This articles is the third in a series on creativity beginning with the first one here.
It is remarkably easy to stifle ideas and the atmosphere required to instill a nimble, innovative culture. Beyond the natural hesitancy inherent in speaking ‘truth to power’ following is an effective way to build a culture devoid of innovation:
- Ignore ideas, or better yet, tell people with ideas it’s not their job.
- Treat ideas by Associates as unworthy. Tell them it’s never been done. Speak in terms of requirements that ignore shifts in paradigms. Innovation is best confined to hierarchical boundaries.
- Don’t bother to look at the data. Go with your gut and group anecdotal sentiment. After all, it has gotten you this far. Tell them of cultural history and consensus. Happiness is the status quo.
- Imply their job is in jeopardy if superiors don’t like the idea. Frustrated or frightened superiors are superiors who fire people.
- Send them to someone else. Tell them you won’t support them but they can keep searching for support on their own. But remind them that going around you is not good team play and will reflect badly.
- Don’t applaud their attempts, especially when you know they won’t work. Snuff them out immediately instead of providing feedback and encouraging them to seek feedback of others.
- Suborn and undermine the idea, or gain brownie points by bad mouthing it to others:
- Shoot the messenger with ad hominem attacks. Best of all, use your stealth efforts to question the person’s career.
- Compartmentalize the idea if it crosses hierarchies.
- Treat all ideas as threats and insubordination to the hierarchy. Demonstrate why that’s true.
- Make comportment and congeniality Job 1.
- Conflict is generally something to be avoided. Nothing really good comes from conflict. Share with anyone continually debating something that there really is a limit to it, and it’s fairly low.
- It’s much more important if everyone treats their colleagues like good sales people approach customers; just give them what they want. No need to ‘fight’.
- When someone generates an idea, give them all the next steps.
- If an Associate does come up with an idea, or better yet, develops it in their spare time, convene a meeting to discuss it and force them to work harder to develop or implement it. After all, everyone else is busy already, and since it’s their idea, they should do all the work to retain ownership. Their name will be lost if someone else becomes accountable.
- Giving people more work when they have ideas is a great way of punishing them for volunteering and giving everyone more work. It’s a time proven method of keeping people’s hands down and mouths closed in the future.
- Ask everyone for ideas, then don’t do anything with them.
- Don’t communicate, or communicate inconsistently and then quit altogether.
- Implement the simple, easy, quick wins, and ignore the foundational and capital intensive ideas without explanation. That way you can shape the kind of ideas you’re really asking for.
- Develop contests for ideas in which the winner presents flashy but non-intrusive ideas that don’t interrupt the status quo. Window dressing and marketing solves everything.
- Don’t keep a public list of prioritized ideas. After all, Associates should keep track of their own ideas, and re-introduce them at appropriate junctures. Managers do not have time to keep track of things like that for everyone.
- Don’t create or fund a group or process for collecting and dealing with ideas. That will be a message in and of itself. Plus, the chances of dropping the ball or otherwise de-motivating Associates will rise dramatically if ideas are treated as an exception.
- Make all decisions and new priorities for groups behind closed doors without their input, or only with the input of your friends, or rising stars. Consulting the group is frustrating and a waste of time, and their ideas may conflict with upper management, which is unacceptable. Besides, the boss must have all the answers. That’s what leadership is.
Other Articles in this Series
Practical Implications of the Biology of Creativity
Organizational Implications of Creativity
Pingback: Organizational Implications of Creativity | Leis Network
Pingback: My Personal Discoveries exploring Creativity | Leis Network
Pingback: Creativity - Leis Network
Pingback: Practical Implications of the Biology of Creativity - Leis Network
Pingback: Organizational Implications of Creativity - Leis Network