Unleashing your Imagination: Triggering Creativity within a Dynamic Organization

Unleashing your Imagination: Triggering Creativity within a Dynamic Organization

Introduction

Within a system, the managerial functions and creativity converge.1 Their convergence is the mutual need to establish novelty and value by aligning individual talents, experiences and technological innovation within a controlled and systemized culture. The question then arises is what is the responsibility of a leader to support creativity and innovation? How much responsibility do the members of the organization have towards the creative process? If a leader's role is focused upon sustaining workable complexity within an organic network, then new ideas which spontaneously grow out of such complexity needs to be encouraged as this is the life-line to an innovative organism.

Preparing the discovery process for innovation is affected by the inherent characteristics that exist within the organization.2 As leaders, we must understand the possibilities to affect change by what is at the disposal of the organization to initiate and manipulate the environment towards a creative process and ultimately its goal. Furthermore, this concerted effort can only be seen if a leader realizes the importance for planning for creativity and does not assume that innovation automatically is encouraged and naturally occurs without effort simply by announcing a transition' into creativity. Unfortunately, it is assumed by some that the creativity has no tangible strategic patterns, but is a random act brought about by the present conditions of the organizational environment and influenced by contributions from unrelated activities of individuals operating within isolated roles. However, creativity is a result of concerted efforts of individuals within an organization who has had the opportunity to buy into the vision of the organization and is seeking specific ways of solving key problems and issues that are hindering the competitive value of the organization.

What seems to be the problem?the reason to be creative

Michalko suggests that leaders formulate questions about their challenge as part of the brainstorming process.3 In order to have a need for creativity, there needs to be a concerted effort to determine what the problem really is. Naturally questions will begin to arise during the development of challenge questions. For instance, is my organization competitive? Is it possible for my organization to be prepared for the present, but unprepared for the future? What aspects of our problem can quickly be solved through asking certain challenge questions and through evaluating possible solutions for how an organization's challenge may eventually lead to true innovation and creation? The past and future suggests that industries and organizations are seeking competitive edges.9 Therefore, leaders face changing competition, developing technologies and the shifts in markets that previously may not have been faced by prior predecessors. It is no longer sufficient to maintain the status quo. Change happens quickly and it is important for leaders to be prepared to handle the changes that happen internally and externally. As part of the dynamism found within organizations, leaders are increasingly becoming managers of discontinuous change. Therefore, it becomes imperative that leaders who fail to make transitions as competition demands will face tides of upheavals that will cause their organization to lose market position. Such loss of position by the organization or industry will inadvertently affect the organization's opportunities for expansion. The initial inertia of an organization may either be positive or negative, but the continual success of an organization is dependent upon the decisions that the leaders makes towards innovation and change.9

The paradoxical challenge of dealing with various movements within the organization is especially daunting for leaders that are presently experiencing positive inertia now, but do not know or are prepared for the long-term future.6 It is a natural assumption that for an organization experiencing negative downturns to need leaders who are able to decipher the changing times and seek opportunities to re-engage the organization in positive transformative and long-term organizational success. However, successful inertia for organizations requires that there are constant streams of innovation overtime that are sustained.9 This means that there would need to be aspects within the organizational culture that remain consistent. Given the need to pay attention to contrasting forces of change and the requirement for an organization to be stable creates the demand that the organization be ambidextrous.3 As a result, organizations that are stable experience incremental and discontinuous change simultaneously. An ambidextrous organization creates chances for those within the organization to be able to align tightly to structure, strategy and culture to ensure present day success, but at the same time enable excitement towards promoting a ground-breaking change for tomorrow's revitalization.6 The question is how an organization experience ambidexterity especially when the outside environment is turbulent?

