She would also have teams working together on projects and weekly meetings to share ideas. Creativity can only occur in an organization that promotes creativity. There has to be an environment that makes it easy for employees to offer ideas and listen to and be open to other people's ideas. This makes people want to come up with new thoughts and comment on how things are presently being done.

As seen, creativity also means listening to other people's ideas and being open to them. It also is important to give a good reason for why you do or do not like idea. Just saying, "That's great," or "That won't work" does not promote innovation. It is necessary to say, "That's great, because the wings will be stronger on the glider," or "That won't work, because the wings are too weak to support the body." Feedback is a necessary part of creativity.

Feedback is also an important aspect of leadership. Too often, employees only get feedback from their supervisors when they have done something wrong. Also, in many cases, the supervisor does not explain what was done wrong or how to do it differently the next time. Good leaders need to say, "When you made that sales call, you forgot to mention our other products that are available. Please remember that next time." Positive feedback, which does not come very often in working situations, can be so helpful to promoting new ideas. "Robert, I see you are not happy with the way we are scheduling meetings. Let's discuss what you don't think is working and see if we can come up with a new way together."

The well-known business expert Peter Drucker once said, "Because its purpose is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two -- and only these two -- basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are "costs." In a Forbes.com article, Jack Trout comments how Drucker's statement is being ignored by some companies. Some of the...

He says companies such as AT&T, General Motors and Sears are "shells of what they once were."
Trout says that one of the main reasons for this is that companies are not taking advantage of new technology and thinking out of the box on how it can help come up with a successful product idea: "There is onrushing technology that can make you either obsolete or quickly threatened....You have to be willing to attack yourself with a better idea and not let your competitor do it for you" (Forbes.com)

It would be interesting to do this glider practice again and give the teams the option of making their glider using a range of other available materials in addition to the wood and paper. Would some teams continue to use just the basic materials, but make improvements on it? Or, would some teams come up with a completely different design and makeup of the glider? Would all the options available promote or hinder creativity? It would be interesting to see which team would win and why.

Trout says that there are 180 different dog foods on the market. Any company who presently makes dog food or wants to get into this market has to be very innovative. The organization has to have the culture and leadership that encourages out of the box thinking and recognizes people with positive feedback on their ideas, even if not accepted. These companies also have to have leaders who listen to their employees and are willing to accept changes. These leaders also need to have people work in teams, such as we did with the glider. This encourages many different ideas and coming up with something very different and out of the box.