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Organizational Design Principles to Harness Creativity (PG-13, 10 minutes)

Showtime: 5.30 pm May 7, 2009

Tickets: Free - Admit All

Produced by: Team Credence

Cast (Credited cast)Chandra Bommas (CB) … HimselfEmilia Dominguez … HerselfTimir Prabhakar … HimselfGeorge Mundanchery … HimselfVishal Verma … Himself

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Creativity

A Company’s success is based on ideas, services and productivity.

Companies such as Google, Apple, Facebook, Pixar, even though they are not the only ones to offer those types of services and products, are hugely successful and popular because they are constantly innovating and introducing creative ideas and products.

Creativity is not only reflected in new ideas, services or products; Creativity is reflected also in the way the employees think about processes and resources.

As part of our research, we saw the documentary “The Pixar Story” which is a towering example of what creativity and innovation can achieve. Even with limited resources, Pixar was creative and innovative and looked for the most effective way to build processes that would stand the test of time.

Image Source: http://world-copywriting-institute.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/creativity.jpg, http://www.digitaldreammachine.com/blogimages/luxo/ThePixarStoryCover.jpg

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Creativity Factoids

Image Source: http://www.nsegg.ca/images/did_you_know.jpg

Bad News

CREATIVE ideas cannot compete with bureaucracy A good CREATIVE act may threaten co-workers Far easier to create an atmosphere that discourages CREATIVITY than one that encourages it

Good News

CREATIVE acts come in all sorts of sizes and shapes Don’t need to spend more money to increase CREATIVITY Current employees are very capable of being CREATIVE Recognizing CREATIVITY can be a powerful motivator All tasks can be improved with CREATIVITY

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Where it all begins …

Pick the RIGHT PeopleRecruitment

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Pick the RIGHT people

Diversity - Get the right mix of individuals - look for different personalities, different styles. Value cooperative attitude highly

Organizational Alignment - evaluate the people keeping the organization's mission and vision in mind.

Look for the right attitude - Identify the right attitude, winning mentality during the interview Assess Creativity - Puzzles, riddles, reviewing samples of previous work

It all begins with People

Image Sources: www.ealinghomes.net/.../Graduate_Recruitment.png, www.rhapsodyuk.com/images/recruitment.jpg

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Recruitment and Hiring

Effective recruitment- is pivotal to the successful day-to-day functioning of any organization

“Get the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats.”– Jim Collins, Good to Great

Behavioral style interviewing - Past performance is the best indicator of future performance

- SAR•S – Give me a Situation•A – What Action did you take•R – What were the Results

Careful Planning- makes the recruitment process easier and helps ensure that it is fair and non-discriminatory

Image Sources:http://www.boston.com/news/globe/west/I want you.jpg;

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Recruitment process – Iceberg Model

Skills

Knowledge

Hay Group= Achievement

PowerAffiliation

Butler = Passion

Connection Achievement

Power

Employee Motivation: A Powerful New Model=

AcquireBond

ComprehendDefend)

Inner Work Life = Creativity

ProductivityCommitmentCollegiality

Skill based tests

Behavioral tests

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Add a dose of knowledge …

Pick the RIGHT PeopleRecruitment

Training MentoringProvide the RIGHT Training

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Provide the RIGHT Training

Once you have the RIGHT people, groom them!

Training should be planned much like a MENU: using a variety of complementary ingredients to give the best flavor possible

Laughing and learning Create more engaging ways to present information (no death by PowerPoint !!) Insert fun into training Emphasize facts/information in creative ways

Encourage people to play off each other Creativity doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Force people to play off each other during training and build lasting relationships

Image Sources: http://www.robbinssports.com/sporting-goods-store/images/co-oper-band-group-creative-movement-kit.jpg , http://tbn3.google.com/images?q=tbn:bHuvF9x2Oa4ntM:http://www.dora.state.co.us/civil-rights/images/training.jpg

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Some innovative training ideas

No, you first London and other Western European cities tried something new on their roadways to increase socially responsible behavior on their roads. They removed traffic lights and signs so that no one would have right of way.Instead of chaos, the accidents dropped 44%!

