Idea
Procurement and Implementation
In order to flourish
your firm's culture must
encourage and nurture ideas rather than kill them. If an employee has a
great idea and has it quickly squashed and mocked by their superiors they
tend to stop sharing their thoughts in fear of more rejection and
humiliation. An antagonistic culture that fights change of any kind is
the ultimate idea crusher and will not be able to keep up with a fast
changing society. Larry Yukron, owner of Adventure Experts and former
Qwest Communication executive, related that several firms in Silicon Valley
have installed a "five minute rule."
The rule permits anyone to suggest an idea. Then for the
first five minutes after the idea is expressed only positive comments can be
made. By the time the idea is talked about for five minutes it has
usually spun into an impromptu
brainstorm session that cultivates truly great ideas and some form of
the discussion is often implemented. Firms today must enthusiastically
welcome new ideas and suggestions. If an idea is properly given
attention it just may become a solution to a problem, the next great
marketing campaign, or even the perfect incubator for your next innovative
product or service.
Furthermore, we must be certain to
do something with all generated ideas. If we encourage ideas, and
then sit on them without taking any action, we will not get ideas generated
in the future. In addition, if we must reject or decide not to
implement an idea without providing an adequate justification, firms will
lose the future goodwill and
creativity of these individuals.
Empowerment
Ideally,
empowerment of employees results in increased initiative, involvement,
enthusiasm,
innovation and
speed, all in support of the
company's mission. The word empowerment means to authorize,
enable,
and to permit. Defining and encouraging empowerment is the
job of
leadership.
However, traditional leadership in a multi level
organisational structure may be fearful of empowering their
subordinates in anxiety that ideas and initiatives from
'below' may undermine their authority and ultimately their position
in the firm. This is indeed a struggle but may be overcome by clear,
ongoing communication and commitment from the top of the firm down.
Middle management needs to be assured that subordinate empowerment is for
their personal gain as well as the collective good of the firm. If
this cannot be accomplished a non-conforming individual may need to be
removed from the firm before a
cultural transformation takes place in order to avoid conflict.
Communication
Communication is absolutely essential to give birth to a
creative workplace
in a mature, seasoned culture. In fact creativity in communication is
key to implementing a culture rebirth. As we have mentioned, major
changes in organizations
often evokes resistance based on fear. Imagine a
CEO talking about the need to
restructure for greater efficiency with
innovation. S/He talks about trends, budgets and so forth.
So far, so good. But let that same executive mention the word down
size and all of the rational information of needs to reorganize are abducted
by the emotional. Leaders need to communicate the
corporate culture change initiative in a way that
energises and excites while simultaneously examining and overcoming
their crew's hesitancy to embrace this same proposition.
Believing in Your People
People tend to rise on the occasion that someone truly
believes in them. A preacher once said if you place an A
on a person's head they will give you an A, but if you put a C
on their forehead they will give you a C, no higher. Many
times people are looking for someone to be interested in them
and hold accountability to. When they find this individual
they will produce. It is essential during a cultural
transformation that each person in the firm has someone that
believes in them and is counting on them to succeed.
Harvesting Emotional Energy
Values give meaning to people's lives. Organisational performance
is directly related to its ability to tap into its human potential. For
many people work is one of the most important ways they are able to give
expression to who they are in their search for fulfilment. When a
person works for a firm whose values mirror those of their own they will
respond by fulfilling their potential and tapping into their deepest levels
of creativity. Align your
mission statement under a clear set of humane values and through living
those values your
corporate culture will harvest the
emotional energy and the
creative potential of your employees.
Accommodating Personal Idiosyncrasies
Accommodating personal idiosyncrasies may help the creative mind to
flourish. Whether it be eating a candy bar at a meeting, a brainstorm
session in the wilderness or taking off all day and writing the proposal
between 1 and 7 am people must have freedoms to create and produce how and
where they want. If firms permit their employees to create the plan to
get from A to Z rather than dictate each step in the process they just may
spur an otherwise average employee to new heights of
creativity and accomplishment.
Positively Influencing Intrinsic Motivation
Intrinsic
motivation
highly correlates with increased creativity levels. High-level
encouragement toward innovation, immediate supervisor encouragement,
autonomy and sense of control, optimal challenges, and tasks matched to
interests all positively influence intrinsic motivation. Therefore,
firms should seek to have their employees
do what they love and love what they do. For businesses the
first involves matching work well around an employee's expertise. The
latter involves creating the environment that will allow employees to retain
the intrinsic motivational focus, while
supporting their exploration of new ideas.
Freedom to Fail
and Changing Pace Quickly
Many companies are extremely cautious not to make errors and some
are so shielding that they spend enormous amounts of money, time and
human effort to research plans thoroughly in an effort to avoid
mistakes. Yet case studies in business schools show us time
and time again that regardless of this effort mistakes are bound to
happen.
In addition, the accelerated pace of change and current
ease of new entrants to new markets due to technological
advantages leave no time for companies to research every
possible in and out. For example, by the time that
IBM and
Compaq decided to create an online sales strategy it was
too late. In fact IBM and Compaq did not seem to
notice when
Dell decided to sell computers over the
Internet. How could this be? Well people develop
habits. They have emotions. They become
blind to things that become familiar. They have
their own unique points of view. These factors
produce cultures and dynamics that paralyse efforts to
do something
new. Including
looking at small start up firms, like Dell, as a
competitive threat and making a quick jump to
new, innovative
technology. IBM no longer makes PCs and Compaq is
foolish for even suggesting that they will be able to
compete with Dell online.
Clearly freedoms must now, more than ever, be in place to allow
employees to
change strategies quickly and without scrutiny. Doing more
with less,
in less time, is now a survival necessity for firms of all sizes.