Respond to 3of your colleagues in one or more of the following ways:
POST1
In the required reading title How Pixtar Fosters Collective Creativity Catmull noted some principles for managing a creative organization that I found very interest out the five mention I will only touch on three organizational principles at Pixar that support a workplace environment where employees can implement creative solutions to problems:
Out of the three that I have mentioned above I have selected one principle that I am familiar with that could be implemented at my organization to improve creativity and the implementation of creative solutions. The one that would be beneficial I would have to say is craft a learning environment which will reinforce the mind-set that are we are as strong as a company as our counterparts.
I have learned from being at the girl scouts that when I created a learning environment I eliminated so many error on one hand but on the other hand the staff in the other departments was grateful for the training which enable them to do his or her job appropriately instead of just getting by in hopes that what they were doing would not blow up in their face. No matter what he or she skills set maybe we all at some point can benefit from a learning environment to strengthen our skills or provide us with the necessary tools to either get a promotion or better yet give him or her a sense of security.
I have done contracts for over 26 years so it was common for me to know what to look for when I was negotiating a contract so that at the end of the day I protected the company; but when you put the task on employees that dont have a legal background or have never in their previous position been involved with contracts you leave room for error even though a template has been given to apply for the current situation.
As a Director of contracts and administrative services I made it my business to not only create a learning environment but also create a peer culture through my training class that each employee felt comfortable asking for helping without the fear that he or she didnt know what they are doing by saying I have been doing contracts for a long time and with the change in times I too am in need of cross training or retraining as laws has change I dont know everything and I am not expecting you all to know everything but what I am expecting is that we lean on one another to get the job done and there is no dumb question just the one that has not been asked. With that stated all guards were dropped and the willingness to work together was a working process that in the end before I retired was a good implementation.
As stated from the required reading in creating a peer culture it helps people get over any embarrassment about sharing unfinished work (Catmull 2008 p.1) or appearing as though they have no clue in what he or she is doing and in the sense of crafting a learning environment in doing such it trains people in multiple skills as they advance in their career (Catmull 2008 p.1) or better said provide a necessary tool that he or she is lacking to complete the task at hand.
POST 2
There were three organizational principles from the Pixar article that I highlighted:
The principle I chose that could be implemented at my current organization to improve creativity and the implementation of creative solutions would be choice A. It would be beneficial to apply this principle at my company because often I feel creativity is being stifled by having to go through the proper channels (Catmull 2008). For example I had an idea about possible fundraisers I presented it to my local manager and he referred me to the District Manager who then referred me to the Regional Manager. I had to keep talking to higher ranked officials because my idea was non-traditional meaning they had never done anything like it before. By the time I spoke to the third person up the chain I was uninspired and exhausted with how difficult it was to express myself. This round-a-bout way of communicating hinders the creative process which is why I chose this principle.
The concept of being able to talk to anyone regardless of hierarchy would help my organization significantly when trying to develop creative solutions to our troubles — specifically our lack of financial resources for hosting events. My company builds some of the best quality homes in Alabama Georgia South Carolina and North Carolina but we are deficient in the creativity department. Using this freedom to communicate principle will eliminate many of the hurdles and barriers employees face when trying to be heard. Most managers you talk to will instantly blurt out go talk to Mr. SuchandSuch to get that approved. The creative thinking process should not be complicated and it should not require the permission of several people.
If I were to implement this principle I would expect to see more employee engagement enthusiasm to share possible solutions lower turnover and higher job satisfaction. To put this principle into play I would inform all managers to stop referring associates elsewhere and to listen to each persons contributions. I would kindly discuss the adverse effects of ignoring workers as they are sharing strategies that may help to reduce problems in the future. I will explain to the team as a whole that being dismissive of others ideas is not acceptable and could delay our creative thinking process.
Our organization brings in new people with fresh perspectives all the time and if we tune out their original thoughts we could be missing out on the breakthrough we need to beat the competitors. There are about 25 other home building companies in my area so we have to fight to stay ahead of the competition by finding creative solutions to our obstacles. The most efficient way to resolve the numerous problems that arise in any complex project is to trust people to address difficulties directly without having to get permission (Catmull 2008). Once our managers take ownership of the problems and solutions that are being presented to them we will be well on our way to discovering and implementing the best creative solutions to our problems.