Creativity fosters innovation, but how can you ignite creative sparks within your organisation? Your own employees are an inexpensive and efficient source of creative new ideas and innovation. How can you unleash the creative spirit within your workforce? There are a number of ways to build a vibrant research and development strategy in your organisation without spending a fortune.

Here are a few strategies:

• Every employee is a potential designer of a new idea and just needs the opportunity to be heard. Do not restrict creativity and innovation to your R & D or marketing area. We are all creative.
• Ask lots of questions…what if? Why? Why not? Imagine if? Allow your people to imagine new possibilities.
• To bring together great ideas utilise cloud-based software that allows sharing and development to occur anytime, anywhere
• Provide opportunities for reflection, retreat and problem solving so that good ideas will emerge
• Encourage risk-taking. Failure is part of all innovation. People need to feel safe to try and fail and then try again.
• Host a scholarship program to incentivise innovation within the organisation and also to attract new talent from outside
• Reward brilliant ideas – eg. with tickets to innovation conferences, holidays, shares and equity where appropriate
• Innovation occurs from diversity. Bring together the most diverse teams possible to solve your biggest challenges.
• Allow people time to invent new ideas eg. Google’s 20% time or Intuit 10% time.

Be known as an organisation that fosters creativity and innovation through diversity, openness and respect of courageous new ideas.  Be an organisation that recognises creativity as the strategic tool of the 21st Century. Companies that fail to innovate now will not be around in 5 to 10 years. It’s worth the risk – get creative!

Contact Creative Universe enquiries@creativeuniverse.com.au to develop a custom-designed creative and innovation leadership program suited to your business challenges and desired outcomes.

Attend Creative Innovation 2011 and learn about the challenges and opportunities of a super-connected world with Edward de Bono, Raymond Kurzweil, Daniel Dennett and 25 other world class thinkers and innovators. Scholarship applications now open to July 31st 2011.

Steven Tomasco, a manager at IBM Global Business Services, expressed surprise at this key finding, saying that it is “very interesting that coming off the worst economic conditions they’d ever seen, [CEOs] didn’t fall back on management discipline, existing best practices, rigor, or operations. In fact, they [did] just the opposite.”

About 60% of CEOs polled cited creativity as the most important leadership quality, compared with 52% for integrity and 35% for global thinking. Creative leaders are also more prepared to break with the status quo of industry, enterprise and revenue models, and they are 81% more likely to rate innovation as a “crucial capability.”

Download the full report here

The modern business environment is anti-creative, says Michael Rennie, but every business wants to be more innovative, more creative.

And creativity makes us feel happy and productive. So why are so many workplaces the antithesis of buzzing, creative environments?

Why is creativity generally associated with the arts, not with business?

A conference in Melbourne next month called Creative Innovation will try to bridge these worlds, by bringing poets, musicians and thinkers together with business leaders.

One of the speakers has already crossed that bridge. He’s Michael Rennie, Managing Partner of McKinsey and Company in Australia and New Zealand.

To listen to the interview CLICK HERE Sparking creativity at work: Michael Rennie Life Matters, ABC Radio National, 2010.

Michael will present The Closing Speech at
Creative Innovation 2011

To join our WITH ONE VOICE choir programs CLICK HERE

Read some of our case studies below and CLICK HERE for more

A new job in a new country through Melbourne Sings

‘I am Hui (Cherry), a Melbourne Sings choir member and i was an International Student. I am writing to thank you and the choir for giving me a very good opportunity to get my current job! I was a new graduate with not much working experience in Australia, and pretty worried about how to get my first job here. I applied for so many jobs, without success. Just when I was wondering and hesitating, I received an email from Creativity Australia telling me there was a job opportunity advertised by a member in choir in their company. I applied for it but did not expect much at first. After two weeks, I got a telephone interview from that company and I passed through. When talking about my interest during the second round interview, the interviewer and I found that we were both choir members! Then we talked a lot and he began to understand the difficulties that an overseas student faced in job hunting, and said he would like to help me and provide me an opportunity to prove myself. So, I got the job! Currently I am working in their company [Amdocs] and he is my boss – Rajarshi Chakravorty.

I have to say it is you and the choir that gives me chances to get to know so many nice people. I sincerely appreciate all your help in the choir, which has not only brought us a happy, harmonious and passionate atmosphere which can relieve us from stressful work and study, but also provided us many good job opportunities that are just so helpful! I really feel honored and lucky to join this choir, thank you very much!!’ Hui (Cherry from China), Melbourne Sings Choir member

‘For my first six months in Australia, I was quite isolated because I was sad about what had happened to me and my family. I had no family or friends here and it was very hard for me to adjust. The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre was looking after me and they told me about singing in the choir. I love arts and music, but I’ve never had the chance to sing because there are many fundamentalists in Afghanistan and we weren’t allowed. I have been thinking about human emotions in cultural diversity and how all the emotions are here in a single choir. The beauty of singing is that it lifts you up and keeps you going.’ Abrar, member of Melbourne Sings and Afghani refugee

“I have had a spinal operation and since the operation I felt cut off from the rest of the world. My days were filled with unhappiness, that was until I joined the Melbourne Sings Choir and was embraced by compassion and love of truly compassionate people, such as yourself. Now, I am happy. I can use my voice, my whole heart to thank all of those people who have helped create this wonderful organisation.” Xiao Rong Nheu, member of Melbourne Sings

“The choir is an escape for me. To open my heart, to be relaxed, happy and forget about all the problems. It’s an open door that you can only see flowers in front and be happy. Enjoy the perfume of the song. The choir really had an important role in my confidence. The diversity in the choir is really huge. Tania, Anton, Shaun… all of them were there for me. And when I got my job interview to prepare they gave me a hand to improve my confidence and to take that step it was really hard for me. I was so nervous, so emotional. I couldn’t believe I would have a job. Then I have the job. I say thanks to BSL, thanks to ANZ who recruited me and most importantly thanks to Tania [de Jong] for her support and all of the members of the choir.“  Nathalie, recent arrival from Cameroon

To listen to Tania’s interview with Phillip Adams on Late Night Live, ABC Radio National, 2010 CLICK HERE.

Tania de Jong AM is the Founder of Creative Universe, Creativity Australia, Music Theatre Australia, Pot-Pourri, The Song Room and Executive Producer of Creative Innovation 2010 and Creative Innovation 2011.

• Choirs
• Positive psychology
• Creativity
• Music and wellbeing
• Workplace and education
• Community

And interesting Thought Pieces

Please visit
http://www.creativityaustralia.org.au/cms-research/index.phps