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A lot of companies struggle to create an environment that produces and encourages creativity. The creativity must start from the top down, this usually begins with executives encouraging creativity from their direct reports and so on all the way down to the staff level of the organization. I believe a lot of organizations restrict and compress individual and team creativity thinking that their cookie cutter approach or standard operations procedures that were created by the organization five to ten years ago are the best approach to work and solve problems day in and day out. Some parts of the company that I work for is stuck in the old paradigm of how to work and is told by Directors and Manager what to do and how to do it leaving no room for creativity. At times, these approaches on how to do tasks are ineffective and inefficient and with a little bit of creativity can make the process more efficient. Some employees that are performing the task bring a new approach and can see ways on how to improve the task, but they are afraid of speaking up or being rejected for their proposal because their report does not foster creative culture. Hindering creativity in individuals and teams can be a disadvantage for organizations. Fostering creative culture allows people to think creatively and produce better solutions and decisions, creativity results in people looking at things differently. Research shows that, in contrast to the average person, creative people seem better able to do things such as abstracting, imaging, synthesizing, recognizing patterns, and empathizing. They also are good intuitive decision makers, know how to take advantage of innovative ideas, and can break old paradigms or ways of thinking and make decisions that

sometimes seem to fly in the face of rationality (237). Creativity in the organization allows their employees to be able to think of new ways of how to operate and this can lead into job satisfaction and as sense of purpose behind their job, This can lead to a boomerang effect regarding employee satisfaction. If managers claim to want participation from their people but never let them become intellectually and emotionally involved and never use their suggestions, the results may be negative (237). Instilling the creativity mindset with individuals and work teams can help the organization on producing more effective ways to operate and produce products. At my current organization, depending on the Director creativity is not always encouraged. I think there needs to be a push from the above to reshape some of the Directors mindset. I think having a weekly or monthly general or huddle meeting with your team to see if any one on the team has any innovative ideas or concerns on how the team can be more effective and efficient on their projects and daily tasks. This open floor type of meeting can help foster creativity within the team and allows them to get feedback on whether their ideas can be implemented by the team and organization as whole. This feedback should not be negative in any sort, this should be a way to help them increase creativity and get positive feedback on how they can grow and evolve their ideas. Culture is no way easy to build and does not happening over night, but leaders must treat culture building like creativity as a priority to build a great culture which can lead to a powerful competitive advantage.