When employees perform creatively, they suggest novel and useful products, ideas or procedures that provide an organization with important material for subsequent development and possible implementation.
The National Council for Law Reporting (Kenya Law) sees significant benefits to be gained, both directly and indirectly, by encouraging creativity and innovation among its employees. Firstly, giving employees the creative freedom to conceptualize and implement creative and innovative ideas is to respect their need for creative self expression. It also cultivates an organizational culture that encourages, nurtures and rewards creativity. Further, new ideas may benefit the Council directly by leading to process improvements or into operational processes or business areas that are more fulfilling and cost-effective.
In the Council’s Strategic Plan 2009-2012, a total of ten strategic objectives are outlined and three of them bear particular relevance to innovation and creativity. The Council’s Board and employees have undertaken to:
• To conceptualize and apply creative, innovative, appropriate, reliable, and integrated technological solutions that enable us to efficiently and effectively fulfill our vision and mission.
• To create an organizational framework that ensures the recruitment, selection, management, remuneration, development and rewarding of our human resources and an organizational culture that optimizes productivity and efficiency, encourages innovativeness and creativity and fosters positive inter-personal relations and social responsibility.
• To secure the financial strength and sustainability of the Council by conceptualizing and implementing innovative and sustainable business models for deploying the Council’s goods and services.
The Council has created an in-house online laboratory for harnessing creative and innovative ideas from employees. The forum, known as NCLR LABS will be accessible to all employees through the Council’s secure corporate intranet. NCLR is a virtual space where NCLR employees can:
• Imagine –Embrace the genius in you. Give your innovative mind the expression that it is always craving for. That problem or challenge that you may be experiencing in your line of work is nature’s call to you to engage your creative energies and conceptualize a creative and innovative solution. An idea is creative and innovative if, among other things, its implementation would:
- Establish and sustain improvements in service and product quality as well as brand image for the Council;
- Significantly improve or enhance the quality of work and the Council’s work environment in ways that make a substantial difference for employees, stakeholders and customers;
- Provides a practical solution to an operational challenge and significantly improves the operational efficiency and effectiveness of the Council resulting in cost savings and/or increased revenue;
- Foster a work ethic and a corporate culture within the Council that promotes more innovation and creativity, inter-departmental teamwork, enhances communications and inspires commitment and productivity;
- Contributes meaningfully to the betterment of the environment, society and the community at large.
• Share. Tap into the collective imagination of fellow employees (one mind is better than two) by sharing your idea on NCLR LABS. Even if you may not have conceptualized a solution yet, stimulate your colleagues' imagination by sharing the problem or challenge and any opportunities that you think may be leveraged to meet the challenge.
• Collaborate. Follow the discussion forum regularly and give your input, feedback and comments to an idea submitted by your friend. Follow and guide the discussion on your idea. Be candid (yet polite) in acknowledging, with reasons, that certain ideas need not be pursued. Be passionate about your ideas and those of your colleagues that you feel need to be pursued, yet be graceful and considerate of the opinions of your colleagues when they interrogate and critique your ideas.
• Celebrate. Rejoice in the blossoming of an idea into a new product, a service, a new way of doing things, etc. Submit the idea and the key persons in conceptualizing and implementing it for consideration under the NCLR Employee of the Year Award Scheme.
To submit an idea, please click on the 'Discussions' tab on the top horizontal bar of the NCLR LABS site and click on the ‘new topic’ on the top left corner, then enter the new idea in the dialogue box that opens.
To join and contribute to the conversation on an existing idea, click on the ‘Discussions’ tab and select an idea from the list of topics displayed. Add your comments as a reply to the topic. You will find the “Reply” button window on the top right corner.
Please note that only the person who submits an idea may edit it.
Happy innovation!
M.M. Murungi
Editor/CEO
March 1, 2011
No comments:
Post a Comment