At first, during Taylorism , companies understood that employees should limit themselves to performing extremely repetitive tasks, without participation or influence in the decisions of the business leadership. Basically, it was a management that totally cut creativity.
Today, with a more humanized vision, the prevailing management model adopted by organizations has sought synergy between management and its employees , who now make suggestions and participate more actively in the management of the enterprise. After all, good ideas can come from anywhere and, if we consider that employees are at the front line of the company, they can certainly contribute a lot to help the corporate leadership to rethink its products, services and processes. In this social environment, creativity often boils over.
Why should the entrepreneur bet on creativity?
The fact? Plunged into increasingly competitive niches, organizations need to think outside the box to get their market share. Creativity does not come from capital or any technological implement, but from human capital. Therefore, we must maintain a fruitful soil for good ideas. In this post, we will discuss the main advantages brought by creativity to an organization, and how to make the internal environment more creative. Check it out right away!
Creativity: a matter of organizational culture
Many believe that creativity is unique to sectors such as media, advertising and marketing . However, one must keep in mind that this is a quality that can influence the company as a whole. This is because we must consider that all sectors of the company are interdependent and, therefore, innovations in certain processes can affect the entire structure.
Want an example? Let's think about departments like finance and sales. A creative solution when paying off a debt , for example, can make the company stay up to date with its bills and not need to resort to financing . A creative customer-facing approach can bring about an increase in sales volume or customer loyalty . We observed that, in both cases, sectors that traditionally are not considered creative can implement innovations that affect the entire organization.
After all, what is creativity?
Creativity must be seen as a process that eventually culminates in an innovation. We know that not all the ideas that end up appearing throughout the day have the potential to be put to good use. On the other hand, innovation is a successful idea already finished and ready to be implemented. It is necessary to bear in mind that the creative process is based on a questioning posture, that is, the frequent use of expressions such as “why” and “what if”.
Why encourage creativity?
Most of the time, great ideas and small details that can bring a differential to the company capable of making it more competitive in the market are not immediately noticeable. This means that, in some situations, they can only be noticed in an operational plan by employees and collaborators who work in the “front line” and have specialized and reiterated knowledge in the task. The decentralization of the creative process means that these ideas do not go to waste.
How to encourage creativity
The mentioned conclusions did not go unnoticed in the business world and many companies that adopt a more modern and dynamic management model have been working this way for some time. As an example, we can mention the technology companies of the so-called Silicon Valley in California, whose experience served as inspiration and has been exported and adapted by companies around the world.
What we can learn from this model is that, sometimes, excessive formalism ends up blocking the free flow of people and ideas and, consequently, a favorable environment for the exercise of creativity. In this sense, a more open physical space without closed rooms and walls isolating members of the board and management can help change this picture. Another posture that can be adopted is not to criticize or penalize the employee for being creative, but, on the contrary, to reward him for good ideas and innovations.
An inquisitive and creative employee who performs his duties in an environment in which creativity is encouraged can bring valuable ideas to the company that positively impact not only the sector of origin, but the entire organization . It is also important to point out that a creative environment does not mean that procedures are abolished, since creativity must be guided by utility and the opportunity created by the need for improvement.