Improving Organizational Creativity at Drax Technology Company

This study aims to improve creative and innovative ideas at Drax Technology Company. It explores individual blocks to creative thinking such as perceptional block, value block, and cultural blocks. The study proposes a systematic process for creative thinking and suggests activities like CPS, design thinking, brainstorming, and more.

Running head: ORGANIZATIONAL CREATIVITY
ORGANIZATIONAL CREATIVITY
Name of Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1ORGAINZATIONAL CREATIVITY
Executive Summary
The main aim of the study is to focus on the techniques of improving creative and innovative
ideas at Drax Technology Company. There are various individual blocks on part of the
employee of the company such as perceptional block, value block, cultural blocks and others.
In order to overcome these the company uses various creative thinking processes.

2ORGAINZATIONAL CREATIVITY
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Identifying individual blocks to creative thinking at DRAX.................................................3
Proposal for a systematic process of creative thinking Introduction....................................5
Activities undertaken by the company...................................................................................5
CPS.....................................................................................................................................6
Design thinking..................................................................................................................6
Classic brainstorming.........................................................................................................7
Super heroes.......................................................................................................................7
Six thinking hats.................................................................................................................8

3ORGAINZATIONAL CREATIVITY
Introduction
A number of individual blocks arise in terms of mental blocks in the process of
creative thinking (Vanhala and Ritala 2016). Creative thinking is a systematic process that
helps in improving innovation in the individuals through various techniques.
Identifying individual blocks to creative thinking at DRAX
The company has been losing its market position recently and has decided to carry out
radical thinking on part of the board of directors and for that the focus needs to be changed
from hardware, software provider to taking advantage of the internet of things (IOT),
artificial intelligence and machine learning. The company a traditional company that made
use of traditional techniques and became successful using the same. However recently
enough the directors have understood that the traditional techniques are not being successful
in the present environment so the company is deciding to enter into partnership with the KTP
or the knowledge transfer partnership in UK but this has resulted in individuals blocks in the
employees who were carrying out traditional techniques (Jabez and Muthukumar 2015).
These people are facing an individual mental blocks because the company has shifted from
traditional techniques to technologically advanced techniques. The objective of the company
is to reposition itself in the market and for that their work life balance is being affected that is
also acting as a block for the employees.
The culture of Drax technology is that the company believes in hard work, technology
insight and team work. However, many times the culture of the organization may not
influence and encourage an individual towards creative thinking and there may still exist
individual blocks. Cultural blocks can be in form of social blocks and physical blocks. The
culture of few countries is that they find it difficult to adapt to changes and the same can be

4ORGAINZATIONAL CREATIVITY
understood through Hofstede’s theory. According to Hofstede, there are many countries that
follow traditional approaches and do not focus on the sustainability of the company and as
such do not adapt to technological changes. These cultures of the countries influence the
individual’s culture and are the reasons for individual blocks to innovation and creativity ion
the organizations. In the instance of Drax technology, the company was doing well with their
traditional techniques but then they lost their market position and decided to adapt various
technological innovations and it became important to carry out change management. The type
of cultural distance gap maintained in a country according to Hofstede also acts as an
individual block (Beugelsdijk, Kostova and Roth 2017). In country’s like UK, there is the
culture of hierarchical structure that means that the country face communication gap between
the top management and the employees because the employees cannot freely share their
innovative ideas. Drax needs to ensure that such an environment is created which allows its
employees to freely share their ideas. Another major individual block is that of perception
block in which the major obstacles to the individuals arise due to lack of proper information
available to the individuals regarding the situation. In Drax, this problem arises when the
employees are not explained the reason for transforming their business from traditional to
technologically advanced techniques. Individual values means the importance that an
individual gives to a particular activity. If the employees feel that it is beneficial to contribute
to innovativeness and creativity of the organization then they will be motivated to do the
same. If the management at drax is capable of explaining the importance of applying modern
techniques then they will contribute to these techniques by giving new ideas. Change
management plays a very important role here to help the employees of Drax adapt easily to
the technological changes taking place. For carrying out proper change management a change
agent is needed or the transformational leader. These leaders can help to show the bigger

5ORGAINZATIONAL CREATIVITY
picture to the employees such as what advantages the company will be able to tale if it adapt
the technological changes.
Proposal for a systematic process of creative thinking
Introduction
Creative thinking on parts of the employees of Drax is important because recently it
has been losing its market share and by adopting these techniques the company will be able to
become sustainable and in order to regain its market position.
Creative thinking process for Drax
The company is presently facing problems related to competition from small suppliers
of fire detection products and limited sales resource for alarm management. In order to attain
a competitive advantage regarding the same issues it is important to carry out creative
thinking process for the employees of the company. The employees need to look at the
problems in a newer way unlike its traditional ways of looking and solving the problems.
Activities undertaken by the company
The company is trying to change the creativity and innovations scenario of the
company by conducting regular workshops for its employees, stakeholders and others in an
organization for encouraging them towards creativity and innovation. However, the company
can carry out some more activities such as creating an environment where ideas can be shared
freely since the culture of the individuals of the organization is that of maintaining the
hierarchy system. Many employees of the organization still find the problem of sharing their
ideas.

