Learning Consultancy Partnership
Issue No 1
October 2010
Creativity and innovation
Greetings!

Local authorities have been hit hard by the Coalition's comprehensive spending review and for many councils this will mean significant changes in the way they work as well as greater sharing of resources.  When times are hard organisations are forced to look creatively for ways to continue to offer their products and or/services whilst reducing costs.

So creativity and innovation is the topic for this month's LCP newsletter; in particular we will cover the organisational factors that support and encourage a culture of creativity and innovation.

We hope you like our new look newsletter and please take part in our caption competition.

Building a culture to encourage and nurture creativity and innovation

Creativity and innovation involve spotting new opportunities as well as the implementation, development and review of new ideas.  Whereas creativity is about ideas, invention and breakthroughs by identifying things that are novel, original and unexpected, innovation is more about the process of bringing these creative ideas to fruition.

Creativity may come from an individual perspective and be influenced by personality, motivation and expertise but it can be greatly enhanced by the organisational culture.  For example, how often are your employees given the opportunity to do something differently?

Innovation is more at the group and organisational levels when people work together to implement new products, services and processes and the focus is on teamwork and collaboration.

"The social environment can influence both the level and frequency of creative behaviour" (Amabile et al 1996)

In a literature review of how organisational culture can influence creativity and innovation (McLean, 2005) Kanter's ideas of what supports innovation were cited:

Develop integrative structures - which enable people to work together and share knowledge and ideas.  With the growth in social media applications there is now a plethora of opportunities to enhance internal communication processes for greater collaboration across functions and departments.

Place the emphasis on diversity - organisations that actively encourage diversity benefit from greater innovation. In an article by Page (2007) it is argued that diversity powers innovation:

Innovation provides the seeds for economic growth, and for that innovation to happen depends as much on collective difference as on aggregate ability. If people think alike then no matter how smart they are they most likely will get stuck at the same locally optimal solutions. Finding new and better solutions, innovating, requires thinking differently. That's why diversity powers innovation.

Have multiple links outside of the organisation - innovation is not just about coming up with novel ideas but about looking at how existing ideas can be implemented in novel situations.  Creative organisations and people look at how they can borrow ideas from another context and encourage their employees to seek knowledge from external sources.

Demonstrate collective pride and faith in people's talents - talk to people about the outcomes rather than the inputs and recognise their achievements.  Angle (1989) believed motivation is key to creativity and innovation and found that power based on expertise rather than position was a contributory factor.

Emphasise collaboration and teamwork -provide tools and processes that enable frequent communication and information flows between people, teams and departments.  Involve employees in the decision making process so it becomes decentralised.

Tesluk et al (1997) believed the following also had a positive influence on building a creative culture:

Goal emphasis - making it clear that creativity and innovation are valued organisational goals.

Means emphasis - developing methods and organisational procedures based on creativity and innovation.

Task support - providing the time, funding, equipment, materials and other resources required to develop creative and innovative solutions to problems.

Socio-emotional support - demonstrating a concern for the welfare and best interests of the individual so they feel more open to taking risks.

Freedom/autonomy - empowering individuals with the ability to make decisions.

From the other perspective, the literature review also highlighted a number of things that impede creativity and innovation including:

  • Too much control
  • Centralised decision making
  • Lack of first line manager support or encouragement
  • Hierarchical structures
  • Blame cultures and an aversion to risk taking
  • Lack of diversity

In summary, keep communications open, value diversity, allow people to take reasonable risks and provide support and acknowledgement for novel, interesting ideas.

LCP about us

LCP is a Sussex-based firm that provides management training, leadership development, business consultancy and coaching.

Learning Consultancy Partnership LLP
Unit e5E The Knoll Business Centre, 325-327 Old Shoreham Road,
Hove, BN3 7GS

+44 (0)1273 707404

In This Issue
Building a culture to encourage and nurture creativity and innovation
Caption Competition Creativity and Innovation
Caption Competition
 
The theme for this month's caption competitiion is creativity and innovation .  Click here to take part and win a �5 Amazon voucher. 
 
innovation


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