Encouraging employees to be more creative will provide a better employee experience, and increase their engagement and contribution of new ideas. Peter Merrill help you assess your own innovative aptitude and learn how to contribute to the innovation process.

1. Engage Your Employees Through a Culture of
Creativity
Peter Merrill Naba Ahmed
With: Moderated by:
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People-Driven Engagement
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2. Glint is committed to helping people-driven organizations increase employee
engagement, develop their people, and improve business results. Glint
knows that great companies are fueled by great cultures, and great cultures
are built by great teams. Glint's people success platform leverages real-time
people data to help global organizations like United, Intuit, and Sky leverage
a unique combination of intuitive design, sophisticated analytics and
actionable intelligence to help employees be happier and more successful at
work. For more information, please visit www.glintinc.com.

3. Click on the Questions panel to
interact with the presenters
https://www.humanresourcestoday.com/webinar-series/people-driven-engagement/

4. About Peter Merrill
Peter Merrill is a Keynote Speaker on Innovation and has keynoted at conferences in cities such as Dubai, Mumbai
and Shanghai. He began his career in R&D and later became Chief Executive of one of the leading Design Brands
in Europe. He has led Innovation in the fields of both Graphic Art and Engineering. He is one of North America’s
foremost authorities on Management Systems, which he has implemented in such innovative companies as IBM,
A.I.G., and R.I.M.
About Naba Ahmed
Naba went to Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and majored in Journalism and minored in Integrated Marketing
Communications. After working as Editor-in-Chief at the campus newspaper, she became interested in developing
content across multiple platforms, and now works as a Content Marketing Specialist at Aggregage, providing some of
the most interesting thought-leaders across a wide variety of industries with a space to celebrate the diversity, depth,
and experience of their professional cultures, personalities, and passions.
People-Driven Engagement
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5. Productivity
 Our focus for 30 years
 Don’t ‘disrupt performance’
 Maximize efficiency
 Short term thinking
 Do it right?
 …or do the Right Thing?
 World is Changing Fast
 Right yesterday – Not today!
5

6. 6
The World is Changing
 Market Place…Asia
 Technology…Digital
 Demographics…Aging
 Environment…Warming
It is not the strongest that survive,
nor the most intelligent,
but the one most responsive to change.
- Charles Darwin

7. 7
We respond by
Innovating
We create…
New Knowledge
To create
New Products and
New Services
Knowledge is the Fuel
How do we find it?

8. Finding Knowledge
 People are the source
 Lone Genius is a myth
 Collective Knowledge
 Best Ideas
 Engages our minds
 Engages us
 Gives us Fulfillment
8

9. Happiness
 Self Fulfillment
 Positive relationships
 Creates Engagement
 Seligman
 Maslow
 Hierarchy of Needs
 Attributes for creativity
9

10. 10
An Creative Culture
Releases Knowledge
Explicit
Tacit
Subconsciou
s
 ‘Explicit’ (documented)
knowledge is less than
20% of our available
knowledge.
 ‘Creative Behaviours’
release the tacit and
subconscious
knowledge
But there is also the ‘execution’ behavior!!

11. 11
One Process – Two ‘Cultures’
Creative phase
Where we develop ideas
Creative people are needed
Execution phase
Puts ideas into practice
Requires a ‘results’ type of person

12. 12
Culture is Based on Behavior

13. 13
1 I ‘Connect the Dots’ I get things done I like Possibilities I bring things ‘down to
earth’
2 I need to understand I make things work Everything has a good
and bad side
There has to be a right
answer
3 Don’t tell me what to
do
Give me facts not
theory
I create choices I like to analyze data
4 A Concept must be
sound
I like ‘energy’ Don’t fuss with details I like precision
5 I think things through I take risks I like to hear about
problems
I focus
6 I like the big picture I find a way that works I want to own the
problem
I am thorough
7 I like to define the
problem
I push for acceptance I find out the facts I Plan
TOTAL TOTAL TOTAL TOTAL
Creator, Connector, Developer, Doer?
e-version at www.petermerrill.com/self-assessment
Column 1 you’re a Connector, Column 2 a Doer,
Column 3 a Creator and Column 4 a Developer

14. 14
Creative Phase
Creator
 See the Need
 Find the Opportunity
 Marketeer, Researcher
 Practical People
 Open Network
 ‘Loose’ Mode
 Allow subconscious
Connector
 Define the Problem
 “Connect” to Solution
 Design, R & D,
 Learn by Thinking
 Open Network
 ‘Loose’ Mode.
 “One is not enough”

15. 15
Execution Phase
Developer
 User Friendly solution
 Engineer, Systems
 Learn by Thinking
 Closed Network
 Tight Mode
 Get the Result,
 Make it Work
Doer
 Deliver the solution
 Sales, Production
 Practical Person
 Closed network
 Tight Mode
Need a ‘Mix’ of People

16. Open and Closed Networks
Open
 Sharing knowledge
 Creativity
Closed
 Getting results
 Execution

17. 17
Creative Culture
 Produce new ideas thru
 imagination and
 unconventional approach
 Occurs when we
 Have freedom to think
 interact with new stimuli.
 Removed from us
 Daily work we do.

