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Creating the Creative Climate - Part 5

The executive must also form the personal habit of both ac­knowledging and praising usable ideas if he wants to continue to receive them. In the first place, it is not very intelligent for anyone to assume the credit for the work of others. As an execu­tive it is your job to get results on company problems, so you will automatically receive the credit no matter where an idea came from. It is also a universally understood rule of administration that an executive is responsible for developing the people under him. An executive who fails to report personal progress of sub­ordinates, in the production of ideas or otherwise, may be sus­pected of "credit grabbing" or of not living up to his responsibil­ities as a leader.

The reverse of giving praise is also true: never reject an idea without giving as full an explanation as possible, and, if you want the employee to try again, be sure to say so. This situation is probably one of the touchiest of all to handle and, if it is bobbled, may turn a potentially good idea-producer into a completely negative worker. Criticism is difficult to give when you want to preserve a positive attitude. And the best rule for giving it is, "Be slow to."

It is easy to find fault with any idea, and frequently it is easier to criticize an employee than to praise him. But in many instances it is not necessary to criticize an idea to reject it. Furthermore, the idea-hunting executive will never abuse an employee for a bad idea, never ridicule any idea, and particularly never ridicule an idea in front of others or to others.

The "freedom to fail" must be an integral part of any creative climate. Charles Kettering once made the statement that "I can take any group of young people and teach them to be inventors if I can get them to throw off the hazard of becoming afraid to fail. A study made some years ago said that the more education a man has, the less likely he is to be an inventor. Now the reason for that is quite simple. It is because, throughout his life, he has been taught the danger of failure. From the time he enters the first grade until he graduates from the university, he is ex­amined three or four times each year; if he fails, he is out and, in many cases, disgraced. In research and invention work, you fail hundreds, and even thousands of times; and, if you succeed once, you are in."

Related terms include strategic planning and business case studies.