It's not the task of management to motivate their staff,
Not demotivating them is enough! (anonymous)

Little over a year ago, I was preparing an assignment for a large international company that decided their employees needed to produce more and better creative ideas and innovative solutions.
Which by definition meant that the people in charge felt there was to little of it. From their perspective it was very clear-cut: their people needed training, asap.

During the intake I asked whether it was possible to get a sense of the work their staff were engaged in, by paying a visit to a few departments and have a talk with anyone willing. No bosses or superiors allowed!
I just wanted to get a feel of why the people working at this company, intentionally spend the best hours of the day, during the best years of their lives with this firm, doing whatever it is they do. In my humble opinion, I can't think of a more relevant question when it comes to exploring the creative potential of a corporate environment, or any environment for that matter.

At one point I entered a floor where about 20 people were sitting behind large flat screen monitors, doing computer aided design of some sort. I asked a gentlemen, that looked accessible about his and his colleagues' jobs. It appeared I was visiting a team of engineers, busy redesign motorway ramps. They were preparing the plans for a complete make over off a dozen of ramps that had become too short to safely digest all the traffic that needed to get to the motorway. Statistics were pretty clear on the matter; due to the increase in traffic the past few decades, these ramps had become deathtraps, killing and injuring a completely unacceptable number of people.

"That's wonderful", I replied. "So what you are basically doing here, is saving lives. Right?" Almost everyone on the floor suddenly stopped for an instant, looked at each other and started smiling. And so did my host. "Yeah…if you put it that way…I guess we are. I never looked at it that way though." "Well, what other way is there?" I insisted. "If you guys get this right, that means dozens of lives saved each year. Dozens of tragedies avoided. What a great way of spending your day!"

"Well, I beg to differ", the man replied. "You see. That sounds just a little too much like we-don't-give-a-crap-but-make-you-think-we-do management speak." OK, I was willing to go with that for a minute, because I was genuinely impressed by the impact and responsibility of their jobs, but he was just as genuine in his reactions to my compliment.

Apparently there was a problem with the lighting on their floor. They had moved there about 6 months ago and the lighting was to dim. Their screens needed more backlight to eliminate the contrast problems they experienced. Else said, they all had screaming headaches from working in that light.
I looked around and saw a number of empty light sockets and unused power plugs and so I asked him why they hadn't put in some extra lighting. The answer was as simple as can be: "We're not allowed to."

I had to run that by me a couple of times for it to sink in. They are not allowed to screw in a light bulb? A team of 20 engineers is not deemed capable of screwing in a light bulb to solve their collective splitting headache? Huh??? It could have been pitch black in there and my non-verbal communication would still have been picked up three blocks down.

"I know", the man picked up on me: "But that's the job for the guys that do maintenance of the building. And in order to get them to take care of this you first need to fill out an online form, which has to be reviewed by a committee. Then you need to have a minimum of similar, independent reportings of the same issue before your question is placed on the agenda, after which the committee decides what to prioritize and how and when to deal with the issue. That in it self takes about 4 months."

Right that very instant, a man walked in holding a device the size of a lunch box. "Oh my", my host uttered: "They're here. They're actually here!" Apparently our timing, nor the man with lunch boxes', could have been better if we tried. This was the maintenance guy. And the lunch box wasn't a lunch box at all, it was a lux meter. How perfect is that?

The maintenance guy however glanced at nothing or no one, but his little box. He changes position three times, pushes a few buttons and shouted both clearly and annoyed: "Within parameters. Problem solved." After which he left the room, again without acknowledging anyone's presence.

I'm looking at this scene, dumbfounded. My host gazes at the floor, sighs and says: "Now if you'll excuse me…" and he went back to his desk. Everyone on the floor turned back to their screens and covered their presence in absolute silence.

I left the room and went for the coffee machine to let things sink in for a minute. Here I was, in the company of life saving engineers, who were told that they aren't even deemed capable of screwing in a friggin' light bulb…

No training on creative thinking was ever going to change the output of the team I had just visited. I advised management to take a different approach. I've been told they are still debating about it in a newly founded taskforce.
I'm not sure, but I swear I can feel a headache coming up.

Take care,
Karl

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