It outlines the best practices in Management Consulting Expertise, mainly when it comes to triggering and stimulating creativity within organizations. It sheds the light on what really influence our creative thinking and how it would affect businesses’ products and services provided within an innovative work frame. It highlights the role of organizations’ culture, the working environment, managers’ roles, in addition to our surroundings in shaping our creativity.

1. JOOSTKADIJK
RotterdamArea,Netherlands
HABIBABOUSALEH
Grenoble,France
How to
Stimulate
Creativity in
Organizations?
This log book outlines the best practices in
Management Consulting Expertise, mainly
when it comes to triggering and stimulating
creativity within organizations. It shedsthe light
on what really influence our creative thinking
and how it would affect businesses’ products
and services provided within an innovative
work frame. It highlights the role of
organizations’ culture, the working
environment, managers’roles, in addition to our
surroundings in shaping our creativity.

2. Introduction
We live in today’s world where the old fashioned
way of conducting business is no longer exist.
Technological advancements and globalization
have shaped our lives and the way business is
conducted. New business models have replaced
the old ones in order to secure survival in today’s
business market, and its fierce competition.
Succeeding is no longer an easy task to achieve,
as it requires leading through dynamically
complex and volatile environment where
individuals and members are driven by
operational excellence and collaboration across
different functions and departments within an
organization, while developing higher quality
leadership, talents and creativity to unleash new
potentials and possibilities.
If we really take a moment to look around us,
observe and think, we can get to the conclusion
that our surroundings and every aspects of our
environment are the result of creativity and
creative thinking. We are the consequences of
continuous accumulated knowledge,
expertise, motivations and creative thinking
skills, which all together constitute the core
major components of creativity.
Businesses, organizations and corporations
are seeking adaptation to the continuously
evolving situation, mainly through their
employees as they are considered the most
valuable asset, by embracing creative
thinking. Creative people have the potentials
and capacities to approach problems and
solutions from different perspectives,
putting ideas together in new combinations,
and thus creating and adding more value to
their work. It should be noted that the skills
itself mainly depends on personality as well
on how every individual thinks and works.
Having that in mind, the main question that
arise is: How to create the adequate fertile
environment for creativity to grow, prosper
and be stimulated all the time for better
outcomes?

3. What Triggers Our
Creativity?
Before getting any deeper in our journey, it
is crucial to shed the light on the main
factors that influences our creativity prior
creating a framework on how to stimulate it.
Human’s mind is a dynamic interactive
interface powered by our senses which
ensure our interaction, level of involvement
and contribution to the environment we live
in, and with the individuals surrounding us.
Perceiving the world around us is mainly
governed by our processing styles, whether
holistic or detailed oriented, which is one of
the most important factors influencing our
creative thinking.
According to Scott Barry Kaufman (2011),
there are situational factors beyond our
personality which play an essential role in
the type of processing styles we adopt on
moment to moment basis. It is continuously
shifting without our own awareness due to
our continuous interaction through our
senses, with the way we observe, touch,
taste, listen or even smell. They all affect
our analytical thoughts, and most
importantly our creativity. As our senses are
the result of continuous refining process
governed by our surroundings,
understanding our environment is a key
element to boost our creativity. So the next
time we need to be creative, we should have
a look around us and start taking notes of
our environment. This will give us the
opportunity to soar to new creative heights.
Getting back to our journey and the main
question we are addressing: “How to
stimulatecreativitywithinorganizations?”
we notice that understanding the business
environment from every aspect and
adapting it within suitable fertile
framework is a key element in stimulating
creativity, especially within organizations.
Stimulating Creativity within
Organizations
According to Masnan and al. (2008), IBM
Global Business (2015), business and
organizations around the world agree that the
most valuable asset is their human capital which
contributes to everyday’s development and
business competitiveness. As a result, embracing
the path of innovation within their industries and
businesses, mainly when it comes to creating and
adding values to the products and services
provided is a must. In addition, understanding
that the authentic outcomes of creativity is
innovation, organizations tend to stimulate
creativity to boost innovation among their
employees. There are several paths that need to
be taken into consideration and treated seriously
within a certain framework in order to achieve
this aim. Each touch point below will be part of
our journey.

