Managing Creativity

Any reasonably successful business requires tremendous amount of creativity from all stake holders. Adapt to customer requirements, present products to consumers in appealing ways, designing innovative products, optimize algorithms, streamline business processes.. the uses of creativity is never ending.

Easy to stiffle creativity. But how can one improve one's creativity and that of one's team? I find the following four factors extremely important:

Private Space - A private undisturbed space is central to get the creative juices going. I have seen programmers, working on difficult problems take their laptops to the nearest Starbucks and work from there to prevent disruptions at work. While private offices for every employees though desirable may not be feasible. In this case at lest ample number of comon private spaces where employees can work undisturbed would help.

Encouragement - Encourage members to present their ideas or views without critical comments. Ideas at birth are fragile. It is easily killed by a few well intentioned critical words from another and might reduces creativity in the future.

Value creativity - Valuing members' creativity further encourages more creativity from all. Various rewards may be offered for members who come up with innovative solutions.

Appreciate Diversity - People are diverse, in their upbringing, education, influences, belief etc. A diverse workplace encourages creativity. We should allow (as much as possible) free expression, and show mutual respect, to allow free flow of thoughts and ideas.

Performance appraisals often place a lot on an employee who works "hard" or "getting the numbers" or "meeting targets". It is surprising how creativity is rarely a significant criteria in performance appraisals.