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Origins and occasion for
creating Organizational Creativity
Occasion to create
Organizational Creativity
Origins for
organizational creativity
Organizational Creativity is presented as an application of the
Releasing Your Unlimited Creativity understanding. However, the
Releasing Your Unlimited Creativity understanding arose as a direct
response to the creative needs of the organization. The organization
issues centered on bridging the gap of ensuring safety and quality
and yet having cost effective production. The organization issue
which gave rise to the need for organizational creativity is
discussed under that topics “The
Unfoldment of the Calling,” the
Conscious (Elective) Journey Into Creativity” and “The
Essential Finding Within the Calling.”
In seeking to get to the root cause of the issues the author saw
impacting safety in the workplace he was lead to explore creativity
well beyond what most would see as necessary for organizational
creativity. Yet this deeper level was required to understand the
source of these issue rather than discarding them as “management,”
“personnel,” or other nebulously defined issues. That is, many
things discarded in the past were not being seen for what they truly
represented. This was especially true in the types and kinds of
organizational issues the author experienced surfacing around the
Laboratory Integrated Prioritization System project.
To address the normally perceived needs of an organization and the
deeper issues discovered as a result of the exploration into
creativity,
Organizational Creativity addresses two levels of understanding
and creativity. Each of these levels have a separate but integrally
linked origin.
One level addresses facing the world as we perceive it. This level
of understanding is captured in the concept and organizational
approach entitled “Orchestrating
the Organization.” This level of organizational creativity is
about creating an organization that is responsive to the steady
state needs yet can quickly adapt to emergency type conditions or
organizational upsets and change. The approach focuses on creating
an organization that is able to quickly respond to unforseen and
changing circumstances. In many ways the concept of “Orchestrating
the Organization best captures how to achieve this end. The
approach reflects both an awareness of the organizational needs and
the uniqueness of the needs of the individual creative spirit. It
encapsulates the lessons learned of years working in health and
safety, emergency preparedness, operations and human development and
training.
The second level of
Organizational Creativity focused on a deeper understanding of
the nature of Creation and our individual roles in creating the
collective experience of the organization. It is a level of
understanding that is not readily obvious and difficult form many to
believe and was an unexpected finding by the author. Quite simply
what the author found was not in any of the management texts,
organizational philosophies or other management and organizational
views. It was what the author saw in the workplace that could not be
met by these normal organization and management approaches that
eventually lead the author to exploring this level of understanding
and creativity.
This second level best reflects the lessons learned gain in the
exploration of creativity and the creative spirit and how they apply
to the work place.
Orchestrating the Organization, although created prior to the
completion of the deeper exploration in the nature of the creative
spirit, is nevertheless a very effective way that effectively
addresses the issues without the need for any specific understanding
of the creative spirit and/or work with the individual creative
spirit. It provides a way to meet organizational needs and yet
allows for the creative spirit to grow and unfold true to itself.
Occasion
to create Organizational Creativity (Top)
The occasion to create
Organizational Creativity occurred in two phases. The first
phase was the creation of
Orchestrating the Organization and consciously applying the
concept. The occasion come in September 1996 - after the arrival of
the awareness of our unlimited creativity and the need for each
creative spirit to be protect and given the space to unfold to
freely express it self. The occasion for the first phase to create
Organizational Creativity was the arrival of the awareness of
our unlimited creativity.
For years the author was trying to resolve a disconnect he observed
between what he was taught as a manager and how he was expected to
manage and what he knew about integrating the individual to the
workplace and the organization. This disconnect was first observed
in
his college experience as the Naval Reserve Officer Training
Corps Band Company Commander and remained in the author’s awareness
over twenty five years of management..
When the author become aware of the existence of the creative spirit
in the workplace as a result of the Ultimate Accident, he suddenly
realized the basis of the disconnect he was experiencing. He
realized the concept of orchestrating and orchestra described the
process which could provide the necessary integration what the
current management approaches and philosophies were missing and
resolve that disconnect.
What is interesting about
Orchestrating the Organization was that it reflect the conscious
expression and communication of what the author was trying to do
throughout his management career to resolve the disconnect he saw.
In the way the author talks about a
conscious journey into creativity and an
unconscious journey and a
professional path and a
mystical path to his life, the concept of Orchestrating the
Organization brought to conscious realization an intuitive
management style and married it with his conscious management
experience. Prior to observing the creative spirit in the workplace
he did not have a way to express what he intuitively knew. The
author spent his last remaining organizational years consciously
applying this concept before retiring to pursue a deeper exploration
of creativity and the nature of the creative spirit.
The second phase of the occasion to create
Organizational Creativity was to review what was learned about
the creative spirit at the end of the deeper journey into exploring
creativity and overlay the lessons learned with the organizational
understanding. What was found was there was a great wisdom and depth
to the concept of Orchestrating the Organization that already
incorporated the understand and needs of the creative spirit. Little
change was necessary. Rather, the foundation for the Orchestrating
the Organization approach was strengthened, deepened and refined.
Origins
for organizational creativity (Top)
As stated above in the discussion
of the occasion for creating
Organizational Creativity, for years the author was trying to
resolve a disconnect he observed between what he was taught as a
manager and how he was expected to manage and what he knew about
integrating the individual to the workplace and the organization.
The disconnect was first observed in
his college experience as the Naval Reserve Officer Training
Corps Band Company Commander.
Yet the seeds for the disconnect were planted about a year earlier.
The origins of
Organizational Creativity lie in a single statement made the
author’s undergraduate Physics Department Chairman, Dr. Beiduk.