18. 18
Creative Behaviors
 Risky…
 Exploration
 ‘Step out of the box’
 ‘Network’ face to face
 Collaboration
 Diverse people
 Understand other’s asset
 Relationships take time
 Experimentation
 Willingness to fail
 Capture “Lessons
Learned”

19. Diversity Matters
 Scott Page; Caltech
 Problem Solving
 ‘Brown Socks’ Group
 Ordinary Guys
 Additive Knowledge
 Mensa
 Repeatedly beaten
 Mensa Group
 Identical Knowledge
 Not Additive

20. 20
Creative Solutions
 Clear Problem Definition
 Mix disciplines
 Diversity
 creates ‘spark of genius’
 To challenge solutions
 Include Outsiders
 Customers, Suppliers
 Allow Disruption

21. 21
Creative Process
 People write first ideas
 Circulate and stimulate
 Eliminates ‘loud voice’
 Avoids fear of rejection.
 Allow Randomness
 Allow wild ideas
 Brainwriting, Clustering….

22. 22
‘Tipping Point’ - Behaviour change
Select solution
Narrow focus
Loose
Tight

23. 23
Execution Culture
 Narrow Focus
 Tight Team
 Lean Process
 Focus & Discipline
 Retain some creativity
 3000 ideas; 1 makes it
 Genius; 1% inspiration
 99% perspiration’

24. 24
Delivery
 Leadership Monitor
 Behaviour change
 Regular Reviews
 Monthly or Quarterly
 Project group changes
 Operations and Sales
 Risk and ROI changes
 Adjust the plan
 Mission
 “User friendly” solution

25. Leaders Role
 Structure
 Strategy & Direction
 Agile Plan
 Enable Engagement
 Develop
Competence
 Give Time
 Manage Change
25

26. Structure
 Organizations grow
 become less agile
 Agility & Focus must Co-exist
 Optimum Business Unit
 6 person span, 3 layers.
 Over 300 people
 Communication problems
 Lack Agility
 Reduce hierarchy, Allow independence
Etc.

27. Spin-off Creativity?
 Leader reports higher level
 Separate IT and HR
 New knowledge & behavior
 P&G outsourced creativity
 InnoCentive, R&D company
 Lockheed Martin
 Skunk Works
 But….
 Communication problem

28. Bill Gore;
 Gore-Tex
 Flat organization
 150-200 person units
 Campus of buildings
 Agile teams.
 8-12 people
 Sales & R&D collaborate
 Too often, we separate
 Sales & R&D
 They seem different.

29. 29
Shift Team Members and hence Culture
Find the
Opportunity
Connect to
the Solution
Make it
User Friendly
Get to
Market
Creators
Connectors
Developers

30. 30
‘Structure Time’
 Excellent companies
 ‘looseness’ important
 Give Time for Creativity
 3M, HP
 ‘Google’
 Day a week (?)
 Pursuit of wild ideas’
 ‘Group Genius’
 practice regularly.
 So how do we start?

31. 31
Change map to an Innovative Culture
Create
Urgency
Core
Team
Early
Win
Integrate
Win
Communicate
Vision
Critical
Mass
Raise
Bar
Enablers
Resources
Recognize
Bigger
Win
People
Process Assessment

32. 32
Path Forward
 Cultural Assessment
 On line; Contact
 pm@petermerrill.com
 Identify your issues
 Develop a change plan
 Get an Early Win
 Innovation process
 www.petermerrill.com

33. Q&A
Naba Ahmed
With: Moderated by:
President, Quest Management Inc.
Linkedin page: /in/peter-merrill-b321768//
Twitter ID: @petermerrill
Website: http://questmgt.com/
Peter Merrill
Editor, Human Resources Today
Linkedin page: linkedin.com/in/naba-ahmed/
Twitter ID: @hrposts
Email: naba@aggregage.com
Website: humanresourcestoday.com
https://www.humanresourcestoday.com/webinar-series/people-driven-engagement/