Dimitry Buterin and Jim Sympathy listen as Jay Moonah leads a Friday afternoon brainstorming meeting, complete with beers at the Bonasource office in Toronto on Friday February 19, 2010. JENNIFER ROBERTS FOR THE GLOBE AND MAILJENNIFER ROBERTS/The Globe and Mail
In a fragile economy, with companies still scrambling to keep their businesses running, innovation and creativity are taking a back seat to survival, experts say.
"Managers are too busy putting out fires. They don't have time to think about creativity. They're in survival mode and may be afraid of the boss, afraid of failure, or afraid of taking risks," says Linda Naiman, a creativity specialist and founder of Creativity at Work in Vancouver.
They become control freaks and wind up telling staff what to do and how to do it, and that leaves employees frustrated, she adds.
What's more, few companies really know how to encourage employee creativity, or they're operating from the outdated notion that creativity equals inventions or that you have to be a genius to be creative.
In fact, the creativity workers seek is simply the ability to express themselves or do work that challenges their intellect, Ms. Naiman says. "They want to know the objective or goal, and then have the freedom to figure out how to achieve it. Instead, managers are telling them what to do."
"Everyone has the capacity to be creative and studies shows that creative people are happier," adds Marci Segal, president of Creativityland Inc., a Toronto-based consultancy that specializes in creativity training for businesses. By encouraging employee creativity, organizations can improve morale, increase motivation and enhance engagement, she adds.
The bottom line: Creativity is a competitive advantage, Ms. Naiman says. "If you are not adding creativity to your products or services, you are doomed to commodity hell, where you are just competing on price."
JUMPSTARTING CREATIVITY
Company: Elastic Path Software Inc.
E-commerce software developer, Vancouver
Strategy: Hack Day
How it works: The company hosts an annual 24-hour coding competition during which its 150 employees work either alone or in teams to create a new software application or feature, not necessarily related to the company's product, an e-commerce platform. "But it did have to be related to e-commerce," says marketing vice-president Matt Dion. Workers present their concepts to colleagues, who then vote on the best idea. The winners take home $3,000.
Other moves: Each department is given an annual budget and free rein to decorate their communal space as they wish. As a result, you'll find the developers area decked out à la Star Wars , while the marketing department's space resembles a pirate ship, Mr. Dion says. Another creativity juicer: There are hundreds of old-fashioned whiteboards throughout Elastic Path's premises, from individual file-sized boards in each employee cubicle to giant boards that fill entire walls. The idea is to make it easy for employees to capture thoughts and ideas and perhaps prompt impromptu brainstorm sessions. "I myself am addicted to them," he says.
The payoff: While the contest has generated some practical applications, including productivity and online tools, the object of the exercise is to get staff thinking outside the box, Mr. Dion says. "They can have their heads down all the time, just focused on customer needs, which is good, but this gives them a chance to think in broader terms." It also allows staff to unleash their creativity, work on a project of their choice and have some fun, he adds.
Company: Bonasource Inc.
Custom Web-application developer, Toronto
Strategy: Week-long job rotations once a quarter
How it works: Every employee spends one week in another department unrelated to their normal job responsibilities. "So, for example, a developer works in marketing and our financial manager works in customer support for a week, " says chief executive officer Dmitry Buterin.
Other moves: In a similar program, developers get a special "creativity" week every quarter, in which they can pick the project they really want to work on, versus being assigned a task by the management team. Plus, the company has twice a month Friday afternoon meetings, in which employees get together over a few beers and brainstorm various subjects, from marketing to client support to general improvements.
The payoff: The practice helps spark creativity and contributes to the company's overall improvement and productivity. "When they switch jobs it's almost like a mini-sabbatical. It refreshes them and when they return to their own jobs, they generate more ideas and are generally more creative," Mr. Buterin says. Helping staff be creative actually keeps them motivated and excited to work at the company, he said. "It's a real job benefit. It allows them to be more than just a cog in a wheel."
