Paper Example on Creativity in the Workplace: A Vital Aspect for Success

Introduction

Creativity is not only for artists but also is an important incorporation for many people in different places. Creativity, which is perceived as the activity of turning imaginative and new ideas into reality is a vital aspect in workplace and reigns as a dominant sought after feature for leaders, employees and the whole workplace culture. It leads to the generation of ideas, solutions, and enhances innovation in an organization. In every workplace, everybody strives to build a creative culture to facilitate the realization of goals and objectives of an organization even though the process of infusing creativity in ones day to day activities seems like it is a daunting task. Everyone in any workplace setup incorporates creativity through communications, strategies, organization activities, and styles. Leaders influence and communication in workplaces are always aimed at creating a creative culture or environment in the workplace among the employees to boost creativity and innovativeness. Therefore, leading a creative workplace culture is an accomplishment among and between any organizations stakeholders and workers. Nonetheless, leading a creative culture at the workplace is usually a collaborative interpersonal or team-based concept that is effectively built through communication processes, traits, behaviors, and practices in an organization. The concept of leading a creative culture in the workplace has been effectively outlined in the discussion below.

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Why creativity is the most important leadership quality (Ladan Nikravan)

Ladan Nikravan holds the concept that creativity is an important quality for leaders in the current era. According to him, creativity for leaders in an organization outweighs competencies like global thinking and integrity. He states that creative thinking enhances organizations to break through the ideas that are innovative in nature, which is an important aspect of the modern world where everything is dynamic.

"But in order for creativity to become a global leadership competence, individuals in leadership positions must first recognize the fact that creativity and creative problem solving are 21st-century leadership skill" (Nikravan2012)

He discusses that creativity is, however, one of the hardest leadership qualities, especially with the fact that the results of any organization are needed at a quick rate and with too much pressure. His ideas are that only exceptional leaders eliminate the mysteries in an organization and make clarifications on the hardships associated with change and innovation processes hence presenting the employees in a comfortable position to proceed with little fear and anxiety through the innovative transformation of the organization. Therefore, possessing a creative culture, which comprises of understanding of the creative process, and techniques is a vital aspect in leaders. Leaders are perceived to possess four types of creativity aspects; clarifiers, ideators, developers, and implementers of which all are perceived to be important in the creative process. Leaders are assumed to take control of their creativity and incorporate it into an organization to enhance a breakthrough outcome in the creative process. Therefore, organizations leaders who consistently put into application their creativity and instill it in the organization culture make a significant difference in building a strong competence of creativity in the organization. Ladan ideas are that there is an importance of employing creativity as a cultural imperative in an organization to enhance the success and embrace change in the ever-changing modern world through the innovation process and build a creative culture that ignites new ideas.

Creativity Inc. (Ed Catmull and Amy)

According to Ed Catmull, creative thinking and problem solving are vital in leading a creative culture in an organization. He holds the concept of creative people play a key role in the excellence and success of the organization. His ideas are that sustainable creative culture is a hard task but shares several ideas on how to enhance it. He outlines Candor and brain trust as one of the ideas to enhance creative culture whereby people feel free to share opinions, ideas, and criticism. This entails problem solving and generation of ideas. It is much preferred for candor rather than honesty to enhance creative collaboration. He outlines that it is important to get the team right so as to acquire the right ideas (Catmull). The organization should focus on the performance of the team and not the individual talents. He describes experimentation as important and productive and views considerations of failure as fundamental. Other strategies discussed by Catmull are gaming the company, balancing the unknown and broadening their views.

Sparking creativity in teams (Marla M. Capozzi, Renee Dye, and Amy Howe)

The ideas in Marla discussion is the aspect of creativity in teams. He holds the concept that any individual or a team can possess the creativity to enhance and stimulate performance in an organization even though creativity is perceived as a trait. In her ideologies, he outlines four methods which the executives can adopt to enhance creativity in the workplace. These include; immersing oneself, overcoming orthodoxies, use of analogies, and creation of constraints. In the methodology of immersing oneself, it is viewed to be fundamental to start creating, building exercises, and to generate ideas outside the organization. This concept of immersing oneself is viewed about the concept of benchmarking to learn innovativeness and creativity from the outside environment rather than within the organization (Marla 2011). It's the incorporation of oneself with the modern outside environment to make an evaluation and learn about the modernization and innovations in the external environment of the organization. On the aspect of overcoming orthodoxies, individuals and executives are expected to build creativity through the exploration of conservatives to enhance one's brains to develop idea generation and enhance the innovation process.

