"Technology is nothing. What's important is that you have faith in
people, that they're basically good and smart, and if you give them
tools, they'll do wonderful things with them." - Steve Jobs
Innovation is one of the major driving forces behind the success of organisations in many industries. But perhaps for the first time, innovation is now being given the recogniton it deserves. In his Forbes article, 'How to Manage Innovation', Greg Satell says that innovation has become "management's new imperative". In 'Creativity & The Role of the Leader', Teresa Amabile and Mukti Khaire state that we are now in an "innovation driven economy".
Everybody wants to be the next Netflix, not the next Blockbuster. Perhaps then it’s no surprise that innovation and creativity increasingly enjoys the focus of managers attention and a place "at the top of the management agenda", as Amabile and Khaire describe it. Given creativity and innovation are now being recognised for their importance, it seems only natural that organisations would attempt to manage this process. But is it something that can or should be managed?
In 'Creativity & Innovation: The Leadership Dynamics', Emmanuel Agbor states that since creative organisations do not emerge by accident, that management is certainly required. However he advises against that old fashioned, traditional management style of prioritising particular projects and then assigning certain people to complete them. Instead he favours a leadership approach. Since innovation can come from all levels of the organisation, not just from the top, it is the leaders job to encourage creativity and foster an environment conducive to creativity.
In 'Creativity & The Role of the Leader', Teresa Amabile and Mukti Khaire advise organisations to leverage the fact that they'll have employees with different backgrounds, attitudes and skillsets working for them, who will have many different approaches to tackling a problem. They add that employees should know the strategic goals and vision of the organisation, since this helps create a participatory environment where employees are all working for a common goal. They also point out that leaders must actually free up employees and give them the necessary time and resources to be creative and to produce solutions. In the last organisation I worked for, we would actually visit different parts of the country and sometime the world when it was time to branistorm and devise new concepts and ideas.
It took a long time for creativity and innovation to be seen as a priority on the management agenda. Organisations must now realise that effective leadership is necessary to manage the process and maximise its potential.
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