Published August 16, 2024 in Leadership ā¢ 5 min read
When LEGO Chairman and former CEO JĆørgen Vig Knudstorp was asked about the culture he wanted to build as the maker of toy bricks, he had a simple answer: āThe culture Iām trying to create is one where every year, when we celebrate another record result, I get up on the beer box and say, āThank you for doing all of the things I never asked you to do.ā I donāt want to control. I want to create context. I want to create clarity of culture and strategic choice, but then I want people to surprise me.ā
His message is clear: if you want your employees to express their creativity, you need to build corporate playgrounds where people feel empowered and are given time to experiment, take risks, and embrace failure.
Vig Knudstorp became CEO of the Danish toymaker in 2004, shortly after the company had a brush with bankruptcy. By fostering a culture that led to creative breakthroughs ā such as the launch of a new product line, LEGO Friends, targeted at girls, and the LEGO Ideas Platform, which invites fans to submit their designs for LEGO sets ā he was able to turn yearly losses into a healthy profit and ensure the survival of the iconic brand.
A decade later, the challenges brought by climate change, rising inequality, and rapid technological advances are forcing businesses to find new ways of operating and working. Transforming organizations will only be possible if we give employees space for creative and critical thinking. So, how can you go about it?
The foundation of any creatively inclined team is psychological safety, where team members can express their ideas without fear of ridicule or retribution. Leaders like Satya Nadella of Microsoft have championed this approach by shifting the company culture from a “know-it-all” to a “learn-it-all” mindset.
The next step on the path to greater creativity is to stimulate risk-taking. Appleās Steve Jobs encouraged his team to āthink differentā to push the boundaries of what is considered possible. This approach led to revolutionary products like the iPhone and the iPad, which not only transformed consumer electronics but also set new benchmarks for innovation.
One way to encourage your workers to take more risks is to reduce the number of rules. When Mary Barra, now CEO of General Motors, was responsible for HR at the US automaker, she tore up an 18-page rule book on the dress code and replaced it with two words: dress appropriately. While some managers were initially reluctant to accept this new autonomy, Barra argued the aim was to remove unnecessarily complex and restrictive barriers that stopped people from doing their best work. By relaxing the dress code, she was sending a signal that she trusted employees to be themselves and make good decisions.
ā I donāt want to control. I want to create context. I want to create clarity of culture and strategic choice, but then I want people to surprise me.āLEGO Chairman and former CEO JĆørgen Vig Knudstorp
Another essential ingredient to encourage creativity is diversity. After all, you are unlikely to come up with new ideas if everyone on the team has the same experience and background. Interdisciplinary approaches that bring different ways of thinking about problems are vital to come up with solutions for the challenges facing business and society.
Leaders, however, shouldnāt just expect employees to be able to tap into their creativity on demand. Investing in talent development is vital to hone team membersā creative muscles. Under the leadership of Ed Catmull, animation studio Pixar invested heavily in employee development programs. This resulted in some of the best-loved family movies of all time, including Toy Story, Finding Nemo and, more recently, Elemental.
There are a few techniques you can use to stimulate the creative process. One approach for out-of-the-box thinking is the āfuture backā framework, which is increasingly being adopted by companies to boost innovation and creativity. The approach involves envisioning a future state you wish to achieve and then working backward to understand the steps necessary to get there.
Amazon famously asks those working in its innovation department to write press releases for products that donāt exist. The exercise helps to focus their thinking on problems customers might face and solutions to fix them.
Reimagining incentive systems and goal setting where the focus is not necessarily on the end result, but instead on rewarding creativity can motivate employees to think innovatively.
Microsoftās shift towards cloud computing was, in turn, driven by a vision of the future where software and services would be delivered over the internet. Once this vision was set, the organization rethought everything from product offerings, like Office 365 and Azure, to sales strategies and global infrastructure.
Another approach is cultivating a culture of curiosity, where you teach your team to ask open-ended and exploratory questions, such as, āI wonder ifā or, āIn what ways can weā¦ā rather than defensively shutting down new ideas by finding reasons why they wonāt work.
Lastly, itās important to remember that creativity is impossible without failure. Leaders should embrace failure as a learning opportunity to create an environment where employees are not paralyzed by fear of making mistakes. Too often, pressure to perform or hit targets can stifle creative thinking. Reimagining incentive systems and goal setting where the focus is not necessarily on the end result, but instead on rewarding creativity can also motivate employees to think innovatively.
In todayās fast-paced world, where employees are constantly bombarded by emails and instant messages, it can be hard to find time to think and reflect. Yet, if we donāt create breathing space, we risk losing the art of creativity. Intentionally building an environment where people have psychological safety and are motivated to bring their visionary ideas to fruition will set the stage for meaningful innovations that can redefine the industry landscape and give your organization a competitive edge.
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