During the course of a discussion with the Department Chairman,
Dr. Beiduk said, “It is in your postulates you find your problems.”
Although the discussion was about explaining physics anomalies, the
author expanded its application to any situation that failed to
unfold as he expected. The author began to look at what
organizations, situations, people and the like did not response as
expected and why. The author began to look at the assumptions he or
others were making about the situation. What he found surprised him
The author’s first management application of this principle was
experienced within a year as the Naval Reserve Officer Training
Corps Band Company Commander
described elsewhere. The overwhelming success of this experience
caused the author to look at any management situation as
orchestrating a orchestra. Exactly what this means is described
under the topic, “Orchestrating
the Organization.” At the time, he didn’t know why it worked but
it caused him to be reasonable successful as a manager. That
approach helped him to advance to oversee three of the Departments
of Energy’s then premier laboratories as the
Acting Director of the Office of Research, Development and Testing
Facilities, Defense Programs.
The author started a
conscious journey into organizational creativity as a result of
about six years of trying to fix the issues identified in a 1987
Report by the National Academy of Sciences review of the Department
of Energy’s nuclear facilities and operations. For years the author
followed the Department’s and prescribed organizational and
management lead as to how to approach the issues with marginal
success. Success much less that he felt was appropriate. He knew
something was missing. He began to question his assumptions and
those of the organization.
In essence he was asked to address the issues in the way the
organization and the management gurus thought they needed to be
fixed. There was little or no creative exploration to see if what
the organization thought they needed to do would really fix what was
needed. Yet, nothing the organization was doing allowed and provided
for the effectiveness desired. The solution they wanted would not
fix the problem they faced. The organization was trying to use the
same mind that created the problem to fix the problem. That cannot
be done. The author found the organization lacked sufficient
organizational creativity to truly think creatively and to think
“out of the box” to fix the problems. Most individuals were captured
by the organizational
mind set and/or tunnel vision of one sort or another.
What this actually meant in practical terms was the organization
lacked the ability to give the individuals the space to find truly
creative solutions. It was too encumbered by the way it thought
it had to address problems and solutions. More often than not, what
was perceived as constraint such as laws regulations, funding levels
and the like as the limitation on what could be done where not the
constraints. The constraints were the limitations the individual’s
own minds were creating about the situations they faced. Quite
simply, the organization could not become sufficiently creative. So
the question became “How does one create the organizational
creativity that would allow the organization to find the solutions
it needed?” So the author begin to take a serious look at what
assumptions were being made about how an organization should be.
To explain the “why” the author initiated a review of prevalent
management approaches and philosophies. To explore the creative
needs, he began to look at the human development option through
training and qualification of technical personal.
The review of prevalent management approaches and philosophies was
to look for the common attributes. The idea was to educate the staff
on the core attributes that were common to the various management
approaches and integrate that training with the technical training.
That in turn, would hopefully help make change in management
philosophy easier to implement at all levels. A discussion of that
adventure and surprise finding is provided in the topic, “A
Search for Common Attributes.”
Since training and qualification was identified as one of the most
significant issues the organization face which required a fix, that
is where the author began to explore organizational creativity. The
author began an exploration of accelerated learning techniques in
the hope finding more creative and effective was of dealing with the
identified training issues. At the time the author began to explore
accelerated learning, it was already clear from the
Laboratory Integration Prioritization System project that
managers did not necessarily want to see the facts and/or the truth
of a situation. The issue was perceive by most to only be a training
and qualification issue. Yet why managers developed a blindness and
a particular type of tunnel vison relative to the facts and facing
the situation at hand as it existed, had yet to be revealed.
When the author stumbled into the
Ultimate Accident and become aware of the
creative spirit his whole
reason for originally taking employment at the Department of Energy
took new meaning. In digesting the “Essential
Finding Within the Calling,” the author realizes exactly what
was missing in the management approach taken by the Department of
Energy and prevalent management and organizational thinking relative
to the
health and safety issues raised by the National Academy of Sciences
and which he experienced throughout his management career. In
addition, he saw the reason for the disconnect in management theory
and philosophy and what he experienced in the workplace since
his college experience.
As stated above in the discussion of the occasion for creating
Organizational Creativity these observation gave rise to
documenting his management lessons learned to that date in the
Orchestrating the Organization approach. The issue centered on
properly and effectively integrating and aligning the individual
with the organization which paralleled the prevalent view of
management and organizational theories. However, subsequent
investigation into the concept of the
creative spirit revealed that there is a “business
to our life” that we need to attend and that there is an
intention for our life that gives rise to our
creative passion. It was discovered that is these are not
addressed in some way by the life we live, including our work life,
we will not find an
inner happiness in life and may even cause some form of
accident, illness disease or other misfortune to occur in our
life. It was found to address the business of our life and/or the
intention for our life, we needed to develop and
intimate relationship with
our creative spirit and
nurture it needs.
Normally these concerns our are not considered something which
involved the workplace. That is until we decide to have our accident
at work or create a work related illness because our occupation is
going so far opposite the business of our life. The author had spend
many years look at accident scenarios, emergencies, disasters and
the like in a variety of professional capacities as a investigator,
inspector, emergency preparedness coordinator, trainer, safety
officer and as a manager. It was these realizations and their impact
on workplace safety that prompted the author to retire and
investigate this creative spirit in greater detail for it was
something missing in all of the organization systems at which he
looked.
Incorporating the lesson learned from this journey to explore
creativity and the creative spirt is captured in the
Organizational Creativity and related
applications web sites.
Related topics
Understanding from where a creation ultimately comes
Pieces of the puzzle
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