These are tasks for which our organizations are well suited. Preparation, however, should be followed by
incubation, during which the problem is allowed to bubble, and the alternative solutions studied in the
preparation phase are allowed to bump against one another. For this phase our organizations are not well
suited. And according to Wallas’ theory, if you can’t let the problem incubate, you are unlikely to arrive at
phase three, illumination—the Eureka! of the creative process. Perhaps by not providing structure for
incubation, our organizations are encouraging mundane solutions—low-risk maybe, but not very high in
potential either. Wallas’ final step in his description of the creative process is verification—a test of the idea’s
pragmatic value. Here again, as for the preparation phase, organizations are well equipped. So it’s the vital
incubation/illumination stages that we seem to ignore in structuring our organizations.

A climate of creativity

A sense of the value of innovation has to permeate the organization. Michael Lombardo has suggested

five things organizations can do to create a climate favorable for incubation and illumination:

 

e Buffering. Executives can look for ways to absorb the risks of innovation. Obviously this takes the
pressure off the potentially creative manager and puts it where it perhaps really belongs.

¢ Organizational Time Outs. Send people away from the office to work on a problem. Remove the aura
of gold-bricking from time spent just thinking.

e Intuition. Give half-baked ideas a chance. Act on intuition occasionally. Take a flyer. Even if you
lose, at least the air gets charged and people know that ideas are valued, not fatally prejudged.

e Innovative Attitudes. Encourage everyone in the organization to think of ways to solve problems they
encounter in their work. Encourage them to ask why; to think: There must be a better way.

e Innovative Organizational Structures. Provide new employees, especially managers, with diverse role
models and mentors. Let them get a feel for the entire organization, and encourage them to feel a
responsibility for the well-being of the entire organization.

Ideas for increasing the chances for innovation in an organization are not hard to find, and many of them
are fairly easy to implement. Recently we asked a group of managers to list some ideas for making
innovation a part of their organizational culture. Here are some of their ideas:

e Top management can make it clear to everyone that the organization wants to be innovative.

e Keep highly innovative people in the organization by eliminating the management track as a necessity
for advancement. Add a high-creative track for development and advancement.

Create an innovation ombudsman to assure that all ideas get a fair hearing.

Create idea teams to tackle special problems.

Use the media to publicize the organization’s commitment to innovation.

Introduce training programs in innovative problem solving and creative thinking.

Set up hot lines between divisions for quick communication on problems.

Arrange in-house creativity conferences and briefings.

Encourage people to attend professional meetings, not only within their fields but in fields that are
even tangentially related as well.

 

If these ideas seem inconsistent with organizational life as we know it, maybe it’s because our
organizations have been structured to avoid the perceived risks of creativity and creative people. Innovation
is a proven problem solver, and as we restructure organizations for innovation, it can become the
management tool of the future.

Dr. Stanley S. Gryskiewicz, Director
Creativity Development Programs

Abstracted with permission from A Miscellany of Issues and Observations (Special Report, June 1985), edited by
Wilfred H. Drath. Center for Creative Leadership, P.O. Box P-1, Greensboro, NC 27402-1660.

For further information, contact the author at the Center.

 

 

Suanne D0. Roueche, Editor QO
October 3, 1986, Vol. Vil, No. 21
INNOVATION ABSTRACTS is a publication of the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development, EDB 348, The University of Texas at Austin,

Austin, Texas 78712, (512) 471-7545. Subscriptions are available to nonconsortium members for $35 per year. Funding in part by the W. K. Kellogg
Foundation and Sid W. Richardson Foundation. Issued weekly when classes are in session during fall and spring terms and monthly during the summer.

© The University of Texas at Austin, 1986
Further duplication is permitted only by MEMBER institutions for their own personnel. ISSN O199-106X

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