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

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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) Himself
• Emilia Dominguez Herself
• Timir Prabhakar Himself
• George Mundanchery Himself
• Vishal Verma Himself

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es/ticket-stub.gif
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Creativity

• A Companys 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.t
ypepad.com/photos/uncategorized/creativity.jpg,
http//www.digitaldreammachine.com/blogimages/lux
o/ThePixarStoryCover.jpg
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Creativity Factoids

• Good News
• CREATIVE acts come in all sorts of sizes and
  shapes
• Dont 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

• 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

Image Source http//www.nsegg.ca/images/did_you_k
now.jpg
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Where it all begins
Pick the RIGHT People
Recruitment
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Pick the RIGHT people
It all begins with 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

Image Sources www.ealinghomes.net/.../Graduate_Re
cruitment.png, www.rhapsodyuk.com/images/recruitme
nt.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

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

• 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

Image Sourceshttp//www.boston.com/news/globe/wes
t/I want you.jpg
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Recruitment process Iceberg Model
Skill based tests
Behavioral tests
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Add a dose of knowledge
Provide the RIGHT Training
Training
Mentoring
Pick the RIGHT People
Recruitment
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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 doesnt happen in a vacuum. Force
  people
• to play off each other during training and
  build lasting
• relationships

Image Sources http//www.robbinssports.com/sporti
ng-goods-store/images/co-oper-band-group-creative-
movement-kit.jpg , http//tbn3.google.com/images?q
tbnbHuvF9x2Oa4ntMhttp//www.dora.state.co.us/ci
vil-rights/images/training.jpg
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Some innovative training ideas

• 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.

• 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.

• 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!

Image Sourceshttp//www.pokerdiy.com/Portals/6/Us
ers/Leagues/PokerCards.jpg, http//www.edinformati
cs.com/inventions_inventors/250px-Traffic_lights.j
pg . http//img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module2/81
195/secondlife_logo_qjpreviewth.jpg
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Add a dose of culture
Provide the RIGHT Environment
Culture
Environment
Culture
Provide the RIGHT Training
Training
Mentoring
Pick the RIGHT People
Recruitment
Culture
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Provide the RIGHT environment

• A happy worker is CREATIVE
• and most productive

• 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 dont 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

Image Sources http//www.topnews.in/files/Asian.W
ages.Increase.happy.Employees222.jpg,
http//www.rtpi.org.uk/download/545/Yourbusiness-a
nd-the-environment.jpg
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Listen

• 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

Image Sourceshttp//74.53.86.162/bcarroll/wp-con
tent/uploads/2008/07/listening.jpg
http//tbn0.google.com/images?qtbn2G4cba7stpPdfM
http//blog.wired.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/0
4/24/stopwatch.jpghttp//www.fotosearch.com/BNS17
2/atw049
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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 Sourceshttp//bp3.blogger.com/_775mMwtjL68/
RwmQh3n9iCI/AAAAAAAACAQ/mzs-6BuoDJY/s1600-h/Motiva
tionChart.jpg http//femaleempowerment365.com/upl
oaded_images/the_empowerment_of_women-730122.jpg
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Encourage a sense of fun

• Let people PLAY during work

Inspiring examples

• 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

Sourceshttp//www.snopes.com/photos/architecture/
google.asphttp//doggies.com/blog/2008/06/04/brin
g-your-dog-to-work
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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.

Sourceshttp//coworking.pbworks.com/Logo
http//www.flickr.com/photos/20916143_at_N03/26962045
41 http//voice.firefallpro.com/uploaded_images/I
MG_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

• Pixar
• At Pixar there aren't any grey cubicles because
  their employees have the freedom to decorate as
  they see fit

• Google
• Everyones 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

Sourceshttp//veerle.duoh.com/blog/comments/creat
ivity_in_the_workplace
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Add a dose of leadership
Provide the RIGHT Leadership
Leadership
Provide the RIGHT Environment
Culture
Environment
Culture
Provide the RIGHT Training
Training
Mentoring
Pick the RIGHT People
Recruitment
Culture
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Provide the RIGHT Leadership
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
Image Source http//www.adventureholidaytravel.co
m/static/images/images_adventureholidaytravel/moun
tain_climbing.jpg
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Leadership Attributes
The Leader is best, when people are hardly aware
of his existence

• Leadership plays key role in shaping the
• culture and has a substantial impact on
• creativity
• Leaders 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

Image Source http//www.1000ventures.com
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Leadership and Creativity
The 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.

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

• 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
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The Credence Creativity Model
Creativity
Provide the RIGHT Leadership
Leadership
Provide the RIGHT Environment
Culture
Environment
Culture
Provide the RIGHT Training
Training
Mentoring
Pick the RIGHT People
Recruitment
Culture
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In conclusion

• "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

• Creative Organizations dont 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

• 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/wo
  rkplace.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/st
  eve-jobs-quotes.htm