The concept of the use of analogies describes creativity incorporating the skills of associating, observing, questioning, experimenting, and networking. On the creation of constraints to induce innovation, the strategy involves the incorporation of artificial constraints on the organization model to enhance creativity. The four tactics discussed by Marla are aimed at integrating a creative culture in an organization or workplace to enhance the process of innovation and business performance. The discussion involves fundamental surveys to outline further clarification and justification of the relationship existing between creativity culture of and organization and the innovation process.

How to manage for collective creativity (Linda Hill)

According to Linda, leaders must outline an inspiring vision for a team to follow and that the major roles of visionary leaders in the innovation process are depicted as that of 'social architects.' Innovation is viewed to be revealed by a 'collective genius' character (Hill). He defines innovation as something new and useful and views it as a collective process. His ideas are that there is a need to allow for creative abrasion, creative agility, and creative resolution as well as allowing for diversity in people's ideas. Managing for collective creativity requires one to forget about defining a process and view it as a collaborative adventure. There is also the need to build an environment for innovation to thrive and excel. It is, therefore, important to focus on the innovation process rather than the destination.

"Inside the Creative Office Cultures at Facebook, IDEO, and Virgin America" (Leah Lamb)

This article describes Leah's analysis of the constituents of building creative cultural environments in the workplace. He describes the unusual activities that take place in the organization she visits and gives a depiction of the core believes that an organization perceives in their endeavors to build a creative culture. These include; hiring good employees and trusting them. These employees should possess the skills of creativity, flexibility, and are passionate. The second activity involves the support of ideas with actions. This is a dedication to foster and build a creative culture. The organization also promotes teamwork that is given a goal that is depicted as "This is your company now," that is followed by a motivation objective, "Leave your mark, make an impact." (Lamb 2015). These teams are chosen through scavenger hunt methodology at the time of orientation. The discussion holds that for a team to be innovative, there should be a physical environment that reflects that. The fourth strategy involves individuality celebration. Another aspect involved in the efforts of building a creative culture is the process of creating as a community, that is, the existence of partnerships. Another strategy is playing hard and working hard. These extracurricular activities are vital for building team spirit and relaxing employee's brains to enhance creativity and critical thinking to generate effective ideas. The other strategic element that an organization should ensure is to make things look different so as to make people think differently. The last two activities involve the elimination of "failure" in their duties and passion for pushing themselves to the boundaries. Employees should not view failure as a defining experience but instead should develop a problem-solving mentality. All these tactics should be induced in the workplace to enhance the buildup of creative culture in the workplace that will facilitate the breakthrough of new ideas and boost productivity and performance.

"How do you build a culture of innovation?" (Tim Brown)

Tim Brown discussion entails the requirements of an organization that has the aim of innovating. He outlines that the organization should have open-minded methods, that is, a sense of inquiry and curiosity for innovation. Tim outlines that a sense of curiosity is essential and can be gotten through having the organization being outward facing and spends time in the outside world with the customers and the target or potential customers with the skills of openness and an empathetic sense for people's problems that they are trying to solve. He also outlines that the process of innovation has to involve the aspect of taking risks.

This risk-taking concept requires trust within the organization because in many organizations, failure is accompanied by penalties, and in most cases, these failures that are subject to penalties are the greatest source of ideas and knowledge. Therefore, according to Tim, the organization needs to build trust and curiosity to the workers to facilitate the processes of innovation and creativity. Tim's discussion gives a depiction of integrating expertise personnel in an organization to further enhance creativity. He also outlines the need for partnerships with other industries and their experts in the process of innovation. The depiction from Tim's discussion is that there is a need to encourage employees in the workplace to ask creative questions about organizational processes and have empathy for the organization's clients. These activities help in building a creative culture that is fundamental to the innovative process.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is well justified that creativity is an important aspect of the innovation process in any organization. Creativity which entails the realization or discovery of new and useful things is a broad concept that needs extreme attention. Creation of a creative culture in an organization is a vital step that requires effective leadership and communication. Creativity is viewed to be a collective process that requires to partake...