4. Organizational Culture: According to
Stimulating creativity within
organizations requires involvement on all
levels from top management to the
smallest position. All staff and top
management need to be creative and
innovative in their main functions. For this
reasons, it is essential to have the most
adequate organizational culture to be
absorbed by every member of the
subordinates. According to Martin and al.
(2003) organizational culture plays a vital
role in the success of any organization as
it provides the necessary framework to
absorb creativity which leads to
innovation into the organizational culture
and management processes. The social
interaction among individuals within
organizations allow them to embrace what
is acceptable and which norms, values and
functions should be adopted after
internally assessing them to figure out
what would lead to creative outputs and go
along how the organization operates.
It also highlight the importance of being
These norms, values and function at a later stage
will be reflected into policies, management
structures and procedures. Organizational culture
can be addressed into five main touching points
which have a great influence:
Strategy: Proper understanding of the company
shared vision and mission which is focused on
future is essential to motivate employees to be
creative especially if it is built around a certain
framework that stimulate creative thinking.
Structure: A diversified well-structured teams
have a great influence on the level of creativity
that takes place within the working environment
inside any organization. Diversified
complementary talents within individuals push
creativity to different heights. Individuals’
relationship should be based on respect and trust
with high level of openness to others’ points of
views, ideas and perspectives no matter how
different they can be, not to forget the effective
channels of communications.

5. Encouraging Creative Behavior & Means
of Support: It is essential to create the
suitable incentives for creativity. Rewards
and recognition is a must but at the same
time high level of attention need to be
addressed as rewarding is different from an
individual to another and not necessary lead
to stimulating creative work. Rewarding
systems need to be matched with each
individuals’ personality to get the best
outcomes.
Communication: Open and transparent
communication policies based on trust and
respect have a great influence motivating
and stimulating creativity. Open door
policy without any hierarchy barriers open
up the flow of ideas and creative thinking.
All these element once merged together in a
fruitful frame help to create a genuine
organizational culture that triggers
creativity and creative thinking, leading to
innovation which add values to businesses,
organizations, communities and certainly
societies.
Organizations’ Working Environment:
According to Richard Branson, the author
and founder of Virgin Group, a “healthy
company culture starts with treating your
employees the way you want to be treated”.
From this perspective, and according to
Richard Florida and Jim Goodnight
(2005), it is important to value the work
over tools by help employees to show their
best at work, stimulate their minds, reward
excellence with challenges rather than
materialistic incentives, and minimize the
hassles at work.
Help Employees do Their Best: Creative
people at work are mainly driven by two
key elements: love and challenges.
Regardless of their daily functional tasks or
the department they belong to, they crave
the feeling of accomplishments once the task is
completed and they starve for another
challenge due to their inner energy which is
wrapped with love to the job they do or the
function they occupy. As most researchers and
among them Hirst, G. et al (2011) agree that
bureaucratic practices constrain and limit
creativity to a great extent. Tension always
been and will always be an impediment that
hinders creative thinking within an
organizations. So in order to keep employees
engaged, and clear petty obstacles of their way
so they shine, organization should eliminate
bureaucracy as a first step toward creative
thinking.
Stimulate Minds: Superior performance and
better products or services are the
consequences of energized mental abilities.
Understanding the methodology of continuous
learning and challenges involved to motivate
employees is crucial for stimulating their minds
by putting them in a challenging working
environment, faced with new dilemmas and
interesting tasks.

6. Understanding each employees mind sets,
capabilities and potentials is also essential
in addressing the type and the level of
challenges presented as every individual is
unique. What interest one person might not
necessarily interest others. For this reason,
finding the right intrinsic motivator for
each person is important to help employees
realize their goals.
Eliminate Hassles and Distractions:
Obstacles and distractions that waste time
in today’s business environment hinder at
the same moment the flow of creative
thinking. As much creative people like to
be challenged on a daily basis while being
creative, they hate having their creative
thinking being stopped as a result of
obstacles or any type of distraction. The
more companies facilitate employees’ lives,
whether during or outside the working
hours can promote and contribute to
creative work. Surveys can be an insight
toward what employees foresee as obstacles
and source of distraction, which might help
companies know how to react, minimize or
even eliminate what is necessary. The
implementations can be decided or
constraint to the benefits generated from
such actions. Big companies can take it to
the next level, beyond the working hours by
trying to solve employees’ daily living
concerns which keep their minds occupied
with the what life these days involves.
Having a private company campus with all
the necessary facilities such as schools,
hospitals, shopping centers and malls,
clinics, cafeteria, recreational facilities,
family restaurants would unleash the
suppressed mental potentials of the
employees, by reducing stress, time and
creating more opportunities for more family
time.
creativity space. Not only this can add value to
the company business by creating sub-
businesses, but at the same time, it can be a source
of comfort for employees by bringing them in
into a bigger comfort zone similar to theirs.
Managers’ Roles in triggering Creativity:
According to Amabile (1998), managers play a
vital role in assuring company culture and
boosting creativity when they strive as a team
toward the same goals of providing superior
products or services. They are the link between
top management and employees where company
vision, strategies, policies and procedures are
communicated through them in order to promote
the organization culture. They have the power to
bring people together, and facilitate the exchange
of ideas. Finding the right roles and the suitable
people for managerial positions are important to
spark the creativity of people around them.
Feedback and questions & answers sessions
might have a great influence. In addition,
foreseeing and procuring what is needed ahead of
time can facilitate the working process and
eliminate some obstacles which cause time,
money and effort loss.

