Change, Continuous Improvement, Creativity, Culture, Culture building

5 Steps for Developing a Creative Culture of Continuous Improvement

In a previous post we shared some thoughts on how creativity can be a desirable trait of a good CI Leader, and how it can also be a tool for helping people to accept and adapt to change.

Although not often associated with a leadership goal, establishing a creative culture of continuous improvement can help managers at all levels to achieve higher-levels of performance.

Here are 5 specific steps managers can take to develop and sustain a creative culture, based on findings published by New Horizons Learning Centers:

    1. Encourage new ideas. Management must make it clear that they will embrace new ways of doing things. Managers whose default is to turn against new ideas will quickly stop creative ideas. This simple habit alone is a critical first step toward developing a culture of creativity and change.
    2. Allow more interaction. A creative climate thrives when team members are allowed to interact with their own team mates as well as team members from other departments. Useful information is exchanged, new ideas flow both ways and new views on old challenges are heard for the first time.
    3. Tolerate failure. We have often noted that a culture of CI is one in which people must be given amnesty… a culture in which people are not afraid to fail. This holds true in a culture of creativity as well. While new ideas can sometimes prove too costly or might simply turn out to not be feasible, management needs to accept that time and resources will be provided knowing that the idea(s) might or might not come to fruition.
    4. Provide clear objectives and freedom to achieve them. People or teams who are provided with clear goals will be motivated to meet them. The goals provide a purpose for their creativity. Set guidelines with minimal constraints gives managers a degree of control with regards to the cost and time invested the creative behavior.
    5. Offer recognition. Create individuals prefer to work on tasks that actual motivate them. This also means they, like all other staff, like to be rewarded for a task well done. Management must offer tangible rewards that send a clear message that creative behavior is encouraged, supported and recognized in their organisation.