Shaking things uporganization re-energized

"Leaders of discontinuous change must shake up the organization, highlighting the inconsistencies between the new strategic imperatives and the old ways of doing business."9 GE (General Electric) throughout the 1980s was creatively engaged in brutally restructuring by engaging in layoffs. In the 1990s GE decided to change its dangerously disruptive process in managing change by implementing boundarylessness and permeability amongst the different sectors within the organization and added service to their products. Initially HP (Hewlett-Packard) operated as a decentralized led divisions. Their process was functionally dysfunctional as each division developed computers that created redundancy and confused their consumers. In an attempt to address this issue, HP implemented cross-divisional committees and task forces. However, in the 1980s a decision was made to centralize certain divisions of the organization into one common entity; resulting in change and reorganization. The functionality of their centralized processes eliminated the problems of redundancy in product creation and confusion for the customers.9

There are very few organizations that engage in constant strategic restructuring. Continuous paradoxes are associated with adapting to changes within the organizational climate and environment. GE and HP both realized that coping with change and chaos from their business operations was a hindrance to their competitive advantage within the global environment. As a result, restructuring was the next logical and strategic step in maintaining their competitive advantage. GE discovered that their creative barrier was disregarding their most important asset, people. As a result, an implementation of permeability amongst their divisions provided opportunities to leverage the use of their best assets while encouraging cross-communication across divisions. HP however discovered that their decentralization was affecting their ability to service their customers appropriately. By centralizing certain of their divisions, HP combined their organization's creative processes to invent computers and other technological tools for the benefit of the consumers without creating redundancy and confusion.

Perhaps the creative solution of both GE and HP seem simplistic after recognizing the results of their concerted efforts. However, the leaders of these organizations realized that by highlighting the inconsistencies between their desire to strategically compete and their old business practices their ability to be functional and dynamic were hampered by the incompatibility of their desired outcome and present reality. How did these two organizations make dramatic changes to the structure of their organization? What was the procedure through which their systems and their culture were re-energized? According to Von Krogh et al conversations take place in business organizations for two purposes. The first purpose is to confirm the existence and content of knowledge or to create a new knowledge. Most likely GE and HP leaders entered into these conversations for the purpose of restructuring of their organizations.6 The results of these two organizations can be attributed to the creation of a new knowledge. The place of creating a new knowledge according to Von Krogh et al is referred to as ba.6 Within ba relationships are fostered across boundaries and micro communities. Here, the concerted efforts of GE and HP can be recognized as tacit knowledge is explored within the physical, virtual and mental shared spaces.6

Use my ideaFollower Autonomy

However, not all organizational contexts are primed to participate in knowledge creation.4 As a result, the functional purpose for creating the right contexts relies on enabling individual's within the organization to share, re-create and amplify their parts within the knowledge creation or within ba. The enabling context has to be encouraged by the right amount of autonomy for followers. When creating opportunities for autonomy, there needs to exist a certain variation for chaos, redundancy, and variety in order to ensure a stimulating environment. Furthermore, mutual respect, commitment and support that is encouraged to exist within an autonomous community inadvertently causes tacit knowledgedata input to be converted into social knowledgeemotional intelligence.4 The combination of the two knowledge bases results in communities of individuals that learn through participating in practices that lead to the apprentice of the system and the creation of new knowledge. Moreover, this enabling context within ba integrates the community practice of task, culture and history with the ability to create new knowledge. Simply put, an enabling context is therefore a shared knowledge space or a shared ba. The chosen organizational knowledge and vision determines if an enabling context maybe either a face to face interaction or virtual interaction. However, regardless of the chosen context, it is the leader's responsibility to create opportunities for followers to buy into the organization's ba. 4

According to Michalko, human beings perform according to what they imagine to be true about their environment and themselves.3 The use of creative visualizing affirms certain belief systems to be activated or created. Therefore, providing opportunities in which leaders affirm the creative facets of their followers is paramount to the success of creating and maintaining an enabling context. To those who believe in the creative nature of God, in Genesis it mentions that mankind was created in the image of God.2 Therefore, is it not safe to assume that we have the same creative DNA of the Creator and therefore have the ability to create infinite possibilities? As a result of this creative DNA, mankind has the ability to visualize and affirm positive belief systems for creativity and innovation. Notwithstanding, man is encouraged to use our God given creativity for the purpose of generating possibilities, ideas and thoughts. Likewise, it is the responsibility of the leader within the organization to affirm the creativity of each individual within the organization by providing occasions in which each follower has the ability to have self-directed and autonomous roles within the group. Given the dual views on creativity from a leadership and deity perspective, it is therefore possible to assume that with proper timing, planning and funding, creativity is possible.2 Therefore, it is a safe assumption that original creativity is a function of divine intervention which enables individuals within organizations to be stimulated to create opportunities for a new knowledge context.