7. Avoiding penalizing employees for making
innocent and honest mistake can help mangers
in promoting creativity.
Customers’ Roles in Triggering Creativity:
According to Leiman and al. (2013),
Clients/customers in today’s dynamic business
environment play an essential role in boosting
creativity and innovation within the
consumers’ industries, as most of the products
and services are mainly created for the sake of
consumers. Engaging them within the circular
cycle of the business, and letting them be heard
clearly, would save time and money especially
when it comes to innovation and creativity.
They will clearly identity the flaws in the
products and services provided and how to
Overcome such issues and defects.
Embracing this role with the appropriate
style of management is vital to guarantee
the flows of feedback within the business
from the consumers to the adequate
designated department. Consumers’
feedback through the online websites,
reviews, complains, customers support, or
even through the phone or face to face
would constitute the input channels for
improvements. The immediate actions
taken as a reaction to the consumers’ input
are very important to stay in the loop in the
appropriate time, otherwise the inputs
received from these channels will be
outdated and serve no purposes.
Environment Role in Triggering
Creativity: Whether we are consumers,
employees, managers, senior managers,
stockholders, or individuals, we are the
creation of our environment as since our
early age, we are exposed, influenced and
sharpened by our surroundings. As human
capital is the main creativity motor of
creative outcomes within organizations,
it central to mention the influence of environment
with all what it involves from cultures, customs,
believes, habits, norms and traditions in shaping
each one of us in a unique way, and affecting in a
way our creativity.
Conclusion
The creative business world has emerged and it is
here to stay. Stimulating creativity on a first level
and then managing it, is a key factor in securing a
competitive advantage and being differentiated in
the rising competitive world especially with the
current continuously evolving technological
advancements, side by side with globalization.
Careful considerations of all previously
mentioned factors is a must, especially within
organizations to create creative company cultures,
properly communicate and embrace them by all
employees on every level, all the way from top
down. Managers should also be aware of their role
in communicating creativity and boosting it from
every aspect. Consumers should always be part of
the equation since our businesses wouldn’t
survive without them or even wouldn’t exist.

8. References
[1] Maz Jamilah, Masnan et al. 'Role of Organizational Culture in Stimulating Creativity and Innovation among Engineering Students'. Universiti Malaysia Perlis (2008). Web:
http://dspace.unimap.edu.my/xmlui/handle/123456789/5820, lastly Accessed: 25Apr. 2015.
[2] Rubin, Jim. 'Creativity Research Journal: Technology's Impact on the Creative Potential of Youth'. Routledge: Taylor& Francis Online (2012). Web:
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10400419.2012.677370, lastly Accessed:25 Apr. 2015.
[3] Amabile, Teresa. 'How to Kill Creativity'. Harvard Business Review. N.p., 1998. Web: https://hbr.org/1998/09/how-to-kill-creativity/ar/1 , lastly Accessed: 25 Apr. 2015.
[4] Hirst, G. et al. 'How Does Bureaucracy Impact Individual Creativity? A Cross-Level Investigation of Team Contextual Influences on Goal Orientation-Creativity Relationships'.
Academy of Management Journal 54.3 (2011): 624-641. Web: http://amj.aom.org/content/54/3/624.short, Lastly Accessed 25 Apr. 2015.
[5] Kaufman, Scott Barry. 'How Our Senses Influence Creativity'. Psychological Inquiry (2011): Web: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/beautiful-minds/201108/how-our-
senses-influence-creativity, lastly Accessed: 25 Apr. 2015.
[6] Martins, E.C.,Terblanche, F., (2003). ‘Building organizational culture that stimulates Creativity and innovation’. European Journal of Innovation Management,Vol6 (1), 64-
74.
[7] Almquist, Eric, Mitchell Leiman, Darrell Rigby and Alex Roth. “Taking the measure of your innovation performance.” Insights. Bain & Company. May 8, 2013. Web:
http://www.bain.com/publications/articles/ taking-the-measure-of-your-innovation-performance.aspx
Lastly Accessed:1 May 2015
[8] IBM Global Business Services. 'More Than Magic - How the Most SuccessfulOrganizations Innovate'. N.p., 2015. Web: http://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/cgi-
bin/ssialias?htmlfid=GBE03625USEN&appname=skmwww. Lastly Accessed:1 May 2015.
[9] Florida, Richard, and Jim Goodnight. 'Managing For Creativity'. Harvard Business Review. N.p., 2005. Web. https://hbr.org/2005/07/managing-for-creativity. Lastly accessed:
11 May 2015.