Racing to never-ending deadlines, work piling up, doing more with less. Employees are asked for higher quality, faster turnaround time, greater efficiency and more innovative output….but is creativity possible with today’s workplace mindset where “busyness” is the modus operandi?

 

There is a fundamental problem with organizations trying to be both efficient and generate innovate ideas. The corporate culture is biased toward rewarding an accelerated pace and greater cost-consciousness. However, more often than not, companies fall back on their fine-tuned “autopilot,” habitual ways of dealing with day-to-day issues. When asked for something new and creative, employees tend to tweak what has already been done. There is little time to germinate, to think of novel and clever ideas. In other words, the current focus on efficiencies is the antithesis to cultivating a creative environment. And yet, the global IBM CEO’s report (2010) warns us that in order to remain relevant within the complexities in the 21st century, we need to think creatively. It cites a survey in which only half of the leaders polled thought their firms were prepared to face the “highly volatile, increasingly complex business environment.”

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