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Creative and Innovative Culture,

Change Management - Three Easy Tests

by Kal Bishop MBA

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation and innovation can be

defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation. From this simple definition, it is clearthat certain cultural characteristics ought to be prevalent if creativity and innovation are to bemaximised. And maximisation of these ought to be a priority for senior leaders, as thoseorganisations that take them seriously tend to be leaders in their field, tend to maintain their

leadership position longer and are quicker to bounce back when competitors leap frog.

There are many blocks that prevent expression of problems and hinder idea generation. Somesolutions include:

a) An environment of psychological safety and freedom – accepting an individual as unconditionedworth; recognising that the individual is capable of producing but that their value is not based onproducing; understanding empathetically; understanding the individual from their point of feeling

and view (Vernon, 1970).

b) Tolerance of failure – Accepting that many ideas will fail before one worthwhile one will surfaceand reach commercialisation; recognising that there are benefits to failure, such as competencyexpansion – Blade Runner was initially a commercial failure yet Ridley Scott went on to make some

very successful movies. The Economist (2003) states that 3000 bright ideas result in 100worthwhile projects, which are winnowed down to four development programmes. And four suchdevelopment programmes are required to stand any chance of getting one winner.

Though senior leaders pay lip service to the above, the reality is often much different. Below aresome easy and simple tests to gauge how well your organisation is performing in practice.

a) Employee interviews. Are interviewees expected to conform to the prevalent norm of not

contradicting the interviewer? If they do so, are they less likely to be selected? Interviewees whothrow up many ideas and challenge existing methodologies at this stage are more likely to beexpressive when they find problems in an organisation and more likely to bring them to theattention of decision makers. They are also more likely to persuade others to do the same. Thought

leaders are good drivers of change and prevent complacency – though as a result it is not unusualto find that they cause friction with senior leaders who for some reason or other may be resistant to

change. Remember, today’s thought leaders can easily become tomorrow’s establishedbureaucracy.

b) Personality conflicts are quite normal within organisations. Some theories argue that allinteractions on some level are conflict based. But are junior people penalised when they conflict

with senior people? Even if the senior person is in the wrong, do they get their way for the sake of preserving the existing order, structure and processes? Is the junior person made to feel that his orher behaviour needs to be monitored under threat of some sort of negative result or punishment?This is i) contradictory to an environment of psychological safety and freedom and results in

suppression, not expression, of problem identification and idea generation and ii) a strong indicatorthat the culture is moving in the wrong direction.

c) Are senior leaders confident enough to leave themselves open to evaluation from all others in anorganisation? Status deference has many negatives including i) higher status individuals tend todominate the session and reduce the participation of others, ii) people allow higher statusindividuals to do all the idea generation, iii) people place higher value on ideas produced by higher

status individuals and iv) people have a greater tendency to allow higher status individuals to getaway with bad ideas.

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Kal Bishop, MBA is a management consultant based in London, UK. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led 

Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached on

http://www.managing-creativity.com

This topic is covered in depth in the MBA dissertation on Managing Creativity and Innovation, which

can be purchased (along with a Creativity and Innovation DIY Audit, Good Idea Generator Softwareand Power Point Presentation) from http://www.managing-creativity.com. You can also receive a

regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.

 

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