Shared Valuesindividual and collective

According to Tushman et al 3M employees have differing sets of values.5 They recognize their followers by giving certain awards as recognition for contribution. Within Genentech the scientists are allowed to publish their findings within leading journals. However, in collective organizations, specifically those formed in Asia, singling out individuals for recognition is considered inappropriate. Nonetheless, the recognition that is paid for work that is well done is given in a way that is consistent with national norms.5 How does espoused values relate to the creative process?

Within each organization and attached to each culture are sets of values which govern the interpretation of certain reactions, activities and decisions within an organization. Furthermore, leaders operate their organizations within patterns of familiarized values that enable them to fit their ideologies into a comfortable ba. As a result, the decisions that formulate creative thoughts and ideas will be influenced by the values espoused by the organization. The importance of values within an organization becomes even more apparent as members of the organization have individualized values that have been set in place by underlying behavior which is not necessarily readily apparent. The real task for leaders is to seek to espouse values that encompass and aligns individual values of the members of the organization in order for the leaders and the organization to think about creatively planning for the future. Strategic leaders face specific additional challenges. They have to find opportunities to infuse within their employee's ways of looking at themselves and their actual capabilities. Effectively communicating with the employees encourages an internalization of the leader's values which will translate into productive means of thinking and eventually working. The values then become the reference point for which organizational contexts creates boundaries when members of the organizations deliberate during a creative session. What happens when the environment changes in which a leader and the members of the organization previously operated?

With the advent of technology, online education has had the opportunity to grow by leaps and bounds. Presently, traditional brick and mortar institutions are embarking on building an online presence for the sole purpose of attracting new students. Therefore, these schools are facing a challenge in which their values for academic excellence are in direct dissonance with the need to expand and grow into more potential opportunities as result of increased potential for increased finances. Therefore the role of the leader within this type of situation is to continue to further instill the values for academic excellence and achievement despite a new learning environment. Therefore, the espoused values of these schools have to be aligned with the desires of the individual members of the organization to provide quality service and education to their students. One such school that has made this transition is the University of Southern California.7 They presently offers a time-tested Masters of Arts in teaching program online. As expansion as occurred, new members of the organization have had to align their individual value for education with the need to ensure that students receive the same type of education without having to relocate their lives. As a result, the University of Southern California has entrenched their new employees in its espoused values and has caused it to be reflected when speaking with potential students of the university. Furthermore, the constant and dynamic change yields opportunities to continually develop the organization creatively while maintaining the vision and mission of the University of Southern California. Here in this seemingly confused state, a symbiotic relationship is created between the old ways of doing business while creatively reacting to the possibilities of the future.7

Conclusion

Constant dynamic change has yielded potential opportunities for organizations and their leaders to be involved in creative building. Nonetheless, the limiting factor is that leaders have the difficulty or pleasure of creating ambidextrous organizations that are able to consider the present successes and future opportunities. However, to get to enable a creative process, there are several steps that a leader and the organization must determine in order to achieve desired results. First, the leader and those within the organization must first determine the organization's challenge. What is the problem that has caused the leader and the members of the organization to realize that their present functionality is not optimal? Second, the organization would need to go through times of re-energizing; determining what would cause an organization to highlight inconsistencies and the way business is done. Third, creating an environment in which followers have the opportunity to be within ba that enables the creativity of the followers to be highlighted encourages autonomy and buy in within the organization. Fourth, shared values are the bedrock in which ba can effectively be created in order for the leader and the members of the organization to draw upon during the creative session. As a result, having espoused values that are able to cover the individualized values that are brought into any given organization is the single unifying event with which the leader and the members of the organization becoming an integral part of the creative process. It is the singular responsibility of any leader seeking competitive edge to initiate fertile discovery of creativity for the benefit of their organization. The defining event in the life of an organization is when a leader is able to successfully steer the organization towards creatively re-engaging. It becomes even more pertinent to ensure that followers within the organization have completely bought into the values of the leader and is part of creating a ba in which new knowledge can be shared amongst one another.

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