Everyone wants to think of something new-solve a problem no one else can solve, offer a valuable idea no one else has conceived of. And every business wants to encourage its employees to have the next great idea.
So when a business offers its employees a bonus for creative ideas, a flood of great, original thoughts should come pouring in, Right?
We think that creativity, like any other task, can be bought and sold. But creativity is not the same as hard work and effort; ot requires genuine inspiration. It is the product of a mind thoroughly intrigued by a question, a situation, a possibilty.
Thus, creativity comes not in exchange for money or rewards but when we focus our attention on something because we want to.
**
Japan Railways East had the contract to build a bullte train between Tokyo and Nagano to be put in place in time for the 1998 Winter Olympics.
Unfortunately, tunnels built by the company through the mountains kept filling with water. The companybrought in a team of engineers, who were highly paid to come up with the best solution. The engineers analyzed the problems and drew up an extensive set of plans to build an expansive drain and a system of aqueducts to divert the water out of the tunnels.
A thristy maintenance worker one day came up with a different solution when he bent over and took a large swallow of the tunnel water. It tasted great, better than the bottled water he had in his lunch pail.
He told his boss they should bottled water, and sell it as premium mineral water.
Thus was born Oshimizu bottled water, which the railway sells from vending machinese on its platforms and has expanded to selling by home delivery.
A huge cost was transformed into a huge profit, all by looking at the situation differenctly.
**
Experiments offering money in exchange for creative solutions to problems find that monetary rewards are unrelated to the capacity of people to offer original ideas. Instead, creativity is most frequently the product of genuine interest in the problem and a belief that creativity will be personally appreciated by superiors.
So when a business offers its employees a bonus for creative ideas, a flood of great, original thoughts should come pouring in, Right?
We think that creativity, like any other task, can be bought and sold. But creativity is not the same as hard work and effort; ot requires genuine inspiration. It is the product of a mind thoroughly intrigued by a question, a situation, a possibilty.
Thus, creativity comes not in exchange for money or rewards but when we focus our attention on something because we want to.
**
Japan Railways East had the contract to build a bullte train between Tokyo and Nagano to be put in place in time for the 1998 Winter Olympics.
Unfortunately, tunnels built by the company through the mountains kept filling with water. The companybrought in a team of engineers, who were highly paid to come up with the best solution. The engineers analyzed the problems and drew up an extensive set of plans to build an expansive drain and a system of aqueducts to divert the water out of the tunnels.
A thristy maintenance worker one day came up with a different solution when he bent over and took a large swallow of the tunnel water. It tasted great, better than the bottled water he had in his lunch pail.
He told his boss they should bottled water, and sell it as premium mineral water.
Thus was born Oshimizu bottled water, which the railway sells from vending machinese on its platforms and has expanded to selling by home delivery.
A huge cost was transformed into a huge profit, all by looking at the situation differenctly.
**
Experiments offering money in exchange for creative solutions to problems find that monetary rewards are unrelated to the capacity of people to offer original ideas. Instead, creativity is most frequently the product of genuine interest in the problem and a belief that creativity will be personally appreciated by superiors.
Sorry, no time for any conclusions, tmr there is a major test coming up and i'm burning midnight oil....that's all for today
1 comment:
Haha, can I make the conclusion then?
Most of the time creativity doesn't come at will. In fact, they come on a rather unexpected time. So from time to time, take that necessary break from work to rest the brain and who knows, a light bulb might light up. But that doesn't mean we can start using that excuse to skip off on work!!! Oh wait, that's me. hahaha
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