6. BLOCKS TO AND AIDS FOR CREATIVITY

6.1 Blocks to creativity

As we talked about both individual and organizational creativity, we also have to talk about cognitive and organizational blocks to the creative process.

Bertone [1]indicates the following hindrances:

• strategic barriers(orientation to prefer a precise and unique answer, instead of a wider range of options);
• barriers related to values(stiffness to defy dominant and commonly accepted values);
• perception barriers (the attention is focused on details, being unable to widen the perspective);
• subjective barriers (shyness, fear to make mistakes or to be laughed).

On this last point, intervenes Gurteen [2]too, who lists the following hindrances:

• creativity is a serious business:_ too often creativity is considered an analytical and serious matter, while it should be considered simply a pleasure;
• creativity is not needed: lot of people consider creativity as an attitude to be adopted just occasionally, instead of a constant mental disposition;
• creativity is specialized: it is considered a prerogative of just some disciplines and business functions, such as R&D, instead of being a skill owned by the whole enterprise;
• limiting paradigms: these ones constitute the major hindrance to creativity, since they limit thoughts and actions at an unconscious level; these limiting paradigms represent the way in which each individual perceives, communicates and looks at the world;
• inappropriate mental models: opposite to limiting paradigms, mental models act at a conscious level; they are interpretation schemes of reality;
• limitations of traditional teaching:here the author refers to traditional teaching methods, that are unable to exploit the learning potential related to the play and game phase;
• inappropriate belief in absolutes:knowledge evolves and therefore it is never absolute;
• worry and rewards and punishmentthis is the fear of being reproached and punished;
• fear and lack of trust: this is the most common hindrance; it is the fear of making a mistake and to be laughed;
• infanticide:this is the tendency to suppress new ideas as they arise;
• nformation overload:this is the excessive trust in information seeking and analysis;
• judgement:this refers to hasty judgement; it would be preferable to suspend and postpone it.

As concerns this last type of hindrance, Goleman [3]talks about “self criticism” as an interior judge, who constrains the creative spirit to lay within the boundaries of what is commonly considered acceptable.

6.2 Organizational factors enhancing creativity

As we said before, creativity can be considered one of the competences required to managers, in addition to the traditional ones in production, finance, marketing, etc. It is not an innate endowment, nor a prerogative of few people, but it is owned by every person and it is possible to improve it through the utilization of the creative techniques.

These techniques on one side require the existence of the right climate, style of leadership, resources and competences, structure and organizational systems, and culture, but on the other side, thanks to the surprising results that they let obtain, they encourage a strengthening of those factors, giving start to a virtuous circle.

In particular:

• Organizational climate
  It is the atmosphere that people breath in an organization, and, to support creativity, it requires an active participation of all the workers, freedom of expression and the definition of performance standards.
• Style of leadership
  It is well known that a democratic style of leadership enhances creativity within an organization, while an autocratic one put it down. First of all, it is fundamental for the leader to communicate his vision through formal and informal ways and to act with coherence with regard to it.
  Just consider these examples of behaviour for a leader whose aim is to improve the collective capacity of strategic management. He:
  • encourages the experimentation of new ways to manage the business;
  • avoids punishments for those who try to find new ways but don’t succeed in their trial;
  • encourages the participation of collaborators, not necessarily because of their specific competences, at meetings with clients, competitors and other sources of information;
  • requires the examination of strategic alternatives deeply different from the traditionally accepted ones, to “surprise” the organization;
  • gives to different people the responsibility to prepare strategic inputs: for example, he shares among different directors the responsibility to prepare researches about competitors;
  • dedicates frequently part of his time, better if outside the organization, to the examination with the collaborators of the evolution in the external and internal environment and of the emergent opportunities.
• Resources and competences
  Organizational creativity depends essentially on the intellectual capital of the firm, i.e. its human resources. Some suggestions for a better preparation of the staff are the following ones:
  • Selection:many organizations nowadays engage international and flexible graduates, to be more suitable for a rapidly changing global system;
  • Training:obviously, strategic planning and scenario building are important elements, but also practical experiences are extremely useful;
  • Career paths:organizations have to strengthen flexibility of human resources, giving their managers the opportunity to have international experiences and job rotation;
  • Responsibility for a business:complete responsibility of a business manager or an area manager for a product or a market, to strengthen individual motivations, through the diffusion of a “sense of property” on the project or process.
• Organizational culture
  To support the development of creativity within organizations, it is fundamental a culture that balances three factors: control, freedom of action and risk. Control is the exterior expression of convergent thought; it is one of the critic functions for management and it aims to eliminate surprise.

  The aim of divergent thought is to create surprise. To work, control needs a stable environment. On the contrary, divergent thought supports the creation of a dynamic environment. Control systems put divergent thought and creativity down. Adaptive environments, inspired by divergent thought, exalt them.

  Organizations have developed hundreds of control systems, sometimes in conflict between them. Control systems can even inhibit performances. Firms with strict control systems are often inadequate to cope with a rapidly changing competitive environment.

  In managerial activities, if on one side there is control, on the opposite side there should be freedom of action and in particular freedom to explore, to pursue your objectives without exceeding inferences from control systems, to take some risks, to experiment without being afraid of failing or losing the job, to look for external funds to finance innovative ideas...

  Nowadays senior management must grant this kind of freedom to organizations: this is needed in order to explore new options and alternatives and to create new value for the future.

• Structures and systems
  To let creativity rise and increase within an organization, new suitable structures and systems must arise.
  In particular, considering the current conditions of turbulence of the competitive context, in every organization the changes need an feedback acceleration. This fact implies that the maintenance of organizational barriers should be at the lowest level.
  The formal decentralization of innovative responsibilities is confirmed by two trends:
  1. reduction of levels between the first line and the international top management;
  2. tendency to change structure and to reduce its degree of formalization.
  Besides the structure of the creative organization, it is useful to underline the important role of individual motivation of the workers, with a particular attention to the non monetary rewards. In fact, retribution is not always the most important part of the system of incentives; the most important thing is to create a real passion for innovation within the organization. Although bonuses, stock options and other monetary incentives are important, it is usually a dream, an idea, an emotion that have the greatest importance.