I came across this article which talks about how some organizations promote an environment of deliberate contempt and disobedience in the workplace. Specifically it talks about that fact that in creative workplaces senior managers frequently don't recognize good ideas and then kill them, along with any potential revenues they may bring.
A perfect example of this can be seen in 3M's development of Masking Tape. The engineer working on the product, despite being told repeatedly to stop working on it and let it go, didn't, and the product is something we all know and love today.
An interesting offshoot from this event within the 3M organization, is that now the creative folks can spend 15% of the working time on whatever project or idea they choose, without question. What a great idea this is, I wonder how many interesting products have come out of that organization because of that rule? Seems like an awesome idea to me.
I remember reading a book many years ago Slack, Tom DeMarco) which talks through all of the benefits of leaving some open time in the working schedules of your employees, creativity is better, productivity is better and overall the results seem to favor happier, less burned out employees (as well as a better bottom line).
I have personally experienced the gambit of environments, from the insanely creative and employee driven, to the stereotypical pressure cooker where the only acceptable results were nothing more and nothing less than was originally requested. I can attest to the Slack theory and have seen the sorts of results that can come as a result of that. If we have worked together in any of these places, you have probably experienced what would be described at 3M as deliberate defiance. In the right environment, this has worked really well for me. The trick is to create the right environment I guess.
So many thing's go into the creation of the right environment. Godin writes about the various drivers that are often found at the root of an organizations being. I fully believe that an organization with the wrong driver at heart, will never create the right environment for its employees or customers. This organization WILL miss out on the big success that might otherwise await it.
On a completely separate note, this time to the ultimate destroyer of great corporate ideas: Happy 20th Birthday to Microsoft's PowerPoint. See my previous post with some ideas on how to make this better.
Technorati Tags: 3m, creativity, design, getting things done, gtd, happiness, lifehacks, productivity, seth godin, slack, tom demarco
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