A Releasing Your Unlimited Creativity discussion topic

Copyright 2008 by K. Ferlic,   All Rights Reserved

There was one very surprising observation made in the exploration of creativity in the workplace. As stated in the topic, "The Calling," the author took a position with the US Department of Energy (DOE) in response to a National Academy of Sciences (NAS) report which stated that the DOE was not technically competent to oversee its contractors.

In becoming an employee and manager in the DOE, the author was able to observes a variety of attempts to incorporate different management and organizational philosophies and approach to both correct the problem identified in the NAS Report at the DOE level and at the contractor level in response to the DOE initiatives. None of them were working as desired for many of the reasons discussed in Organizational Creativity discussion topics such as the tunnel vision of individuals, the uniqueness of the organization, understanding the true organizational needs, employee satisfaction, employee fears and resistance to change,  issues of organizational cultural change, and the like.

Conceptually all of the different management and organization philosophies which were tried were sound. They all had very proven track records in other organization. Each had many desirable qualities. But they all were different and none of them seem to work. Victory could be claim in an area but none could claim victory as a successful management and/or organizational approach. In looking at some of the victories in application that could be claimed, the author has a simple idea.

There was an occasion where the author was supervising the application of instruction design theory to do a needs analysis as to the knowledge, skills and abilities needed by employees for their particular positions to upgrade technical competency. In looking at the variety of these management and organizational philosophies, the author reasons there should be attributes - knowledge, skills or abilities - required by each of these philosophies that were instilled or used by the employees for the give philosophy to be effective. The reasoning was, "If we knew what knowledge, skills or abilities were required for each of the successful management and organizational philosophies and taught them to our employees, the employees could them successfully function under any chosen management and/or organizational philosophy."

The author commissioned a study by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to be done on the major organizational and management approach that were being pushed on the DOE for whatever reason. The study was to look specifically at the knowledge, skill and abilities that would be required by any particular approach. The results were surprising. Rather than having a consistent set of knowledge, skills and abilities, there was greater variation and some even conflicted with each other. Rather than having a tight little pattern around the bull’s eye of a target it was a scattering more like a shot gun spreading little pellets all over the place

In seeing the results and the known success of all the approaches, it was rather clear that any reasonable management and organizational approach can work if management is consistent in the application of the approach and in the expectation placed on the employees. The individual’s in the organization need to know and understand what is expected of them and then those expectations consistently applied to all. It is just some organization approaches are more effective than others for particular tasks.

The problem then becomes getting the most senior management to adopt a particular approach and stay with it. This includes holding themselves and all the other subordinate managers at every level accountable to that approach. However, that then brought up the issue of understanding the true organization needs versus the personal agenda of the managers. It is not so much that some managers are more effective than other managers as much as it is the agenda of the manager does not always have what is best for the organization at it center. In fact it is often not so much a personal agenda that will serve the ego and desires of the manager as much as it is the manager never takes the correct perspective to see what they are managing and whether or not how they are managing and where they are focusing their efforts is what really needs to be done. The Laboratory Integrated Prioritization System clearly demonstrated many managers at all levels in the organization were not really focused on the true organizational needs but rather on what they have come to think and believe what the organization needed as a result of the experiences they have had.

The result was the real issues and organizational needs were not being addressed because the focus of the managers and the subsequent focus of the organization was on the illusion of what the managers believe about what they faced. Additionally, more often than not, the manager’s own personal issues and response patterns to life they developed to protect their creative spirit early in life overlaid the illusion of what needed to be addressed. That is, each of us placed our creative spirit in a cage of our own making early in life. If we do not address the response patterns we created to protect our creative spirit early in life they will dominate how we response to any issue we face in life, personal or professional.

Relative to selecting a management and organizational approach the issue seemed to be more of whether or not the management was focused in the proper direction to see the true organizational needs. If the true organization needs are known it is relatively easy to see the most effective organizational and management approach. Often the most appropriate management approach becomes rather obvious. However, to put that most effective organization approach in place requires a transformation of the organization. The question then becomes do we transform the organization or transform the heart of the organization.

Relative to the original question "If we knew what knowledge, skills or abilities were required for each of the successful management and organizational philosophies and taught them to our employees, the employees could them successfully function under any chosen management and/or organizational philosophy," the answer was subsequently found in attributes required for a responsive and/or an improvisational organization. The recommendation for any organization, especially one looking to transform the heart of the organization is to develop the qualities characteristic of a responsive and improvisational organization identified in the topic, "Creating a responsive and/or an improvisational organization."

Related topics
The issue of identifying and meeting true organizational needs

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