Five creativity skills of innovative CEOs
Want to be more creative? You may have to work at it, suggests a new study by three U.S. researchers. After six years spent interviewing 3,000 executives, including such visionaries as Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, Dell Inc. founder Michael Dell and eBay Inc.'s Pierre Omidyar, the study, led by Jeffrey Dyer, a professor at Brigham Young University's Marriott School of Management, found that the most creative CEOs spend more than half of their time practising these five specific creativity skills, which helps them trigger new ideas:
1. Questioning: The most innovative CEOs continually ask questions that challenge assumptions and the status quo.
2. Observing: They're curious, keen observers of people, whether employees, customers, suppliers or colleagues.
3. Experiment: They're not afraid to try new things, even at the risk of failure.
4. Networking: They regularly broaden their perspective by interacting with others to learn, find and test new ideas.
5. Associating" They look for relationships between seemingly unrelated people, places and things.
Source: Brigham Young University, December 2009
3 QUICK QUESTIONS TO SPUR CREATIVE THINKING
1. What if...? For example, "What if we couldn't do things the way we do them now, what would we do?" When you stop asking this question, you're suggesting there's no room for improvement.
2. What else...? Encourages people to push for alternative answers or solutions and not simply accept the first answer that comes to mind.
3. Why not...? Takes away any constraints and frees the mind to explore possibilities.
Source: Linda Naiman, Linda Naiman & Associates Inc., Vancouver
UNLEASH CREATIVITY
EMPLOYERS
Offer training on how to be receptive to ideas.
Many managers' first response is to shoot down suggestions or new ideas. If workers are constantly rebuffed, they'll stop contributing.
Develop a culture that considers creativity a valuable commodity.
For example, promote an environment in which employees feel comfortable sharing ideas, and applaud their work on the development of new ideas, processes or products.
Give employees the time and space to think creatively.
It's pretty hard to be creative when you're always pressed for time.
Bring diverse groups of people together in brainstorming sessions or to work on projects together.
Diversity in cultures, experience, age and disciplines will typically bring greater variation in terms of creative ideas.
Develop a system.
Come up with a process that collects, documents and recognizes employee ideas.
Give workers the freedom to fail.
Realize that not all projects will be successful.
Encourage interaction and communication: The more employees mingle and talk, the more you promote creativity. New ideas often come from informal conversations between workers.
EMPLOYEES
Change your view. Look at tasks from different perspectives. Ask yourself how the marketing department or a customer might approach an assignment at hand.
Feed your brain. Broaden the way you think outside the workplace by taking time to appreciate art, music and nature.
Connect the dots. Learn how to make connections between people, places and things that are normally not thought of that way.
Stretch your boundaries. Before settling on one answer to a problem or challenge, think of three alternatives.Talk it out. Having trouble with a specific task? Ask co-workers to brainstorm.
Sources: Linda Naiman, Linda Naiman & Associates Inc., Marci Segal, president Creativityland Inc., Toronto
CREATIVITY MYTHS BUSTED
Myth: When people think of creativity, they think of Mozart or Picasso. Likewise, many assume creativity is the dominion of geniuses or that it applies only to right-brain thinkers.
Reality: "The truth is, creativity is a whole-brain function. Everyone is creative. It's part of our human nature. But it's like a muscle - it needs to be developed. And if it's not used regularly, it becomes uncomfortable when you do use it," says creativity specialist Linda Naiman.
Myth: Money is a creativity motivator.
Reality: "Study after study shows that rewarding creativity decreases motivation," Ms. Naiman says. Of course, people want to be paid fairly, but by and large they want to know their contributions are valued. That their ideas are seen, heard, and recognized, she adds. Myth: People are most creative when they're under pressure. Reality: "Time constraints shut people down. It's hard to be creative when you're in survival mode," Ms. Naiman says.
BY THE NUMBERS
88 Percentage of workers who consider themselves creative. 63 Percentage who consider their job a creative position. 21 Percentage of workers who said they would change jobs to be more creative at work.
76 Percentage of American workers who say they like to do things that are novel or unconventional.
25 Percentage who believe management creates a barrier to creative work.
25 Percentage of American workers who describe their workplaces as a dictatorship.
54 Percentage of American workers who said their workplace does not promote creative or inventive ideas.
57 Percentage of Australian CEOs who say they take a highly conventional approach to leadership, encouraging employees to follow standard procedures, even at the expense of new ideas and innovation.
41 Percentage of organizations that have no process in place to encourage new ideas or input.
29 Percentage of workers who said a co-worker stole one of their ideas.
Special to The Globe and Mail