Creativity, Inc.: Building an Inventive Organization

Citation

Cassell, K.A. (2003), "Creativity, Inc.: Building an Inventive Organization", The Bottom Line, Vol. 16 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/bl.2003.17016cae.003

Creativity, Inc.: Building an Inventive Organization

Creativity, Inc.: Building an Inventive Organization

Jeff Mauzy and Richard HarrimanHarvard Business SchoolBoston, MA2003224 pp.ISBN 1-57851-207-7$27.50

Keywords: Creativity, Innovation

Mauzy is a consulting manager and Harriman is a managing partner of Synectics, a pioneering consulting firm specializing in business creativity and innovation. They believe that "people in companies need to create and innovate". They define these concepts in the following way: "Creativity is about breaking down prior assumptions and making new connections for new ideas. Innovation means taking new ideas and turning them into corporate and marketplace reality." Creativity can be broken down into three components: individual creativity, team creativity and support by the company or organization by providing a sympathetic environment.

This book is divided into three parts: Creative Thinking, the Climate, and Action. The heart of the first part of the book on Creative Thinking focuses on the four dynamics: motivation, curiosity and fear, breaking and making connections, and evaluation. Of special importance is the breaking and making of connections which can be done through the use of teams. Of great importance to this process is access to diverse information. This may come from within the company or organization and not necessarily from the part of the organization where the person works. But the authors also advocate exposure to information from what might appear to be unrelated sources, such as the arts.

The Climate is defined as part of a company's culture. The company's culture also includes its heritage and embedded structures, technology, patterns of communication, etc. The authors state that a climate conducive to creativity emphasizes the individual and provides safety, support and patience. A creative climate also includes collaboration, open feedback and flexibility. Some of the characteristics of a healthy climate for creativity include "frequent appearance of new, undeveloped ideas, easy humor, focus on ideas rather than careers, comfort with ambiguity, and enthusiasm for new opportunities".

In the third part, labeled Action, the authors state that in order for creative change to take place, the organization must give up some of its emphasis on controls, efficiency and aversion to failure. Creativity can be messy and sometimes does not happen quickly. In fact, there needs to be room for an idea to be developed, and then perhaps a pause to reflect on it before the final form of the idea is developed. The benefits of this creativity are new initiatives, new designs, new programs and new products.

This book, though written for the private sector, has great relevance for libraries and other non-profits. It calls for the courage of the administration to allow creativity to flourish within an organization and be open to experiments that will result in change. Recommended for all types of libraries.

Kay Ann CassellAssociate Director for Programs and Services, New York Public Library, New York, NY, USA