2000John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

by Irving H. Buchen

Irving H. Buchen is a professor of management at Walden University in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and a senior associate at Comwell Consultants toManagement in Flanders, New Jersey.

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I believe that to solve any problem that hasnot been solved before you have to leave the doorto the unknown ajar.

—Richard P. Feynman,The Meaning of It All (l998)

Beset by the challenges of change, many organizational lead-ers have difficulty deciding which responses to pursue, andwhen and how. For some reason, the fascination is alwaysfor the very big or the very fast. Hopes of totally overhaul-ing or altering cultures have led organizations in the past tototal implementation of total quality management (TQM)and, more recently, to structural reengineering and balancedscore cards. These are often massive efforts, sometimes withimpressive results, but mostly at great cost of money andtime. The quick fix involves tough, often punitive short-term productivity goals, downsizing, sell-offs, and merg-ers. Is there another way?

Suppose an organization needs to become more pro-ductive and competitive; to shift from function to process,from tasks to projects; to forsake doing things the same oldway to become more proactive or anticipatory in its orien-tation, outlook, and expectations. What reasonably big and

fast interconnecting solution could accomplish all thesegoals? One option is innovation.

Like any other process, innovation has to yield to thecriteria and discipline of design, which precedes and evendetermines implementation. Special attention must begiven to these three stages of design: launching the ini-tiative, priming the flow, and monitoring and sharing itsunfolding.

LAUNCHING THE INITIATIVE

Here is a list of blunders recently committed by a firmembarking on an innovation initiative:

1. The decision was summarily announced.2. It was described as a crash program, almost a cru-

sade.3. Results were expected to emerge in six months or

less.4. Although everyone would be involved, a desig-

nated representative team was appointed.5. Breakthroughs would be rewarded with one-time

bonuses.


34 Irving H. Buchen

Despite the innovation campaign, results were dismaland six months after inception, the senior vice presidents ofmarketing, human resources, and strategic planning weredismissed. How an initiative is launched determines whetherit sails or does not. When went wrong here? Virtually ev-erything.

Mistake #1: Chief executive officers, CEOs generallyfail to appreciate that every decision is really two decisions:a decision to do something specific and a decision to com-municate the decision. In the case of innovation, communi-cation or the failure to invest it with considerable reflectionand thought is critical. Why? Because innovation makespeople nervous. Many believe they are not creative. Manyalso conclude that it is not part of their job description, thatit is the sole responsibility of research and development(R&D) people. Some are not even persuaded that it is im-portant enough to justify a major initiative.

Given that attitudinal climate and capacity to disengage,the initial announcement should be reflective and reassur-ing. It should not so much define innovation as give ex-amples, big and small, in the industry and in the organization.Innovation occurs every day whenever an employee has tosolve a problem or adjust rapidly to unfamiliar or unfore-seen difficulties. The task of the announcement is to not toraise fears of ineptitude, but to encourage maximum par-ticipation by indicating that innovation is not beyond any-one in the company, that history has confirmed that it oftenoccurs in the most unlikely places and among the most un-likely people.

Mistake #2: Stampedes are counterproductive. Theyregularly backfire. Innovation cannot be compelled. It doesnot respond to cheerleading. It is silent, steady, and ongo-ing. It does not make a big noise or bang. It is quietly excit-ing. It does respond to curiosity, to acknowledgment ofexpertise, to the daily inventiveness of professionals—inshort, to competence and confidence.

The other right note to sound is that innovation is pro-active. It is a leg up on the future. Some researchers haveargued that innovation is the discovery of a future niche—itis the way an organization anticipates what and where itwill be three to five years down the pike. It is one of thosespecial and even rare occasions when a company can createits future and ensure its longevity. But the future cannot becoerced or ordered; coached, perhaps, but never givenmarching orders.

Mistake #3: A six-month target date makes no sense.Deadlines and innovation are a mismatch. Suppose nothinghappens by the sixth month, but something surfaces in theseventh or the eighth month. Won’t that make the originaltarget appear arbitrary and, worse, ill-informed? Speed is

not relevant. If one is determined to put pressure on produc-tivity, quotas might be better. Thomas Edison still holds therecord for the number of patents. He gave himself and allhis employees six-month quotas, making a distinction be-tween major and minor ideas. He gave himself a quota ofone major idea and 6 to12 minor ideas every six months.The key word here is ideas, not inventions.

An innovation initiative must encourage idea quotasthat may or may not all evolve into invention identification.To structure that process, each employee should be encour-aged to maintain an idea/innovation diary, a daily series ofprivate entries not available for evaluation by anyone.

Mistake #4: The last thing one wants to do in launch-ing any initiative is arouse suspicions or stir the creativecynicism of the rumor mill. Top-down chosen teams cannever escape the label of being more political than func-tional. Besides, the chosen are always the same; they winthe trips to Hawaii again and again while the losers, themajority, stoically stand by. Far from serving as a model ofinnovation, any “representative team” will be perceived astime-servers coasting on whatever creativity they exhibitedin the past. If the effort is to companywide, let it becompanywide.

Mistake #5: Money and innovation are a crass mis-match. They have nothing to do with each other. Moneycan create the labs and purchase equipment for creative ac-tivity, but it does not trigger creativity. The combination ofmoney plus deadlines will produce half-baked goods deliv-ered early or on time or cleverly disguised replications ofold products and services. If those look-alikes are rewarded,then the entire enterprise will be perceived as a farce.

