In the 21st century, we see the rise of the creative economy. A majority of CEOs reports that creativity is the most important leadership competency for enterprises. And leading companies are rebranding knowledge workers to creative workers. Therefore, to be innovative as a business, managers must learn to nurture creativity.
Creatively borrowed from the best-known books and articles on creativity, and innovatively remixed into a handy checklist, I came up with these seven rules for innovation managers:
- Nurture Diversity: Creativity managers dislike brains being the same;
- Create Markets: Creativity managers favor coopetition in networks;
- Rely on Merits: Creativity managers embrace networks and gameplay;
- Make No Predictions: Creativity managers keep many options open;
- Update the Workplace: Creativity managers work the environment;
- Change Constraints: Creativity managers optimize for exploration;
- Open Boundaries: Creativity managers connect instead of protect.
In other words, as a CEO, you should creatively design the organization itself.
One of the most-asked questions among CEOs is, "How can I make my company more innovative?"
It's really not that hard.
It just takes making cross-functional teams of people; supporting diverging opinions; de-emphasizing hierarchies and job titles; creating internal stock markets of ideas; allowing for multiple scenarios; planning for an unknown future; enabling creativity in the workspace; optimizing learning instead of results; and having more transparency and fewer secrets.
What is hard is having the courage to do creatively design the business.
Check out my Creativity and Innovation presentation for more details:
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