... and given the current business scenario that we are in, we cannot afford to allow that creativity be threatened.
Teresa Amabile writes about this in a blog at HBR.Org. Creativity is threatened whenever the elements that promote creativity are threatened. From the CFO's viewpoint, the curtailment of these elements may very well be financially sound or logical - but curtailing creativity for the sake of financial goals is certainly very myopic.
Cutting down on elements that induce, facilitate, and catalyze creativity could very well result to savings for the quarter and appease angry shareholders. But the consequences that will emerge beyond the quarter or the year far outweigh the short-term benefits.
What are the elements that companies should protect in order to ensure that creativity could and would save the day? Amabile identifies three:
1. Smart people who think differently - or people who somehow have a repository of untapped knowledge and untapped stories. Or people who see the crisis as a crisis and an opportunity to do better.
2. Passionate engagement - or letting people do what they love.
3. A creative atmosphere - or an atmosphere where people are encouraged to experiment, take considered and calculated risks, and where fear of failure is not the defining feeling.
I hope that CEOs and other C-level execs would heed Amabile's advice.
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