Read a selection of your colleagues’ postings. Respond to two of your colleagues (select colleagues, if possible, who have not yet received feedback on their original post) in one or more of the following ways: · Based on your experience and the resources from the course, provide that person with additional suggestions and/or alternative approaches that he or she may not have considered specific to his or her evaluation. · Compare your colleagues’ ideas with what IDEO found to be successful. Does IDEO offer additional ideas that would enhance the potential for success of your colleagues’ suggestions? · Provide positive feedback that describes how the post gave you new perspectives on how to support and encourage a creative environment in the workplace. Provide details about how those perspectives influence the way you now think about creativity in the workplace. MUST USE TEMPLATES/HEADINGS BELOW Responses to Colleagues Template Additional Alternatives or Suggestions to Colleague Comparison of Colleagues Ideas to IDEO Ideas Positive Feedback on New Perspectives Supporting Creative Environment APA References 1st Colleague to respond to: Factors That Contribute to a Creative Climate Specific to Both Individuals and Teams Just last week, I started my new career as a Licensing Specialist. Thus far, it has been a wonderful experience and I am grateful for all the opportunities that are brought forth with my new career position. There is great leadership demonstrated at my job that allows the company to run smoothly. Each department has a team lead as well as a supervisor, although, you would not know it because they are reserved and treat everyone equally as if everyone is on the same management level. Puccio, Mance, and Murdock (2011) says “employee performance is more important than seniority, and the behavior of IDEO leadership consistently demonstrates that flexibility is “in” and rigid rules are “out” ” (Puccio, Mance, and Murdock, 2011, pp. 3-4). Our leaders are not strict on us and permit us the freedom to take risks, make mistakes, and learn from them. There are rules and regulations presented, however, our leaders provide an environment that is not just easy to work in, but comfortable and safe to work in.  Our work environment is surrounded by each individual having their own cubicle desk amongst their own team. Some but not all of the supervisors have their own office. Due to the open space that everyone has, it encourages everyone to mingle by communicating with each other, learning from each other, and sharing creative ideas with one another for the success of the company. The work environment is crucial at my organization mainly because of everyone not being able to have their own individual offices with having doors for privacy. “IDEO has learned that having the right size workspace makes a difference. Too much workspace decreases energy and slightly tight space generates energy. There are opportunities for spontaneous interactio.

1. Read a selection of your colleagues’ postings.
Respond to two of your colleagues (select colleagues, if
possible, who have not yet received feedback on their original
post) in one or more of the following ways:
· Based on your experience and the resources from the course,
provide that person with additional suggestions and/or
alternative approaches that he or she may not have considered
specific to his or her evaluation.
· Compare your colleagues’ ideas with what IDEO found to be
successful. Does IDEO offer additional ideas that would
enhance the potential for success of your colleagues’
suggestions?
· Provide positive feedback that describes how the post gave
you new perspectives on how to support and encourage a
creative environment in the workplace. Provide details about
how those perspectives influence the way you now think about
creativity in the workplace.
MUST USE TEMPLATES/HEADINGS BELOW
Responses to Colleagues Template
Additional Alternatives or Suggestions to Colleague
Comparison of Colleagues Ideas to IDEO Ideas
Positive Feedback on New Perspectives Supporting Creative
Environment
APA References
1st Colleague to respond to:
Factors That Contribute to a Creative Climate Specific to Both
Individuals and Teams
Just last week, I started my new career as a Licensing
Specialist. Thus far, it has been a wonderful experience and I
am grateful for all the opportunities that are brought forth with
my new career position. There is great leadership demonstrated
at my job that allows the company to run smoothly. Each
department has a team lead as well as a supervisor, although,