6ORGAINZATIONAL CREATIVITY
CPS
There are four main stages in the creative process thinking that needs to be followed
in order to solve the problems being faced by the company through creative and innovative
ideas. The first stage is the preparation stage (Satriawati 2017). In this stage, the employees
of the organization redefine their problems that there being faced with. The employees of
Drax need to understand the problems clearly and try to redefine the same. The second stage
is incubation stage and in this stage the employees are prepared for seeing the problems in a
different ways and solving the same through new techniques as against the traditional
solutions that were being provided. Such as the company is trying to adopt Ai techniques and
robotics technology in order to improve their fire alarm system that will also look after many
other operations. The employees can suggest some more ideas to the same. The third stage is
that of illumination that involves turning logical thoughts into ideas and conveying the same.
The last stage of the CPS is that of Verification stage. In this stage, the ideas are to be applied
to real practice. The company is presently innovating various techniques to become
sustainable by solving major environmental problems. The company needs to carry out
design thinking activities in order to bring creativity at the work place.
Design thinking
The process of design thinking comprises of five main stages (Kolko 2015). The first
stage is empathizing in which the employees and the management needs to develop a deeper
understanding of the challenge. The major challenge of the company is that they need to
develop some new products such that competitive advantage can be gained by the company.
The second stage is that of defining and clearly explaining the problem that the company
wants to solve. The main problem that the company wants to solve is that it wants to
overcome the fierce competition that it is facing from smaller suppliers of fire management

7ORGAINZATIONAL CREATIVITY
products. The third stage involves generating ideas such that the problems can be solved and
these ideas need to come from the management as well as the employees. Various
brainstorming activities can be carried out. The next stage is to develop a prototype of the
ideas regarding the new products development such that it can be tested before actually
launching it in the market. The final stage is of testing, the company needs to continuously
improve its products through continuously reviewing its performance. Design thinking is
used as a strategy for innovation by Drax. They are now innovating techniques to generate
energy using biomass and replacing high carbons. Therefore this process is aimed at meeting
the environmental problem due to usage of high carbons. The company is trying to become
sustainable and regain its position using various design thinking techniques.
Classic brainstorming
The most classical technique for idea generation is brainstorming. In this technique all
the employees need to carry out a group discussion sessions with all the employees getting
equal chances for putting forth their ideas (Rawlinson 2017). This technique helps in
generating various creative ideas and all the employees can discuss their ideas so they feel
that their suggestions are being heard. Drax needs to ensure that the brainstorming is
conducted in such a setup with such participants that the employees can freely discuss their
ideas.
Super heroes
In the super hero technique, the members select a character from various super heroes.
They can even wear costumes or at least use some signs related to the character and then
generate ideas related to the same. The company is looking for technological innovations and
innovations for development of new products so they can use characters that represent
innovations and for developing new products.

8ORGAINZATIONAL CREATIVITY
Six thinking hats
It is a group activity in which the facilitator gives the topic of discussions to the
group. The group is then required to share their views that can be differing from each other
(De Bono 2017). The main objective of this activity is to arrive at an agreed solution and
generate new ideas that is agreeable to all the participants. This technique can be used for
Drax employees where they can discuss various ideas for solving the problems faced by
them.
Monte Carlo Technique
Monte Carlo technique is a simulation technique that discusses about the expected
outcome of certain activities on the basis of the random variables and probability distribution.
This technique is used for carrying out a risk analysis. By carrying out this simulation
technique, the company can identify its probable risks and take steps to reduce the effect of
the same or the mitigate it. The company is presently facing problems of facing challenges
from the other small suppliers, using this technique they can find out steps needed to gain
competitive advantage.
Conclusion
From the above discussion it can be concluded that the organization needs to carry out
various Creative process thinking activities in order to overcome various individual blocks.
There are various types of individual blocks such as cultural blocks, perception blocks, value
blocks and others. The company can apply brainstorming techniques, superhero techniques
and others.

9ORGAINZATIONAL CREATIVITY

10ORGAINZATIONAL CREATIVITY
References
Beugelsdijk, S., Kostova, T. and Roth, K., 2017. An overview of Hofstede-inspired country-
level culture research in international business since 2006. Journal of International
Business Studies, 48(1), pp.30-47.
De Bono, E., 2017. Six thinking hats. Penguin UK.
Jabez, J. and Muthukumar, B., 2015. Intrusion detection system (IDS): anomaly detection
using outlier detection approach. Procedia Computer Science, 48, pp.338-346.
Kolko, J., 2015. Design thinking comes of age.
Rawlinson, J.G., 2017. Creative thinking and brainstorming. Routledge.
Satriawati, G., 2017. The Implementation Of Open-Inquiry Approach To Improve Students’
Learning Activities, Responses, And Mathematical Craetive Thinking Skills.
Vanhala, M. and Ritala, P., 2016. HRM practices, impersonal trust and organizational
innovativeness. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 31(1), pp.95-109.