Given the renewed interest in creativity and innovation that has blossomed with the Commerce Lexington trip to Austin, Texas, it seems appropriate to explore the many factors related to attracting and nurturing creative individuals. I'll cut to the chase and give you the short list first:
• Brand yourself as a creative place
• Create a culture that values and nurtures creativity
• Select creative individuals for your organization
This applies from a global to a work group level. So let's delve into each.
Brand: A creative organization
What makes a creative individual want to work for you? For starters, they will be attracted to a company that makes "cool" products. Let's take Apple for example. Steve Jobs likes to talk about "insanely great" products.
We all know the product purchase cycle: awareness, consideration, purchase, loyalty. This relates to employees as well. How do you bring awareness to your company so that creative individuals will become interested in it? The higher your brand awareness and image, the more likely someone will desire to work for you.
Creativity is important to a large segment of the working population. In a 2007 survey of U.S. employed adults, 21 percent said they would change jobs in order to be more creative at work even if it meant earning less money. Additionally, 29 percent indicated they would move if it meant being part of a more creative community.
An excellent goal would be to strive for one of the awards or lists as a good place to work. These achievements not only help bringing in excellent individuals, but such companies have been shown to financially outperform their peers.
An important element to keep in mind, especially in these turbulent times, is the effect of downsizing on attracting workers. Any downsizing that you do will detract from your image as a creative organization.
A creative culture
Attracting and hiring creative individuals is actually the easy part. How do you nurture creative individuals and foster innovative, high-performing teams? There are several factors that play into high-performing teams.
For example, employees look for an environment where it is safe to share views, where conflict is valued and resolved appropriately and where mistakes are forgiven.
Appropriate resources
Time is an important factor. Studies have shown that it generally takes about ten years for an individual to hit their creative, productive stride. Additionally, the peak age for great innovations is the late 30s, with high productivity lasting well into an individual's 50s, 60s, and even the 70s and 80s.
This element of patience should prevail when looking at an individual's creative performance year after year. Just because someone hasn't produced a stellar invention in the last year or two isn't a reason to cut them from your payroll. They may be on the cusp of inventing that next disruptive technology.
A common idea is to bring in new folks with fresh ideas. Studies have shown that this isn't necessary. Encouraging professional development can keep your existing staff vibrant and continually refreshed.
Selecting creative individuals
Finally, how do you ensure that the individuals you are hiring are truly creative? Fortunately there are tests that collectively indicate a propensity toward creativity.
The two best indicators are overall general mental ability (also called cognitive ability or intelligence) and openness to experience. There are many well-validated general mental ability tests available, and these may be used as part of your selection process. They are often broken into verbal, reasoning and mathematical categories.
Openness to experience is one of the factors measured in the Five Factor Model (FFM) personality test, which is well accepted among I/O psychology professionals. This factor is mentioned in the popular Richard Florida books and has been shown by research to correlate with creative and adaptable individuals.
A word of caution is in order. The Five Factor Model also measures conscientiousness, which has been correlated with job performance in many studies. However, there are five subscales to the conscientiousness factor and three - order, dutifulness, and deliberation - have been shown to be negatively correlated with adaptability, which entails creativity.
Motivation has also been shown to be a factor in creativity, and tests are available for this element of personality as well. If you use any of these tests, it is important to determine if any adverse impact to minorities exists, and if so, explore all alternatives to mitigate that impact.
Another key element of creativity is knowledge in the area of work. Ensure the individuals you are hiring have sufficient education and background to be effective in the role you have planned for them.
Putting it all together
So let's put it all together and get down to what really matters to us as business people - creating products that others will buy. We can think of these products as a confluence of several factors: creative culture, time, creative ability, intelligence, knowledge, motivation and openness.
Now it's your job to decide if you're willing to invest the time and money to attract and nurture these creative individuals.
Joel DiGirolamo heads the firm Turbocharged Leadership. You can contact Joel at joel@jdigirolamo.com.