There needs to be an awareness by the management for the need of creative and innovative environments. You can have a diverse group of people working together, but the day to day operations can quickly drown the creative juices.
German,
You bring up a good point. Building a culture of creativity and innovation requires a daily focus on supporting this type of environment. At times when budgets are tight and people are required to do more with less it becomes even more important to have a createive and innovative culture that makes the necessary changes to ensure continued institutional effectiveness and improvement. This is a difficult task. However, engaging employees in the process and empowering them to be creative and innovate in adapting to necessary changes is essential. People generally like to be involved in creating solutions to address challenges and opportunities. As you mentioned the day to day operations can overwhelm this process at times and I think it takes intentional effort by leadership and management teams to ensure that the collaborative creative environment endures.
Dr. Blake Faulkner
Although there are foundational strategies for establishing a creative workplace, such as those discussed in this course, these strategies may be modified to align with a particular academic culture. For example, my current academic culture promotes collaboration both horizontally and vertically throughout the university. Overall, I believe that time is perhaps the most influential factor in either fostering creativity or stifling it. This is evident in most creative professions where compensation for the time taken in the creative process can be challenging.
William,
How do you believe time constraints in relation to the creative workplace and process are best managed in higher ed. How do you manage this "most influential factor" to get maximum results?
Dr. Blake Faulkner
