Chef vs Cook

A chef is expected to try lot of new things and come up with creative new dishes. Cooks are expected to make a dish efficiently with a little variation. But rather than focussing on business operations, you’ll need to constantly come up with new recipes. This is why creative environements and culture still is very business critical for all industries.

Creativity & Culture

Creative cultures are more important than ever in the software industry, because we are in an era where consumer experience is critically important as a selling factor. So what is needed to live this? A creative culture starts with the insight, that:

Creativity is not a solo act! Tweet this!

Creativity involves people from different disciplines to work effictively together, constantly solving problems. The hard thing comes with the culture between those interdisciplinary people to see them as peers, and create a climate that fosters deep mutual respect and trust. People need to learn to appreciate the work of their collegues from other disciplines, bringing together a broader set of alternatives to bear on mutual challenges. Another dimension that will support creativity is equal pay and equal status for all involved people.

Agile workstyles foster creative environments

Agile workstyles foster creative environments, for example through their nature of repeating routines, like reviews or daily meetings, in giving and receiving feedback from other team members. This feedback is like continuous improvement from your peers challenging the status quo. All involved people should challenge common practises, come up with new ideas to optimize outcome as well as the organizational structures and practices.

What is your opinion? What do you think?

Recommended reading: How Pixar Fosters Collective Creativity