Insecurity => creativity?? LO10569

jpomo@gate.net ("jpomo@gate.net")
Fri, 18 Oct 1996 15:40:54 +0000

Replying to LO10544 --

Rol has voiced questions which the executives and managers I
know are facing every day.

> Is security and stability possible and achievable? Should these be
> goals of corporations? Are they anathema to creativity?
> On the other hand, does down-sizing, which creates insecurity and
> instability, contribute to increased creativity?>

>If I were a corporation, how would I increase creativity?

Creativity is something we all have, only varying in extent and type
(hand, various mental types, etc.). How much and on what we use our
creativity is dictated by a considerable number of factors including
our trust of company/bosses, knowledge of relevant facts, commitment,
sense of responsibility, degree of self-control, ability to influence
outcomes, caring, risks of failure, sense of loyalty/dedication,
perception of company's fairness/compassion, degree of encouragement,
reward systems and the like. I have not listed all the factors, but
the major ones are here and the first three have great effect.

All of these factors can be correctly arranged by any person in
authority for his/her juniors and at high enough quality to achieve
high creativity. For an entire corporation to achieve this goal, top
executives must be acting correctly "and" a major part of that is in
influencing their subordinate bosses to do the same. Each factor has
an effect on the other factors and degrading one results in a degrade
for all. If this sounds like a lot to do, it really isn't since all
factors interlock and are synergistic. All together, they have a very
great and positive influence on juniors.

Trust is realively easy to achieve by a motivated boss. No one can
distrust anything which they know everything about and can influence
reasonably when they desire to do so. One-on-one and group meetings
(wherein the person in authority assures that answers are provided
for all complaints, suggestions and questions to the satisfaction of
the originator in an entirely open, forthright, "this is your
workplace as much as it is mine" way) are the means to this end. Hold
at least weekly group meetings until all knowledge is shared to the
extent desired by the juniors and until all become convinced that the
bosses respect juniors as equals who just happen to have a different
job on the same team. The boss's role is one of supplier to customer,
one who cannot consider the task complete until the customer is
satisfied. Meetings should be conducted by the highest level boss
possible and higher levels should visit meetings routinely.

In a meeting where people practice problem-solving (creativity),
the boss' role includes ensuring discussion of the values standards
which must be met in order to arrive at high qualtiy decisions and
solutions. Fairness, openness, compassion, quality, productivity,
efficiency, cost, customer satisfaction, service, honesty, integrity,
positive attitudes and the like should become the benchmarks by which
all things are judged. The point is that most everyone can learn to do
this with practice and thus they gain the ability for independent
thought and creativity.

The above creates commitment since the junior is granted influence
by a listening and responding boss and in turn gains ownership which
begets commitment. Those in authority must go out of their way to
equip juniors with all of the information required to arrive at
responsible conclusions. Status of profits, where the company is
under pressure by competitors, the real case for making changes and
the result to the person if the company fails to change on a daily
basis are just a smattering of issues which employees must understand
well. Don't think that you are improving performance by denying your
decision making juniors any facts or philosophies or whatever which
bear on the issue of the security of their jobs. People are fully
capable of accepting and understanding these issues with practice,
including janitors, and those who cannot must be limited to being a
very small minority. Besides, a fully committed person becomes
creative very quickly and commitment dies without knowledge and the
freedom to influence outcomes.

Group meetings require the important skills of listening and
asking questions in order to illicit more facts and opinions on
irrelevant issues and answers. Bosses are not there to give answers,
but to cause the group to practice finding answers. Often, there are
one or more who have a good handle on the correct answer or solution
and/or can contribute views which others can discuss. The point is to
get the creative juices flowing. Only this demonstrates that the boss
expects people to become aware of problems and develop anwers. Only
this leads them to do so.

And when under pressure or even attack, how does the boss respond?
Does he/she act as if the attacker is a valued customer or a junior
who should be respectful of the boss? Which way will the boss lead?
Toward courtesy, collaboration, teamwork and healthy discourse or
toward arrogance, hierarchy and top-down command and control?

I believe that the factors which I stated in my first paragraph would
make sense to most people. The contentious issue consists of how does
one act to align these factors to maximize creativity and the use of
brainpower on work rather than on a host of other issues which
detract from achieving excellence at work. Getting every employee's
brainpower consciously focused on working smarter and better every
day is the challenge. Making excellence appeal to juniors on the
basis of what's good for the individual rather than the corporation
is also a required skill.

Although I have barely scratched the surface of answering Rol's
question of how to increase creativity, I can assure you that the
specific actions which will accomplish creativity to a very high
level are available because I have seen them in practice and read
them in our book. They cover all aspects of dealing with employees
since every action or lack of action an employee experiences at work
is part of the data base which most people use to determine whether
or not they trust the company, are committed and the like.

As concerns downsizing, it may be necessary and if so, using these
same actions will cause the downsizing to be an overall gain to
almost everyone involved. Unfortunately, most of downsizings have
been handled in such a way to be detrimental to people, mostly out of
ignorance of an alternative.

Hope this provides some food for thought.

Regards, Joan
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Joan Pomo The Finest Tools for Managing People
Simonton Associates Based on the book
jpomo@gate.net "How to Unleash the Power of People"
About the book go to http://pages.prodigy.com/DMHD39A (use caps)

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