Creativity Theory - TRaining MAterial in Creativity and InnovaTion ...

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42 B. SUCCESS FACTORS output. For example, when an environment is filled with many types of stimuli and when it provides physical and electronic links between individuals, it encourages people to see new connections and to think more broadly. Modern management’s shift toward less formal, team-based ways of working has forced architects to develop spaces that are more adaptable to work process and more supportive of creative and cognitive patterns of work. As regards the reward system that encourages creativity the first thing to say is that the greatest award in creativity is creativity itself! The best way to help people to maximize their creative potential is to allow them to do something they like. The freedom to choose what to work on allows individuals to seek out questions that they are highly intrinsically motivated to pursue. This high level of intrinsic interest will lay the groundwork for creative achievements. An adult’s intrinsic motivation and creativity at work might be enhanced if their managers establish environments in which people can freely exchange their ideas and explore mutual interests in the work. Nevertheless, external incentives and rewards can strengthen motivation and have a well-known reinforcing effect. The conferring of the Nobel Prize, for instance, promotes creativity. Similarly, an organization that has introduced a system that rewards creative people or groups of people is more likely to set up a virtuous circle for creativity. A reward system needs to be in line with the consideration on synergistic extrinsic motivational factors explained in the paragraph on motivation: an efficient, successful reward system should positively contribute to intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivators like recognition (feedback that confirms competence,) for example, as well as feedback that provides important information on how to improve competence, generally have positive effects. Rewards that involve more time, freedom, or resources to pursue exciting ideas are therefore the most appropriate rewards to set up and maintain a virtuous circle. Extrinsic motivators (e.g. financial reward) that serve to directly increase one’s involvement in the work itself should also serve to supplement intrinsic motivation.
5. Creativity in Groups or Teams Hence, the most straightforward way to preserve intrinsic motivation and enhance creativity is to reduce the impact or to change the character of extrinsic factors, notably by relinquishing control and not giving employees the impression that they are being evaluated. So, the two key factors for a successful extrinsic reward system is to reduce control and remove any type of evaluation. In other words, evaluation ideally needs to take the form of an informative, constructive feedback that recognizes creative accomplishment. Finally, we highlight a few considerations / suggestions to enhance the efficiency of intrinsic and extrinsic motivators in the diverse stages of the creative process. Intrinsic motivators are most crucial at those stages of the creative process where novel thinking is most crucial – the problem identification stage and the idea generation stage. Extrinsic motivators may best play a role at those stages where novelty is less important - the preparation and idea validation stages. So, some extrinsic motivators, such as deadlines or the promise of external reward or recognition, may do little harm in these stages, since flexible, novel thinking is no longer the dominant mode. Indeed, as long as they leave the sense of self-determination intact, they should serve to keep the individual engaged in the work, by attuning the individual to outcome requirements. The organizational factors may differ from one industry sector to another. Studies in specific sectors show the particularities in each one. One such study in UK textile industries [30] tried to analyze the idea generation procedure. Some of the outcomes were indeed unexpected. For example, the use of teams in few and specific tasks limited their potential and in cases where there were clear sets of goals, the individuals were not independent enough to reach those goals to which they were assigned. Furthermore, including customers in the procedure loop had a clearly positive effect 5. Creativity in groups or teams Remember that innovation and creativity is mainly of a social nature and the power of the unaided, individual mind is highly overrated. Although creative individuals are often thought to work in isolation, much of our intelligence and creativity results from interaction and collaboration with other individuals. Creative activity grows out of the relationship between individuals and their work, as well as from the interactions between individuals. Creativity does not happen inside people’s heads, but in the interaction between a person’s thoughts and a socio-cultural context. In today’s world, collaboration is not only a luxury but a necessity [31]. It is obvious that a group will be more creative if it is given the chance to operate within a creative context described in the previous chapter. So, creativity at work is enhanced if managers succeed in establishing a stimulating open environment in which people can freely interact and exchange their ideas and where they can explore mutual interest at work in a collaborative manner [32]. Below, some specific factors that may affect creativity within a group are outlined. Groups can often achieve greater creative output than individuals working alone because they bring a greater sum of competencies, insights, and energy to the effort. However, in order to reach this greater output, groups must have the right composition. The “right” composition, in most cases, means not only diversity at individual level (personality traits, language and multicultural background, etc.) but also a diversity of thinking styles and skills [33]. Group creativity is enhanced when both divergent and convergent thinking [34] are at work. The creative process begins with divergent thinking – a breaking away from familiar or established ways of seeing and doing. Divergence has a broad focus. Seeing things from an unfamiliar perspective makes it possible to develop insights and new ideas. But are those insights valuable? That’s what convergent thinking is trying to answer. It helps to 43 THEORETICAL PART
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