2. you would not know it because they are reserved and treat
everyone equally as if everyone is on the same management
level. Puccio, Mance, and Murdock (2011) says “employee
performance is more important than seniority, and the behavior
of IDEO leadership consistently demonstrates that flexibility is
“in” and rigid rules are “out” ” (Puccio, Mance, and Murdock,
2011, pp. 3-4). Our leaders are not strict on us and permit us the
freedom to take risks, make mistakes, and learn from them.
There are rules and regulations presented, however, our leaders
provide an environment that is not just easy to work in, but
comfortable and safe to work in.
Our work environment is surrounded by each individual having
their own cubicle desk amongst their own team. Some but not
all of the supervisors have their own office. Due to the open
space that everyone has, it encourages everyone to mingle by
communicating with each other, learning from each other, and
sharing creative ideas with one another for the success of the
company. The work environment is crucial at my organization
mainly because of everyone not being able to have their own
individual offices with having doors for privacy. “IDEO has
learned that having the right size workspace makes a difference.
Too much workspace decreases energy and slightly tight space
generates energy. There are opportunities for spontaneous
interactions among people” (Puccio, Mance, and Murdock,
2011, p. 4). The open space allows everyone to value each other
as well as pay attention to the needs of each other. I believe the
overall size of our organization is good because we have less
than one hundred employees, therefore due to the smaller size,
it is easy for everyone to communicate with each other,
especially to their team leads and supervisors.
My organization deals with enterprise compliance management
solutions for different industries such as insurance companies,
banks, and securities. Since there are various departments
broken down because of the magnitude of the overall business,
there are many solutions that have each of their own processes
that must take place. For instance, with my department in

3. registration and licensing, we have a certain process that we
follow that differs from everyone else. We manage insurance
and securities credentialing to help merge potential solutions.
Factors That Supported Creativity of Employees and Teams
I believe the way the leadership, work environment, and
process factors have helped support the creativity of the
employees and teams at my organization is by there being a
designated space for creativity such as brainstorming in our
teams to help come up with solutions. Also, always referring
back to our mission and vision of the company allows there to
be support of creativity. We already have various teams in the
workplace that are diverse which also helps support
creativity.
Initiative That Could Strengthen Climate of Creativity
Unfortunately, I have not been with the company that long,
therefore if I were to choose an initiative that could possibly
strengthen the climate of creativity, I would select risk-taking.
So far, I have realized that many employees have a fear of
taking risk to help bring creative solutions to the company. I am
certain that if the leaders of my organization can come up with
a process or processes that will help encourage every employee
to be a risk taker, it will be very beneficial for the overall
company. Puccio, Mance, and Murdock (2011) mentions how
“leaders understand that risk-taking is essential and mistakes
will occur. One-way risk-taking is encouraged and practiced is
through in-house design challenges” (Puccio, Mance, and
Murdock, 2011, p. 4). This strengthens everyone’s confidence
level, allows one to disquinch themselves from our competitors,
and it allows one to seek after potential benefits that end in the
result of a creative innovative solution that is needed.
APA References
Puccio, G. J., Mance, M., & Murdock, M. C. (2011) Creative
climate: Work environment allows IDEO to deliver promise of
innovation. In Puccio, Mance & Murdock, Creative leadership:
Skills that drive change (pp. 314–320). Los Angeles, CA: Sage.

4. 2nd Colleague to Respond to:
The organization that I have chosen to focus on for this
discussion is an international not-for-profit group that was
founded for the purpose of assisting children in developing
countries. My family is heavily involved in the administration
and I am familiar with how they operate.
Factors That Contribute to a Creative Climate Specific to Both
Individuals and Teams
While the creative process in this organization is considerably
different than it is with my own job, they do share some
common themes. For example, Idea Support is strong in both
organizations. However, I would say that the top factors that
contribute to the creative climate are Challenge & Involvement,
Dynamism, and Low Conflict.
Perhaps because it is a charitable organization, the Challenge &
Involvement always seems to be front and center. Funding is
one of the biggest issues because they have non-traditional
revenue streams. Funding is also dependent on exposure, so the
organization is constantly looking for new ways to promote
themselves, build a brand, and then raise money. They are
constantly in search of entertaining ways to accomplish their
serious and benevolent goals.
I list Dynamism next because of two reasons. First, there are
many pictures, awards, and other memorabilia in the office to
remind people of past successes. The intention is that these are
motivating, and from what I can see, they are. Next, they host a
lot of fundraising events such as dinners, and at every possible
opportunity they bring in guest speakers to excite and inspire
the crowd. The dinner events are a lot of talking and
socializing, yet not much eating.
The Low Conflict aspect is important in my opinion because the
charity operates as a family that helps families. I know of
virtually no conflict that has occurred over the years, and
considering the driven, yet laid-back demeanor of the founder
and directors, I don’t expect that this will change in the near

