Discussion Questions

Read a selection of your colleagues’ postings.

Respond to two of your colleagues (select colleagues, if possible, who have not yet received feedback on their original post) in one or more of the following ways:

· Based on your experience and the resources from the course, provide that person with additional suggestions and/or alternative approaches that he or she may not have considered specific to his or her evaluation.

· Compare your colleagues’ ideas with what IDEO found to be successful. Does IDEO offer additional ideas that would enhance the potential for success of your colleagues’ suggestions?

· Provide positive feedback that describes how the post gave you new perspectives on how to support and encourage a creative environment in the workplace. Provide details about how those perspectives influence the way you now think about creativity in the workplace.

MUST USE TEMPLATES/HEADINGS BELOW

Responses to Colleagues Template

Additional Alternatives or Suggestions to Colleague

Comparison of Colleagues Ideas to IDEO Ideas

Positive Feedback on New Perspectives Supporting Creative Environment

APA References

1st Colleague to respond to:

Factors That Contribute to a Creative Climate Specific to Both Individuals and Teams

Just last week, I started my new career as a Licensing Specialist. Thus far, it has been a wonderful experience and I am grateful for all the opportunities that are brought forth with my new career position. There is great leadership demonstrated at my job that allows the company to run smoothly. Each department has a team lead as well as a supervisor, although, you would not know it because they are reserved and treat everyone equally as if everyone is on the same management level. Puccio, Mance, and Murdock (2011) says “employee performance is more important than seniority, and the behavior of IDEO leadership consistently demonstrates that flexibility is “in” and rigid rules are “out” ” (Puccio, Mance, and Murdock, 2011, pp. 3-4). Our leaders are not strict on us and permit us the freedom to take risks, make mistakes, and learn from them. There are rules and regulations presented, however, our leaders provide an environment that is not just easy to work in, but comfortable and safe to work in.

Our work environment is surrounded by each individual having their own cubicle desk amongst their own team. Some but not all of the supervisors have their own office. Due to the open space that everyone has, it encourages everyone to mingle by communicating with each other, learning from each other, and sharing creative ideas with one another for the success of the company. The work environment is crucial at my organization mainly because of everyone not being able to have their own individual offices with having doors for privacy. “IDEO has learned that having the right size workspace makes a difference. Too much workspace decreases energy and slightly tight space generates energy. There are opportunities for spontaneous interactions among people” (Puccio, Mance, and Murdock, 2011, p. 4). The open space allows everyone to value each other as well as pay attention to the needs of each other. I believe the overall size of our organization is good because we have less than one hundred employees, therefore due to the smaller size, it is easy for everyone to communicate with each other, especially to their team leads and supervisors.

My organization deals with enterprise compliance management solutions for different industries such as insurance companies, banks, and securities. Since there are various departments broken down because of the magnitude of the overall business, there are many solutions that have each of their own processes that must take place. For instance, with my department in registration and licensing, we have a certain process that we follow that differs from everyone else. We manage insurance and securities credentialing to help merge potential solutions.

Factors That Supported Creativity of Employees and Teams

I believe the way the leadership, work environment, and process factors have helped support the creativity of the employees and teams at my organization is by there being a designated space for creativity such as brainstorming in our teams to help come up with solutions. Also, always referring back to our mission and vision of the company allows there to be support of creativity. We already have various teams in the workplace that are diverse which also helps support creativity.

Initiative That Could Strengthen Climate of Creativity

Unfortunately, I have not been with the company that long, therefore if I were to choose an initiative that could possibly strengthen the climate of creativity, I would select risk-taking. So far, I have realized that many employees have a fear of taking risk to help bring creative solutions to the company. I am certain that if the leaders of my organization can come up with a process or processes that will help encourage every employee to be a risk taker, it will be very beneficial for the overall company. Puccio, Mance, and Murdock (2011) mentions how “leaders understand that risk-taking is essential and mistakes will occur. One-way risk-taking is encouraged and practiced is through in-house design challenges” (Puccio, Mance, and Murdock, 2011, p. 4). This strengthens everyone’s confidence level, allows one to disquinch themselves from our competitors, and it allows one to seek after potential benefits that end in the result of a creative innovative solution that is needed.

