Thinking Creatively
Some of the best policies and procedures that we have implemented have come from examining what works, what doesn't work and the creatively coming to the best solution with how to proceed. Very informative!
Unfortunately we need policies and procedures to make the world go. It seems like we spend more time creatively trying to work within P/P.. SOP's, MOP's, etc.. than getting work done.
In a fast past restaurant world, we need consistency, and creativity to be successful.
The Policies and procedures are great to keep the employees - team members- happy and functioning, but my policy is when you find someone creative, as a leader you can only be more successful, and make your life easier, by fostering someone elses creativity and letting them lead.
Sometimes the most creative cooks in the kitchen are the cooks, and not the chefs, who have been working for years. new blood is always a good thing, but unfortunately ego stifles it. In the culinary field, ego is everywhere, and creativity is always needed, so finding a balance is a important..
Yes,very informative.After spending 38 years in a truck,this has helped me think outside the box.The last ten years were spent on auto pilot.
I agree ego from a strong personality can stop any sort of creativity, especially from someone full of ideas that may just be quiet. I always look for someone that has a neutral personality to lead in group discussions as they seem to listen more to everybody. This has always worked best for me.
True that we must experiment and find out what works and doesn, but that Pragmatism (with a capital "P")is limited and limiting as far as gaining knowledge of the world. If all we are concferned with are the results--what works and doesn--without understanding the process that made that "thing" work or not, we are destined not to understand anything in any depth. Mistakes will be repeated over and over. We must, indeed, know what works and what doesn't, but more important is the knowledge of why and how any development, including the result, came to be. Pragmatism and its more sophisticated cousin, empiricism, have their limits.
Periodically I'll try to create a prompt with a seemingly impossible problem and encourage my students to solve it using tools that will exist in the future, or imagine doing a mundane task as another animals or in a past time period. The stranger the better. This momentum tends to carry over into their work.
I also encourage reading or learning about seemingly unrelated topics to help break from their everyday.
