Breakdown Technique

Talking about creativity in the workplace, in this post, I would like to share with you a creative technique called a meeting [Breakdown Technique], in a form of an example that will help you in problem solving.

This technique will allow you to to generate questions by breaking the problem itself down into words that would lead to some creative question/ideas that can be taken into consideration in the problem solving itself by providing steps that could be considered as a possible data for analysis for a detailed problem solving plan or an action plan. If you have more knowledge about the industry, the organizational unit, you could actually generate a detailed action plan with this technique! 

Question: The organization I work for has a large number of members nearing retirement.  How can I retain the institutional knowledge these members possess prior to their leaving?

Illustration of the "Breakdown Technique'

How      

How has it been managed in the past? What were the lessons learned from the past? Have you consulted others who have managed a similar process? Is there currently a job shadowing practice being used? If not. - Have you developed any job shadowing or handover plans?

Can       

Can this process be managed easy if it is well planned or it will be difficult? What are the constraints that you and your team see that might make it difficult? 

I              

Why 'I'? Have you tried to share this with your team? Perhaps engaging both retiring and new staff in the process of transfer of knowledge will bring new ideas and suggestions that would work better because it’s coming from both parties involved in the process?

Retain  

What type of institutional knowledge exactly would you like to retain? Have you tried determining it by area/sector/department (scanning and sorting)?

Institutional knowledge               

What is considered institutional knowledge in your organizational unit? What institutional knowledge are you looking at and at what level? Do all the employees who are retiring possess the same level of institutional knowledge?

These members              

How many members will be retiring? What level jobs are they holding?

Possess               

Do all the retiring employees possess the same level of institutional knowledge, or only bits and pieces of it strictly related to their jobs? 

Did you find it helpful? Look forward to your comments.

Creativity in The Workplace

A while ago, someone asked me whether there an optimal level of creativity for a person to have? And is it possible to be 'too creative'? Is it true that creative people can be difficult to manage?

I tend to think that it depends on the industry, workplace and organizational setup in determination of the limits of creativity. In most of the organizations creativity is to bring positive, viable, feasible and progressive results/outcomes but these are not the only results that creativity can bring.

Creativity also can lead to negative, bad experimental results and therefore each organization and its business should guide such processes and have fairly structured framework for creative solution analysis, testing and application.

I believe that if it is the expectation of the organization from some individuals/departments/units to come up with creative ideas and convert them into viable solutions, there should be no limit to creativity and it should not be considered 'too much'. 'Too' is a comparative term and unless you qualify and quantify creativity in a particular sector of an industry, I do not think it is would be applicable.  'Too creative' also may not be applicable to use for specific positions/jobs/departments in organizations that require creative minds to come with creative solutions to achieve better results.

In my opinion creative individuals should have the following characteristics: independent, expressive passionate and perhaps operating beyond organizational norms. There is also the possibility of wide dialog and debates, especially when a leader rejects some ideas from creative individuals and it can be difficult for some leaders to say 'No'. Some leaders might not like question 'What if…' that creative individuals should often ask.  Good leaders should know how to manage creative individuals without discouragement and coming in the way of generating new ideas. The leaders should be able to support and create right environment for creative individuals to come up with feasible solutions, monitor the process and make rewarding.

Nonetheless, to say difficult to manage sounds somewhat subjective and would depend on experience and personality of the leader and the creative individual.