Hit me with knowledge "Poker is a great game for learning how to size up things for yourself, get in torisk management, and channel aggression. A student who can hold his own at a poker table, I have no worries about when they enter the real world.“- Charles R. Nesson, Harvard law professor

Nesson has even formed the Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society (GPSTS) among some Ivy Leagues, to promote poker as a learning tool. He also believes that poker skills can really help high school kids with math. Poker teaches you numeracy, probability, risk assessment, and subtleties vs. complexities.

Image Sources:http://www.pokerdiy.com/Portals/6/Users/Leagues/PokerCards.jpg, http://www.edinformatics.com/inventions_inventors/250px-Traffic_lights.jpg . http://img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module2/81195/secondlife_logo_qjpreviewth.jpg

A virtual community blossoms Organizations have begun using Second Life (a popular virtual environment) as a place of engagement" - for employees and instructors to interact in formal or informal settings, and public or private spaces, role play, access resources, and engage in collaborative learning.

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Add a dose of culture …

Pick the RIGHT PeopleRecruitment

Training MentoringProvide the RIGHT Training

EnvironmentProvide the RIGHT Environment

Cul

ture

Culture

Culture

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Provide the RIGHT environmentA happy worker is CREATIVE and most productive

Image Sources: http://www.topnews.in/files/Asian.Wages.Increase.happy.Employees222.jpg, http://www.rtpi.org.uk/download/545/Yourbusiness-and-the-environment.jpg

There are people who see their workplace as a source of anxiety, stress and despair The work environment should be created to keep the worker motivated and happy It's all about having a passion for what you do and making it pleasant is just one aspect of that process

Company Atmosphere Develop an atmosphere that endorses creativity as a valuable commodity

Dynamic work environment Move people around and develop communication patterns that don’t put your employees to sleep. For example, no emails or telephones allowed on Fridays (this would force employees to talk to others face to face) Arrange company retreats and off-sites to help people recharge and make breakthroughs

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Listen

Image Sources:http://74.53.86.162/~bcarroll/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/listening.jpg; http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:2G4cba7stpPdfM:http://blog.wired.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/04/24/stopwatch.jpg;http://www.fotosearch.com/BNS172/atw049

LISTEN to all ideas Explore them regardless of its origin. Making

everybody feel part of the team regardless of his or her job description

Install "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

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Empowerment

EMPOWER employees Authorize, Enable, Grant Permission.

Empowerment increases initiative, involvement, enthusiasm, innovation and speed

Celebrate Personal Idiosyncrasies Eating a candy bar at a meeting, a brainstorm

session in the wilderness, taking off all day and writing up the proposal all night

Freedom Freedom to fail and change pace quickly and

without scrutiny

Intrinsic motivation 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

Image Sources:http://bp3.blogger.com/_775mMwtjL68/RwmQh3n9iCI/AAAAAAAACAQ/mzs-6BuoDJY/s1600-h/Motivation+Chart.jpghttp://femaleempowerment365.com/uploaded_images/the_empowerment_of_women-730122.jpg

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Encourage a sense of funLet people PLAY during work

Inspiring examples:

Sources:http://www.snopes.com/photos/architecture/google.asp;http://doggies.com/blog/2008/06/04/bring-your-dog-to-work

Apple Employees at Apple are

allowed to bring their dog to work

Google At the Googleplex employees can

shoot pool while taking a break in one of several employee lounges. They also have a large idea board and 2 swim-in-place pools

Google employees can also take an afternoon volleyball break at Mountain View campus

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Collaboration (Coworking) Another example of an inspiring

environment could be to share it with other people. One of the advantages of COWORKING is the cross-pollination that takes place.

Working in a shared workspace can be lots of fun and inspiring. Some people also like to work at Coffee houses like Starbucks.

Foster interoffice conversation that never existed before through blogs and other social messaging platforms such as twitter.

