Middle Way Management, Creativity and Innovation

In my last post, I considered Middle Way Management™ and active decision making. Not only is this an expectation of managers in American-style organizations, it's the starting point of the moral imperative at the heart of creating the vision so necessary for developing motivation and promoting teamwork. In this post, I will be looking at how creativity and innovation are crucial aspects of your Middle Way Management practice.

All Organizations Great and Small, the Lord God Made Them All
I've held management positions in organizations of all sizes. While my experiences working for small, entrepreneurial organizations have been, um, interesting, they were at least dynamic and innovative, which required me to be creative in my approach. It has been my observation that the larger the organization, the more conservative the approach--to everything. From fiscal policies to marketing efforts, IT strategies to sales tactics, larger organizations move slower and take vastly more time to accomplish just about everything.

I once worked for a large organization that experienced several critical database failures during one of the busiest (i.e., revenue producing) business cycles of the year. These failures were putting the entire organization at risk. My team quickly came up with three solutions that would solve the problem and move the organization forward. Until my peer managers began calling meeting after meeting after meeting after meeting to "address the issue."

While I believe collaboration and inclusion are fundamental aspects of Middle Way Management, we were holding meetings to discuss when the next meetings would be held. The result? After three days of nearly catastrophic failures, thirty-nine, that's right - thirty-nine (39) - options for solving the problem were proposed. In the end, we implemented the original three proposed by my team, thereby preventing the organization from refunding $10 million in booked revenue.

My point here is that some organizational members (typically managers) often confuse doing "something, anything" with creativity and/or innovation. Being busy does not mean you are being productive, it just means you're busy. Both creativity and innovation come with preparation, reflective thought, patience, and vision, hallmarks one and all of the true Middle Way Manager™.

Creativity is Risky, Innovation Expensive
I say that creativity is risky because it takes special effort, effort that is not always completely aligned with standard organizational processes and procedures, to develop and exercise solutions "outside the box." Most American-style organizations are risk-averse and would prefer cash to flow in the general direction of stockholders (not necessarily stakeholders), rather than into innovative programs and projects. Of course, without creativity, innovation is simply not possible.

Many organizations prefer to acquire innovation that has already been proven, thereby absorbing creativity with less risk and innovating without the enormous cost of development, test marketing, and hopeful rollout. Yet, this approach is not without its own set of risks, including product or service stagnation and eventual (inevitable?) market share decline. The decision to encourage creativity and innovation is mostly determined by the organization's culture and its collective attitude toward both. If innovation through acquisition is the preferred method, then the Middle Way Manager will find ways to foster creativity and encourage innovation at a smaller scale within, for instance, project boundaries.

Fostering Creativity, Encouraging Innovation
The Middle Way Manager knows that people are at their best when they are working creatively to innovate. This can be something as small as the refinement of a particular business process or as large as the specification of a new product or service. When people are allowed the freedom to be creative and are encouraged to innovate, they develop a sense of accomplishment that keeps them excited about the vision you have created. This develops the holy grail of team member "buy-in," which, of course, is something that can't be bought--at any price. This sort of commitment alleviates suffering among your team members because they become emotionally involved and link their personal progress with the organization's.

As a practicing Middle Way Manager, you know by now that supplying vision for your team is not only a management obligation, it's a moral imperative. And vision requires creativity, even if your organization is conservative in its approach to innovation. Exercising creativity will help you tailor your vision to the organization's goals and objectives while presenting scenarios that excite and motivate your team.

I once managed a team of programmers tasked with creating a Web-based wizard that was the front-end of a new product. I knew my team and I knew my organization, so I set the challenge before the team and let them work through the specification process without my initial involvement. In the end, they came up with some great ideas that later became the foundation of the wizard for a suite of online products that produced solid revenues for the company. They were allowed to exercise their creative muscles and they introduced an innovative product that was their "baby". It was a win-win-win all the way around.

I've just scratched the surface here regarding Middle Way Management, creativity and innovation. The most important lesson in all of this is how you are able as a Middle Way Manager to relieve team member suffering by fostering creativity and encouraging innovation, even when the organizational environment doesn't necessarily promote expansive innovation. In the end, creativity and innovation are where you find them. Fortunately, your Middle Way Management practice will help you find them just about everywhere.

In my next post, I will consider Middle Way Management and the "Magic Mirror". How we see others is often a reflection of how we see ourselves.

Until then...

Onward! Darin

Copyright © 2009, Darin R. Molnar, PhD. All rights reserved.