When you think about why some organisations are more creative than others, you often identify culture as the driver. But what is culture and how does it impact on an individuals’ willingness to do things differently?
Culture is a big and complex concept. It covers habits, behaviours, processes, attitudes, artefacts, among others and is often described in a nutshell ‘as the way that things are done around here.’ Organizational culture can manifest itself in a variety of ways, including leadership behaviours, communication styles and decision-making processes. While it can be hard to describe, culture is something you can often feel after a short time within an environment.
It’s hard to be creative at work if the culture does not support thinking differently and taking risks. In this blog, I’m going to discuss a few things managers can do to build a create a team environment, for new ideas to flourish. I’ll be touching on the importance of autonomy, time for play and experimentation and expectations. My thoughts are based on my experience inside organisations and from my PhD research.
Autonomy
Giving your team members freedom and autonomy in how they undertake their work is very important for creativity. Resist the urge to meddle or micromanage their activities and give praise and feedback to encourage further exploration of new ideas.
Time
Having enough time to explore a problem and to consider alternatives, supports for discovery of new approaches. If people don’t have discretionary time, they will resort to doing things the way they’ve always been done. People need time to experiment and play with ideas.
Time is a curious thing. If you have no time to think broadly and to experiment, you will do an activity as you always have. However, if you have too much time you may lack focus. My PhD research confirmed the findings of others that there is a ‘sweet spot’ with regard to the right amount of time to support creativity.
Expectations
If you’re a manager, your team will quickly pick up on your interest in and desire for new ideas. Giving permission to challenge assumptions, creating openness to new ideas, and giving freedom to experiment and learn all build a creative culture, as does an acceptance that failure is a component part of the exploratory process.
As a leader you should model creative behaviours such as being curious and taking time to consider different ways of doing things. Allowing times for discussion of new ideas and reflection on past activities in team meeting will reinforce a learning culture. I’ll talk more about processes you can use to support a culture of innovation in a future article.
References
Creativity Cycling: Help your team solve complex problems with creative tools by Barbara Wilson and Tracy Stanley 2018
Work environments, creative behaviours and employee engagement (Doctoral dissertation, Queensland University of Technology).
