Creative Small Businesses Deliberately Foster Creativity & Innovation For Success
©2010 by Edward Glassman. Ph.D.


       I have written many articles about how creative small businesses foster creativity & innovation in their people. Here are some major strategies they used to foster creativity at work worth considering for your business.

       • The Roles of Top Management.
Top management viewed creativity as important to the success of the business, and to remaining competitive. Management deliberately called for creativity. Policies solicit new ideas, reduce bureaucracy, encourage change and different ways of doing things, foster the entrepreneurial spirit, and the belief that people want to be creative. Management tends to give little direction and few guidelines on the implementation of agreed upon goals, respects people’s competence, encourages risk and helps people learn from mistakes, wants people to excel and achieve, and promotes from within. They demand practical, profitable results.

       • Power Sharing.
People used words like autonomy, freedom, empowerment, independence, and individual thinking. They’re urged to make decisions, create solutions to work problems, and told that the best person to solve a problem is the one working on it. Not a lot of permissions are needed to get the job done with room to innovate. Once there is agreement on the goals, they’re given the creative freedom to do the job. Teams are assigned missions, and then turned loose to achieve goals. People are trusted and relied on to make on-the-spot decisions to help customers.        

       • Hiring.
These businesses hire diverse people with untraditional backgrounds, good people given lots of leeway, thinking, talented people who are trusted to do the job.

•       Rewards.
Creativity is enjoyable, and that’s one reward. Ideas are also rewarded with recognition and full credit. Profit sharing and bonuses were mentioned to motivate people to either implement or tell new ideas to management.

       • Informality.
People highlighted reduced bureaucracy, vague or no job descriptions, few rules to limit creativity, fluid organization structure, lack of pigeonholing, no dead end jobs, informal interaction, calling people coworkers (not subordinates), informal job structures, and more.

       • Time.
Many people mentioned enough time to be creative, and setting deadlines to encourage creative thinking.

       • Creative Climate.
Most people used phrases like contagious creativity, friendly environment, be innovative and solve problems creatively, solicit and listen to new ideas, creative physical environment, individualized work area, celebrations, proximity to creative people, caring people, people feel valuable, decent treatment, catch people doing things right, sense of ownership, personal growth, achievement, and self-direction, and more.

       • Teams and Teamwork.
Most people mentioned teams, cooperation, and creative teamwork. They used phrases like fluid teams, respect each other’s competence, trust, clearly agreed on goals, being open to new ideas, creativity procedures, getting out of the box, and more.

       • Practical Creativity.
Creativity had practical results. People started with spaced out, grandiose ideas, and business realities brought them back to earth.

       • Sources for New Ideas.
Many people spotlighted outside stimulation. They mentioned colleagues, other people, books, travel, competitors, trade fairs, magazines, customer suggestions, other stores, and team meetings as sources for their ideas. Ideas are not creative in a vacuum. Creativity depends on past experiences and knowledge, so the more you know and interact with others, the more creative you can be.

       • Sharing Knowledge, Ideas and Values.
Some businesses train and publish newsletters to keep their people informed. They share new ideas to foster creativity and effectiveness.

       I am impressed by what these creative companies do to foster creativity. Many of these strategies can work in your company. Make an action plan to introduce those that you think would increase creativity in your company. Send me questions you have about your creativity or team’s creativity at work to my website: http://www.offbeatbooks.net/team-creativity-at-work-books.html
       And checkout my new book: “Team Creativity At Work I & II: Creative Problem Solving At Its Best” (2 great creativity & innovation books in one volume). Available from Amazon.con and from here: http://www.offbeatbooks.net/team-creativity-at-work-books.html
Also: checkout his website: http://www.offbeatbooks.net for more books by this author.

©2010 by Edward Glassman. Ph.D.

About the author...
       This article is taken from his book: “Team Creativity At Work I & II: Creative Problem Solving At Its Best” (available from Amazon.con and from here: http://www.offbeatbooks.net/team-creativity-at-work-books.html
       Edward Glassman, Ph.D. is a Professor Emeritus (retired) in the Department of Biochemistry & Nutrition of the Medical School of the University of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Edward Glassman lives in Moore County, NC, where he wrote a column on ‘’Creativity At Work’’ two times a week for the Citizen’s News-Record and a monthly column on “Business Creativity” for the Triangle Business Journal in Raleigh. A Professor Emeritus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he lived in Chapel Hill, NC for 34 years and wrote several books on creativity at work. He founded the Program For Team Excellence and Creativity at the university. He led scores of problem-solving creativity meetings and creative thinking workshops-seminars for many large and small companies. He was a ‘Guggenheim Foundation Fellow’ at Stanford University and a ‘Visiting Fellow’ at the ‘Center For Creative Leadership’ in Greensboro, NC. He can be contacted at his website: http://www.offbeatbooks.net/team-creativity-at-work-books.html