Motivating Creativity in Organizations

• Because a positive sense of challenge in the work is one of the most important predictors of creativity, it is imperative to match people to work that utilizes their skills, stretches their skills, and is clearly valued by the organization. As much as possible, all work should be designed to maxi- mize intrinsically motivating aspects.

• Organizations must demonstrate a strong orientation toward innovation, which is clearly communicated and enacted, from the highest levels of management, throughout the organization.

• Organizations should orient themselves toward the generation, com- munication, careful consideration, and development of new ideas. This includes fair, constructive judgment of ideas, non-controlling reward and recognition for creative work, mechanisms for developing new ideas, and an aaive flow of ideas. It excludes turf battles, conservatism, and exces- sively negative criticism of new ideas.

• Work groups should be constituted of diversely skilled individuals with a shared intrinsic motivation for their work and a willingness to both share and constructively criticize each other’s ideas. These groups should be led by supervisors who clearly set overall goals for projects but allow opera- tional autonomy in achieving those goals. Performance feedback should be highly informational and work-focused.

• People should be given at least adequate resources to carry out their work, and at least minimally sufficient time to consider alternative approaches.

Organizational leaders and managers must begin to think of human motivation at work as a complex system where it is possible to achieve synergy between persons and their work environments, and between the different types of motivation. The system is complex, but it is not unknowable. We already know much about how to nurture the motivation for creativity, and we are learning more every day.