PRIMING THE FLOW

How do you keep the juices flowing after the call forinnovation is announced? The temptation always is for theinitiators to become indispensable. They are not unlike thephysician who sees himself as a savior or miracle workerand prescribes more anti-biotics than are required for theimmunological system to kick in and take over and com-plete the task. The faith in the healing capacity of the bodyis comparable to the faith in the creative capacity of profes-sionals. In other words, leadership should be oblique, intru-sion should be minimal, suggestions should be tangential.Why? Because innovation is a flow; it resembles Wheatley’sriver running though an organization twisting and turning ,

How do you keep the juices flowing after thecall for innovation is announced?

Paving the Way for Workplace Creativity


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pausing and leaping ahead, carving new grooves. It wouldbe counterproductive to build a dam or series of dams tosatisfy the need for control. But does that mean nothing canor should be done by management to prime the pump? No,there are many forms of coaxing and coaching.

Brown bag lunches can be facilitated. Pizza gatheringspaid for by management can take place in mid-afternoon.Prework breakfast gatherings can be set up. Speakers canbe invited. Resources can be compiled: books, magazines,and audio and video materials. A limited number of peoplecan be sent to conferences and professional meetings. Theonly string that should be attached is that they have to re-port to the group on what took place there. Finally, thoughtmight be given to introducing a structural variation of what3M did to stir innovation.

3M announced that all employees were free to spendup to 15 minutes each working day on whatever ideas theywanted to work on. The only restriction was that it couldnot be at the expense of their regular assignments. They didnot have to secure approval for their project. They did nothave to tell anyone what they were working on. They couldbunch their l5-minute segments if they needed more solidblocks of time. They did not have to produce anything tojustify or pay back the time taken.

What was the result? There was electricity in the air.Employees came earlier and stayed later to extend theirinnovation time. Many walked around with a weird smileof mischief and even fun across their face; some even be-gan to giggle. But they were also enormously productive.Scotch tape came out of this ferment; so did Post-its. Per-haps equally as important, morale was given an enormouslift; general productivity was higher; teams seemed to becloser and working better together; the relationships be-tween middl-level managers of different divisions seemedto improve. In short, it was a win-win situation. The inno-vative gains were matched by a new spirit that changedthe entire culture.

MONITORING AND FEEDBACK: ROLE REVERSAL

As a new way of thinking and even a new definition ofwork relationships develops, employees initially tend to col-lectively distance themselves from management. They lookto each other and to the natural leaders that emerge amongtheir ranks rather than to their official supervisors. Peergroups begin to form. At this point the temptation for man-agers to intervene is highest and potentially most destruc-tive. Not unlike parents who feel as though their authorityis being usurped by their maturing teenagers, managers mayfind themselves feeling unneeded. The truth is that at thisjuncture they are outside the process of employee self-de-velopment, and they should be pleased to have moved froma point at which they were indispensable to being dispens-able. As they withdraw, the necessary space is created for

the growth of others. What, if anything, can they do at thislast critical stage?

Managers can be flies on the wall. They can listen, andonly listen, as group facilitated gatherings and meetings turnaway from outside to inside presenters, from company se-lected videos and information sources to employee-recom-mended materials. Employees selected to attend conferencescan be encouraged to hold feedback sessions and discusswhat took place. Indeed, here is an excellent point of con-vergence. Managers who have attended other conferencesmay hold their own manager’s meetings and invite employ-ees or, better still, agree to make a presentation along withother employees at their sessions. This has significant sym-bolic importance for two reasons.

First, it establishes equality—not of rank, but of ideasand intelligence—between managers and employees.There are many professionals who do not hold academicdegrees but who are smarter and more resourceful thanmany who do. Credentials do not confer or confirm intel-ligence or innovation any more than job title does. Inno-vation is not a monopoly of top or middle management.Every decision is really two decisions, an action and acommunication of that action, so every innovation initia-tive is two-fold. Obviously, it invites and seeks the gen-eration of new and more productive ways of doing things.But equally as important, it helps to create a new and moreproductive workforce. That cultural gain is not possiblewithout the emancipation of intelligence and creativitycompanywide. If managers cannot make peace with thisnew role, then they may have to be introduced or reintro-duced to the managerial concept of the enormously suc-cessful Roman legions: “primus inter pares”—first amongequals. At best, the managers are first among equals, al-though at times it may be more appropriate for someoneelse to be temporarily first.

Second, all professional conferences, regardless oftheir specialized content, are always about the future. Thepartnership between the future and innovation is absolute.Indeed, the genuinely new and different is the future. Thus,attending and reporting back on conferences is one of themost powerful ways of stimulating further efforts of in-novation. The future is a leg up; it opens up vistas; itchanges the parameters of the scenario; it raises the bar of

Managers can be flies on the wall. They canlisten, and only listen, as group facilitatedgatherings and meetings turn away from

outside to inside presenters, from companyselected videos and information sources to

employee-recommended materials.


36 Irving H. Buchen

the challenge; it is potential incarnate. And all that wonder-ful, cascading fall-out has no company agenda behind it.No manager is there busily pushing , spying, or cheerleading;employees are brought into the larger community of schol-ars, innovators, and futurists beyond the bounds of boards,bosses, and bureaucrats.

Most experts on creativity agree that the way to stimu-late innovation is not to go at it on an individual or evenlimited group basis, and certainly not to become embroiledwith the notion that some people are creative and others are

not, or that some people are more creative than others. Wouldyou really wish to alienate a significant portion of aworkforce by suggesting or confirming that they are uncre-ative? Rather, the focus is on a supportive environment. Andthe ultimate supportive environment has to be employee-created, focused, and centered. The company does not carrythe ball; it prepares the way. And it does so by launching theinitiative intelligently, priming its flow, and finally creatingthe vacuum for employees to fill. Where such activity oc-curs, the future appears. �

paving the way for workplace creativity

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