I had the pleasure of reading a recent article by Beth Comstock, Chief Marketing Office of GE, in the more recent editing of the Harvard Business Review. The focus of the article was the changing world of the social enterprise and how that changes employee training, education and interaction with management… consumers… and the world.
Long story short, it is about “figuring it out.”
In the article, Beth talks about how GE “has been inspired by an ethos that we have witnessed in the world of social enterprise – the belief that if you hire smart people, they should be able to “figure it out.”
As managers, employers and business owners – do we hold the belief that smart people will figure everything out? I would hope… Yes! Smart people want to learn and drive towards creative innovation… no matter the industry or job. It is about figuring it out not waiting for the answer.
Beth continues, “As leaders and managers, we have to motivate our people to come up with workable solutions to problems that weren’t even on the radar when they were hired. There’s no operators manual for most of what we’ll ask people to work on. But somehow, together, we will figure it out.”
There is no operators manual for creative innovation.
The operators manual has always been fundamental to success (of any business) but taking (and understanding) action is even more important now… than ever before. The two work hand-in-hand. We focus time and energy on education and training at the beginning of a job…. when the failure is in our inability to educate an individual on the importance of fluid change both personally and professionally.
Creative training is the fundamental idea that educational development of any employee grows with their ability to act on impulse and with certainty based on changes within an economy, country, product or company.
In the marketing world, we can no longer build success by conforming to rules and educational standards. It is important that we move, act, and learn with the changing world… without stopping and watching.
Because if you stand and watch… make excuses… you die.
Kira
This is an interesting post… Very high-level thinking. Will you also share a link to the article by Beth Comstock that you reference? Might be helpful to have full context of where your thoughts are coming from.
As a business student who also works within the culture of a small creative agency, I struggle with this concept. I come from business heavy background where there is a popular saying "don't reinvent the wheel" if you already have something to use as a jumping point or template when it comes to certain tasks… on the flip side, my current company is truly about innovation and creativity in the sense that there is a preference to always approach something with new a new and fresh perspective even if it is a project that is similar to one that was done in the past…
This phrase you mention: "Creative training is the fundamental idea that educational development of any employee grows with their ability to act on impulse and with certainty based on changes within an economy, country, product or company." This seems like a key in trying to crack the code between balancing the business mind (for efficiency, automation when it makes sense, etc) versus the creative mind that likes to innovate while throwing old ideas out the window. But how do we do this? What is another way of defining the process for Creative Training?
Kameel Vohra
This reminds me of another article I read, which espoused the idea of everyone in a company being an Entrepreneur. It’s a great idea but requires management to take the risk of such culture change, and employees to take the risk of suggesting new ideas (instead of playing it safe). Which is perhaps why there’s such a big push towards Activity Based Working, and other forms of “creative/innovation friendly” office setups?