Creativity and Collaboration: Teamwork

Creativity and Collaboration: Teamwork

"How can I bridge cross-cultural challenges to ensure my subordinates will freely discuss their concerns regarding imporvements and give feedback on my management of them?"

I was surprised to see my problem listed as a group collaborative discussion topic and I have to say I substitued "students" with "subordinates" which seemed to attract some mild flak. No matter. It was the best I could come up with to try to sneak it in there for review. A few months ago I got a big "Welcome" poster and just put it up yesterday in my research room. Alcohol? I arrived for an orientation training day last month where an entire flat bed truck delivered case after case of soju, the local firewater. In days gone by rainy days were permissable for professors to crack open 24 cases of half litre bottles of beer in lecture hall. I have been mixing my student groups and pairs to make them less comfortable with each other, meet new people and focus on the leader.

My door is open and my contact details are available for office hours and even lunch appointments. Fear is a factor. A local saying says, "Do not step in the shadow of a teacher." However I have been softening my homework and email assignments with music videos and lyrics from youtube to give more colour to the experience.

The cross-cultural issue is trust. When students trust their teachers in this culture they speak freely. It is difficult to gain trust as a foreigner in this culture. It is a cross-cultural issue. The gains will be better assignments tailoring really and more satisfied students. My feedback is generally quite general. I do often seek it. However responses are often minimal.

I gain much from moderators, senior students, etc. My ratings are generally good. The issue is selecting improvements. I am quite hit and miss. I like the idea of sign language! The more one receives the more one is able to receive in terms of suggestions and collaborative group feedback? Modulated collaboration is not a beast! Certainly good ideas with suggestions submission, selection of a particular problem and further collaborative group comments to explore the issue further are helpful.

Does my organisation block creativity?

Referring back to the characteristics of creative organisations one might easily list that they allow employees to exercise control over their work as far as possible, maintain open lines of communication, transcend boundaries between the organisation and environment, hire diverse people and avoid "cloning", evaluate ideas based on merit rather than the orignator, encourage research, allow risk takers the chance to take risks, delineate creative and productive functions and employ creativity techniques to boost creativity.

Organisations which undermine creativity would micromanage their affairs, stifle communication through all levels of management, reinforce strict boundaries between the organisation and its environment, reinforce cloning, evaluate ideas on point of source only, discourage research activities, squelch and remove risk takers, have no clear understanding of the differences between creative and productive functions, and suspiciously regard creativity and creative techniques as anathema to the goals of the organisation.

The creativity methods described appear not to cost in terms of monetary value. However from an accounting perspective perhaps it is difficult to qualify or quantify their results if training and management effectiveness always comes from costs performance.

Innvovative companies grow. Non-creative companies usually do not survive or succeed for long in free market conditions.

At present my employer allows me to exercise control over my work to a greater degree than any employment previously. My communication extends vertically however I have some lateral communciation within the business departments. Current boundaries between the organization and the environment are improving and it is the largest local employer.There are possibly diverse backgrounds and experiences here however there are very few foreigners. Ideas are somewhat evaluated on merit, however the status of the idea originator is often the norm and explains why negotiation and relationships are so important here. My research activities are encouraged. However distance learning programs are somewhat under-valued. At the same time online learning is gaining ground. The risks I take are usually minimal and focused around making greater demands of my students in terms of homework. Creative and productive functions are perhaps not fully separated in this organization. But I believe such a situation is common for educators. The two often intertwine. It is up to me to learn about and introduce creativity techniques available to increase creativity among my students. My employer is a young institution which has offered me much in terms of development. As I grow my students grow and my employer and its environment also grows. In general the soil is rich and the buds are many.