Most often, the defining moment of any company is how customers perceive it. This is collectively built by each and every employee of the company. No amount of slogans, vision statements, off-site sessions, motivational posters can help if the culture is not intrinsically linked with what everybody in the company thinks and does everyday! Customers will come to know if you don't have one.
The creative capital of a company is its people. This article from Harvard Business Review brings this point across very well. We can get better raw materials, build a better factory in a tax free state, build innovative distribution channnels but increasingly people are becoming scarce resources.
Unleashing people's creativity and striving to give their best to the company is the challenge most companies face today. Here are some golden rules:
- Help employees to accomplish something everyday
- Don't get employees to typeout/execute your solution. Question them so that they can come out with answers better than yours
- Breakdown bureaucratic barriers
- Stimulate their minds
- Inspire them to do it rather than coercing them to do it
- Creative cannot be shoehorned between nine to five. Be flexible.
- After working hours, get them to disconnect from work everyday
- No artifical dichotomy between "suites" and "creatives"
- If you are a boss, do some jobs yourself. Let people know how well you can do it
- Constructive criticism must be welcome
Go ahead do a reality check of how employees feel in your organization now. Better still, check with your customers!
Thank Steve for stimulating my morning.