Managers, Nurture Creativity. Don’t Kill It!

Bob, the project manager, was busy communicating with client via MSN Messenger, his eyes focused on the computer screen and fingers fiercely hitting the keyboard in a fine synchrony with his brain.

Jay, the team member, approach Bob with a suggestion – “Sir, for this particular requirement of the project, I have a suggestion that can save us a few lines of code, time and may also improve the performance”, there was a spark on Jay’s face as he put forward the suggestion.

Bob was half-attentive with his eye-balls still skimming through the lines of chat with client on MSN.

“See, we are already running short of time. So, I am sorry. Please do as we discussed this morning and keep your creativity for a later date. We surely need it, but not now!”, Bob said in a deep and authoritative tone.

Jay was taken aback with absolute lack of empathy and understanding demonstrated by his boss. Had Bob accepted Jay’s suggestion, it would have actually saved some time and effort. But Bob was simply not receptive.

This is a sad, but often a real story in many organizations. Managers kill creativity instead of nurturing it.

Managers and leaders ought to nurture creativity if they want to get best out of people. How does one do that?

• Listen and Pay Attention– Bob’s biggest mistake was not to listen. He partially attended Jay’s suggestion and missed the details. Had he been attentive, he would have been in a better position to appreciate it. Without attention, you cannot go far in your thoughts or relationships.
• Challenge – People need problems to ‘solve’. They don’t always need solutions which they just need to ‘implement’. If you always ask people to implement your ideas, you are killing their creativity.
• Give Targets and Measure– Throw reasonable constraints at your team. Give a problem but also give a reasonable deadline. Constraints can fire up creativity. Measurement can track progress of improvement.
• Share Larger Perspective – When you give problem statement to your people, also tell them how this problem (and its respective solution) fits the larger picture.
• Respect – people who are respected will walk “extra-mile”. Respect is the soil on which seeds of creativity are sown.
• Clarify Expectations – People who know what is expected out of them will do much better than the one’s who don’t.
• Play by their strengths – Give them assignments where they can best use their inherent abilities and strengths.

With Bob’s one mistake, do you think Jay will ever choose to be creative in Bob’s assignments? What do you think Bob should have done differently to fire up creativity in his team member?