Help People Reach Their Creative Potential

• Far too often there is a huge difference between what a company says they value and what they actually value. There is no shortage of organizations with creativity and innovation in their vision statements who nonetheless swiftly stomp out attempts at creativity when they emerge. This not only fails to foster creativity and innovation it makes it less likely to emerge as more and more employees sense this "gap."

• You can set goals for creativity, even though most managers think it is impossible. You won't make people inherently more creative, but you will move them closer to their potential that is the focusing power of goals. They direct attention and when you direct attention towards creativity (at least on certain tasks at particular times), people are in fact more likely to be creative.

• In the name of promoting creativity at work, relentlessly advertise internally using mini case studies and examples of individuals and teams whose hard work and risk taking is paying off. If you have brave men and women walking out on a limb in the name of positive change you must leverage their efforts and allow them to inspire others.

• It usually takes hundreds or thousands of ideas to get to a really good one. By definition this means you must start rewarding creative efforts, not just outcomes. If you can't embrace these "bumps in the road" you're simply back to using rhetoric. 99.9% of all great ideas started out "half baked." If you fail to embrace this simple reality, people will quickly learn that taking risks is not worth it.

• There are two types for creativity. First, the hard side. There are known tools that help groups diverge and converge as needed to facilitate creative work products. From simple brainstorming to more advanced methods try giving your team a real chance to be creative. Second, there is a lot to know about the soft side of managing creativity how and when to give feedback, set goals, etc.

• Yes, measuring this in an evaluation is difficult but do it. Skip it and your people will focus their efforts elsewhere. See the rant on goals above.

• Normally, if someone seems qualified but too creative they somehow don't fit the prototype for the organization they don't make the cut. Bad move. This is a common syndrome and over time it creates a homogenous culture with reduced creative capacity. You need at least a couple square pegs in round holes!