Managing Creativity Productively

In one of my recent blog posts I explored the idea of fostering creativity in the workplace and why there is still resistance to its implementation despite growing understanding and evidence of the importance of creative thinking to business success. The main reason it seems, is the reluctance of businesses to risk losing productivity — the measurable stuff of getting things done often linked to profits.

In this post I would like to look at how creativity and productivity can be managed to co-exist effectively, maximising the potential to propel innovation forward.

In the context of rapid change in today’s society, particularly in the area of technological development, a company’s ability to innovate by developing and utilising its people’s creativity and generating new ideas is considered key to forging a competitive advantage and solving increasingly complex business problems.

Promoting creativity at work requires a few key ingredients, the scariest of which is time and space, and arguably, the most important of which is effective management. It is one thing to promote and encourage creativity and creative thinking at work, and another completely to effectively harness and turn that creative thinking into innovative usable products or processes to benefit the business.