Sources:http://coworking.pbworks.com/Logo; http://www.flickr.com/photos/20916143@N03/2696204541; http://voice.firefallpro.com/uploaded_images/IMG_2215-736661.JPG

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Decorating your workspace

The PLACE The place around us and the things we

need to Look at are very important in finding creativity

Inspiring examples:

Sources:http://veerle.duoh.com/blog/comments/creativity_in_the_workplace

Pixar At Pixar there aren't any grey cubicles

because their employees have the freedom to decorate as they see fit

Google Everyone’s work environment is different, and they

conduct ‘live’ experiments to eventually see if they could get the most productive and effective workplace going for their staff

Google also frees the employees to use 20% of their time in a personal project and further 10% for whatever purpose

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Add a dose of leadership …

Pick the RIGHT PeopleRecruitment

Training MentoringProvide the RIGHT Training

EnvironmentProvide the RIGHT Environment

Cul

ture

Culture

CultureLeadership

Provide the RIGHT Leadership

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Provide the RIGHT Leadership

Image Source: http://www.adventureholidaytravel.com/static/images/images_adventureholidaytravel/mountain_climbing.jpg

“The people who are doing the work are the moving force behind the Macintosh. My job is to create a space for them, to clear out the rest of the organization and keep it at bay” -Steve Jobs

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Leadership AttributesThe Leader is best, when people are hardly aware of his existence

Image Source: http://www.1000ventures.com

Leadership plays key role in shaping the culture and has a substantial impact on creativity Leader’s innovative style is a catalyst to supplement to workplace creativity

Stop and chat CEO of South West Airlines walks around and chats with employees. At one point, he could remember everyone by name

Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) LMX creates interpersonal support from the leader, increases the trust that is supportive of innovative and creative work

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Leadership and CreativityThe most important quality of leadership, the one quality for which you want to be known, is extraordinary performance, with the goal of achieving extraordinary results.

“If you want to succeed, you have to forge new paths and avoid borrowed ones” – John Rockefeller “Never Forget that only dead fish swim with the stream” – Malcolm Muggeridge

Image Source: http://www.1000ventures.com

Words carry power. Give motivating phrases regularly Give enough time for creative ideas to shape Provide opportunities to engage in challenging and relevant tasks

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The Credence Creativity Model

Pick the RIGHT PeopleRecruitment

Training MentoringProvide the RIGHT Training

EnvironmentProvide the RIGHT Environment

Cul

ture

Culture

CultureLeadership

Provide the RIGHT Leadership

Creativity

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In conclusion

Creative Organizations don’t just happen by chance They have to be actively managed, designed and changed as needed. To be successful, organizations have to devote significant amount of time and energy to ensure that creativity thrives in the company

"Standing still is the fastest way of moving backwards in a rapidly changing world. Imagination is the highest kite one can fly" - Lauren Bacall

The new millennium promises to bring more change, more complexity, and more competition. As a result, organizational creativity and innovation will become a required operational discipline and organizations will have to learn how to manage and enhance the creativity of their most valuable assets - their employees

The Credence Creativity Model is a STARTING point This model organizes some key competencies without which the goal of a creative organization becomes even more challenging, if not impossible. It is important to treat this as a starting point and use it as one of the foundational elements of the design of your organization

The Credence Creativity Model one liner: CREATIVE people engaged in CREATIVE processes results in CREATIVE products.

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Q & A

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References

Course slides and HBS course reading materials Good to Great – Jim Collins, 2001 Sapient Corporation – HBS case study http://www.employer-employee.com/creative.html http://veerle.duoh.com/blog/comments/creativity_in_the_workplace/ http://www.geocities.com/wallstreet/bureau/9136/workplace.html http://www.1000ventures.com http://www.allbusiness.com/human-resources/careers-job-training/1465-1.html http://www.cramersweeney.com http://www.mycoted.com/Creativity_Quotes http://www.woopidoo.com/business_quotes/authors/steve-jobs-quotes.htm