5. future. On the topic of managing conflict in non-profit
organizations, Seaman (n.d.) says that much time is spent
dealing with conflict in non-profits because of change, in
particular, because of pressure related to funding. I think that
this organization has managed to avoid this problem because it
has stayed small, yet focused. Indeed, they have found creative
solutions to promote their agenda, yet remain small enough to
keep things simple. There are problems with this model, but I
will address them later.
Factors That Supported Creativity of Employees and Teams
Both the employees and the volunteers are encouraged to come
up with new ideas to build awareness, promote their message,
and raise money. The Idea Time is different than that described
by Puccio, Mance, & Murdock (2011) in that the majority of
ideas aren’t generated during brainstorming sessions or
spontaneous conversation in the office. Interestingly, they do a
lot of visiting places as a group and generate ideas based on
what they see and experience. I have heard many stories about
how a trip to visit another country has helped to spawn new,
very creative ideas. Different solutions that were created for
one situation, or locale, are often valid and transferable to
others. In turn, these successes motivate the entire group.
Coupled with Idea Team is Idea Support. Much in the way we
approach a problem using convergent thinking, no idea is a bad
idea until it’s been thoroughly examined and debated. The
rationale is that somebody thinks it is worth investing time into,
and they are doing their best to help, so they should certainly be
given the maximum opportunity to present it.
Initiative That Could Strengthen Climate of Creativity
One of the things that I think would help the organization to be
more creative is to build a more diverse team. I think that the
recruitment of new members from different countries, economic
situations, and cultures would lead to many new ideas. At many
points during this course and others, I have referred to authors

6. such as Hall (2019) who praise the creative ability that comes
about, in part, because of diversity in a team.
While it is not lost on me that the Low Conflict I described
above is somewhat dependent on the static nature of the current
organization, I think that there is a lot of benefit to expanding.
If there is a conflict that occurs as a result then it can be dealt
with as it is in any organization. It is not a new problem, and
there are plenty of good solutions, so I would hope that it is not
a barrier to moving forward and becoming creative through the
expansion of the team.
I think that a more diverse team would offer perspectives from
different age groups, socio-economic backgrounds, and cultural
backgrounds. For example, people from other cultures may have
very good ideas on how to build awareness for the demographic
that they most closely associate themselves with. What is
common sense or second nature to one person may be
completely foreign to another. It is for these reasons that I think
building a more diverse group will bolster creativity and help
the organization to succeed well into the future.
APA References
Hall, J. (2019, March 10). The 6 Best Ways To Inspire
Creativity Within Your Team. Retrieved
from https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnhall/2019/03/10/the-6-
best-ways-to-inspire-creativity-within-your-
team/#1547ce3957b9
Puccio, G. J., Mance, M., & Murdock, M. C. (2011) Creative
climate: Work environment allows IDEO to deliver promise of
innovation. In Puccio, Mance & Murdock, Creative leadership:
Skills that drive change (pp. 314–320). Los Angeles, CA: Sage.
Seaman, E. (n.d.). Can Conflict In Nonprofits Be Managed
Successfully? Retrieved
from https://www.mediate.com/articles/nonprofit.cfm