Support creativity...

Sometimes you just must nurture creativity; otherwise, an idea may be diminished or lost. 

 

Ideas

   Come and go.

      Leaders need to

         Nurture and support them.

 

The best ideas often come from teams of people working together. Sometimes, the idea comes from a single individual, other times from a group effort. In either case, leaders are responsible for supporting them. The Wynn paperless application system is a good example. Over a ten-year period, I kept dreaming about ways to avoid the problems associated with huge volumes of paper applications – inconsistent data input and filing issues. My dream started ahead of the technology needed to make it happen – despite that, my boss was supportive of trying non-technical solutions like adding people to the process and improving their training. But still the problems persisted. I then requested a budget that allowed travel to visit technology companies and hiring consultants to assist. Those increasing budget requests were matched by return on investment (ROI) projections that were carefully prepared and vetted. My point is that even though I seemed to be the lone dreamer behind this long-term project, I never could have succeeded without support at all levels. Most problems spawn dreamers and ideas – watch for them in you organization, listen carefully, and support the best ones. Don’t allow your dreamers to lose heart or give up today. 

 

Ai Weiwei (born 1957): Chinese contemporary artist, documentarian, and activist.