Number 22

S.P.R.E.A.D.ng™ Creative Thinking Completely Throughout Our Workplaces

Slogans, workshops, training programs, innovation campaigns, innovation fairs, rewards, awards all help spark and generate creative thinking yet most of these are very short-lived in their impact on the development of a creative culture in our organizations and workplaces.

The focused promoting and rewarding of creative thinking in a few select departments of our companies or organizations (R&D, Design, Sales, Marketing) can help spark and generate creative thinking yet not sustain it nor assist in the formation of a creative culture, a workplace culture passionately committed to creativity and creative thinking.

Over the past 50+ years hundreds of books and thousands of articles have been written suggesting the need for organizations and companies to develop a creative culture and to be creative and innovative in order to compete in the ever-increasing pace and growing competitiveness of business and industry no matter what their field or profession. The combined message being that the result of such applied and continually developed creativity and innovation can lead to leadership among our competition.

To truly become leaders of our industries over long periods of time we need to develop a complete culture that is committed to S.P.R.E.A.D.ng™ creative thinking among ALL employees each year, month, week and day.

We need to develop a system for doing many different things that comprise 6 categories of actions and activities.  

First we need to consciously, outwardly SUPPORT creative thinking.  

Second we need to PROMOTE it as an on-going part of our organization's way of doing business.  

Third to these we need to add multiple ways to RECOGNIZE and REWARD individual, team, department and overall organizational creative thinking.  

Fourth we need to ENCOURAGE it in many changing ways until it becomes second-nature to ALL leaders, managers, supervisors and employees.

Fifth to all of these, as all successful organizations, whether for a short time or for decades in our industries or fields we need to have ALL of our employees APPLY creative thinking on a regular basis: daily, weekly, monthly, while sparking higher levels periodically in each of them.  

Finally we need to DEVELOP the creative thinking skills of ALL employees throughout the year, year after year, while continuously raising their individual levels and steadily enrichening and broadening their creative skills

From a S.P.R.E.A.D.ng™ structure and environment will come a truly Creative Culture.

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© 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2006 Robert Alan Black, Ph.D. CSP