A couple of days ago in a seminar I was teaching, I asked a particular question of a group of about 20 financial professionals. The question was, “if one of your employees had a great idea to significantly improve the efficiency of the department, but the idea could mean that their own job might be eliminated or significantly reduced, would the person give you the idea?
At first, nobody raised a hand. And, by the way, it was far enough into the seminar where everyone felt comfortable voting on certain questions. Finally, one young lady slowly raised her hand and said, “I think so, but I’m not really sure.”
What does that tell us about culture? If our organizations are going to serve customers well and do it efficiently, then we have to establish a culture where people are willing to be creative for the benefit of efficiency. We have to discuss the issue, promise people, and then follow up on our commitments to reward people who are creative and come up with better ways to accomplish tasks. In fact, we need to make it clear to our people that we might eliminate a job for efficiency, but if that person has been a creative one, we will be sure to place him or her in another and better position. Only if someone has been unwilling to be creative, should there be a cause for dismissal.
The bottom line is that we need to reward and promote creative people and weed out the ones who are just hanging on, doing the minimum, and being obedient. While we don’t want disobedient people, we want people who are both obedient and creative. Creativity should win!
