What Makes a Creative Work Environment?
A creative work environment has many factors that work together to build an open, trusting and innovative environment. Employees, with different skills, learning styles and personalities, need to be enabled to take risks and share ideas, and be allowed to adjust workplace practices that match their needs. This needs an environment that has a serious focus on The Human Element.
Most innovations draw on many contributions. Imagine Diversified contributors coming from different disciplines, backgrounds, realms of knowledge, and areas of expertise, share their thinking. And imagine when people deal with a complex problem, how can their diversity be an asset in approaching the problem from different angles and efficiently analyze and solve such a problem.
Will Schutz, the author, and creator of the Human Element and FIRO theory says; “The Human Element assumption is that it’s not a company’s specific behaviors that determine its success in the long run. Success depends on team members’ ability to deal effectively with one another and adapt to changing conditions”.1
Flexibility is essential to good teamwork, but my ability to work with others depends to a large extent on our compatibility and complementarity—that is, on the ability of our personalities or styles to enhance each other, supply each other’s missing traits, and support each other.2 And here comes the vital role of the work environment in creativity besides its obvious role in morale and productivity.
Openness is a psychological key to creativity
Working together tend to arise interpersonal issues; and managing these issues is not an easy job for leaders.
One of the powerful tools that help in creating an open and safe environment is FIRO theory by Will Schutz. FIRO stands for Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation. The main purpose of (FIRO) theory was to explain the interpersonal interactions between people in three areas: Inclusion, Control, and Openness. This is to increase compatibility within workgroups and improve work relationships and team performance.
1The Human Element – Will Schutz p.134
2The Human Element – Will Schutz p.110
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