APA References

Puccio, G. J., Mance, M., & Murdock, M. C. (2011) Creative climate: Work environment allows IDEO to deliver promise of innovation. In Puccio, Mance & Murdock, Creative leadership: Skills that drive change (pp. 314–320). Los Angeles, CA: Sage.

2nd Colleague to Respond to:

The organization that I have chosen to focus on for this discussion is an international not-for-profit group that was founded for the purpose of assisting children in developing countries. My family is heavily involved in the administration and I am familiar with how they operate.

Factors That Contribute to a Creative Climate Specific to Both Individuals and Teams

While the creative process in this organization is considerably different than it is with my own job, they do share some common themes. For example, Idea Support is strong in both organizations. However, I would say that the top factors that contribute to the creative climate are Challenge & Involvement, Dynamism, and Low Conflict.

Perhaps because it is a charitable organization, the Challenge & Involvement always seems to be front and center. Funding is one of the biggest issues because they have non-traditional revenue streams. Funding is also dependent on exposure, so the organization is constantly looking for new ways to promote themselves, build a brand, and then raise money. They are constantly in search of entertaining ways to accomplish their serious and benevolent goals.

I list Dynamism next because of two reasons. First, there are many pictures, awards, and other memorabilia in the office to remind people of past successes. The intention is that these are motivating, and from what I can see, they are. Next, they host a lot of fundraising events such as dinners, and at every possible opportunity they bring in guest speakers to excite and inspire the crowd. The dinner events are a lot of talking and socializing, yet not much eating.

The Low Conflict aspect is important in my opinion because the charity operates as a family that helps families. I know of virtually no conflict that has occurred over the years, and considering the driven, yet laid-back demeanor of the founder and directors, I don’t expect that this will change in the near future. On the topic of managing conflict in non-profit organizations, Seaman (n.d.) says that much time is spent dealing with conflict in non-profits because of change, in particular, because of pressure related to funding. I think that this organization has managed to avoid this problem because it has stayed small, yet focused. Indeed, they have found creative solutions to promote their agenda, yet remain small enough to keep things simple. There are problems with this model, but I will address them later.

Factors That Supported Creativity of Employees and Teams

Both the employees and the volunteers are encouraged to come up with new ideas to build awareness, promote their message, and raise money. The Idea Time is different than that described by Puccio, Mance, & Murdock (2011) in that the majority of ideas aren’t generated during brainstorming sessions or spontaneous conversation in the office. Interestingly, they do a lot of visiting places as a group and generate ideas based on what they see and experience. I have heard many stories about how a trip to visit another country has helped to spawn new, very creative ideas. Different solutions that were created for one situation, or locale, are often valid and transferable to others. In turn, these successes motivate the entire group.

Coupled with Idea Team is Idea Support. Much in the way we approach a problem using convergent thinking, no idea is a bad idea until it’s been thoroughly examined and debated. The rationale is that somebody thinks it is worth investing time into, and they are doing their best to help, so they should certainly be given the maximum opportunity to present it.

Initiative That Could Strengthen Climate of Creativity

One of the things that I think would help the organization to be more creative is to build a more diverse team. I think that the recruitment of new members from different countries, economic situations, and cultures would lead to many new ideas. At many points during this course and others, I have referred to authors such as Hall (2019) who praise the creative ability that comes about, in part, because of diversity in a team.

While it is not lost on me that the Low Conflict I described above is somewhat dependent on the static nature of the current organization, I think that there is a lot of benefit to expanding. If there is a conflict that occurs as a result then it can be dealt with as it is in any organization. It is not a new problem, and there are plenty of good solutions, so I would hope that it is not a barrier to moving forward and becoming creative through the expansion of the team.

I think that a more diverse team would offer perspectives from different age groups, socio-economic backgrounds, and cultural backgrounds. For example, people from other cultures may have very good ideas on how to build awareness for the demographic that they most closely associate themselves with. What is common sense or second nature to one person may be completely foreign to another. It is for these reasons that I think building a more diverse group will bolster creativity and help the organization to succeed well into the future.

APA References

Hall, J. (2019, March 10). The 6 Best Ways To Inspire Creativity Within Your Team. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnhall/2019/03/10/the-6-best-ways-to-inspire-creativity-within-your-team/#1547ce3957b9

Seaman, E. (n.d.). Can Conflict In Nonprofits Be Managed Successfully? Retrieved from https://www.mediate.com/articles/nonprofit.cfm

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