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Question: Develop a plan to promote creative thinking in your work organisation with a view to enhancing innovation. You will need to include an in-depth literature review critically evaluating alternative contemporary perspectives in order to draw meaningful conclusions and develop feasible recommendations to the organisation. Answer: Introduction It is an undisputed fact that leaders in organizations need to cope with and give a response to the complex matters in the workplace. In some cases, these problems and issues can be solved by adopting a standard set of actions or formula which entails thoroughly examining the drivers and circumstances, retracing something that had been done earlier, or applying logic to formulate the next step (Somech and Drach-Zahavy, 2013 p.685). Woodman, Sawyer, and Griffin (1993) defined organizational creativity as the formulation of valuable and worthwhile new process, procedure, idea, service, or product by people working in a complex social system (Woodman, Sawyer, and Griffin 1993 p. 293). This paper aims at formulating a plan to promote workplace creative thinking so as to enhance innovation. The plan will incorporate theories and literature from various sources including the works of Amabile, Woodman, and Ekvall. Analysis The 21st century has made it necessary for organizations to deal with the ever-increasing levels of complexity. Notably, I think that leaders are now beginning to acknowledge the fact that a cookie cutter perspective is outdated and cannot solely drive the organization forward. I have studied multiple sources which give the general opinion that leaders are currently accepting that organizational problem solving will need more than just logic and analysis (Schneider and Spieth, 2013 p.1340001). Perhaps, I am of the opinion creativity might come in handy to create innovative solutions. In brief, to be creative, an individual will have to show originality and stay away from the status quo. It is important to note that when the whole team is granted creative freedom, a myriad of host benefits follow. Some of these benefits include enhanced intra and inter-team collaborations, ease in attracting and keeping the best talent and better profits and productivity (Prajogo, 2016 p.242). Keeping this in mind, it is essential to develop a plan tailored to fostering creative thinking in the workplace. Creating a plan will entail looking at the works of multiple reliable works. Goran Ekvall studied how different working conditions in various organizations impacted participation. In this regard, he identified the 9 spheres that can promote creativity in the workplace. These spheres include involvement and challenge, freedom, trust, idea time, humor, conflict, idea support, debate, and risk taking (Ekvall, G., 1996 p.106). All the aforementioned spheres are linked closely (and positively) to creativity and innovation in the workplace except conflict. Workplaces that have been noted to possess a high degree of conflict will find it difficult to sustain creativity and innovation. Therefore, Ekvalls work proposes that organizations should strive to clinch a high score on the 8 dimensions and a low one on the conflict dimension. By doing so, enhanced creativity would be realized. Ekvall further studies the impact of organizational climate on the productivity of the organization. Climate has a significant impact on the psychological as well as the organizational processes including handling of conflicts, problem solving, communication, and decision making. Organizational climate will, therefore, impact the productivity and efficiency of the business and also an impact on the innovation ability, job satisfaction, and the general wellbeing of the employees. In essence, the climate affects the individual organization member as a whole. In brief, to promote creativity and innovation, the organizations culture needs to be adjusted accordingly. Amabile (1997) notes that enhancement of creativity can only be realized if the entire team in the organization is ready to offer support. Leaders in the organization should, hence, enact the right systems and structures which stress on creativity as the most important aspect of the organization. She further suggests that organizations should support creativity by supporting it. Moreover, leaders should minimize gossips, politicking, and infighting as these have been noted to damage creativity and innovation. Amabile submits that such negativity can cause extreme consequences for organizational creativity. Amabile also gives a framework of small team creativity composed of 3 elements including individual motivation, creative thinking, and expertise (Amabile, T.M., 1997 p.39). A manager can impact all the three elements, but the most important element is motivation which entails giving challenges, encouragements, support, and availing resources. Hence, there are various steps a company can take to move from what is described as a traditional and less innovate setting to one that holds great value in creativity. I have described these approaches in the sections below. The first method I have identified is to promote creative thinking. Indeed, it is essential for the modern companies to encourage and promote the creativity of each and every worker. According to CIC, organizations can achieve this by allowing workers to take risks, make mistakes, be curious, question assumptions, seek formotivation via discussion and research, set aside time to determine inspirational sources, and explore various experiments and concepts to create excellent approaches and products (Qian, Cao and Takeuchi, 2013 p.115). Second, I fully agree that the organization should provide a fun and collaborative environment. In brief, this entails fostering an environment that is more inclined to face-to-face relationships so as to enhance collaboration. Additionally, the organization should encourage diversity. Looking at an Ernst Young Global Insight which was given recently, there is the great need for companies to shift from a consensus approach to doing things and promote diversity amongst workers. In the presence of diversity, creativity, and team-based problem-solving are achieved, which ultimately translates to general performance improvement. EY also references two types of research conducted by Ford Germany and Henley Management College, all of which agree that the greater the level of heterogeneity, the more creativity is observed, translating in an improved thought process. On the same note, Forbes emphasizes the need for employee diversity in a Forbes Insights report that focuses on crucial findings from a study of executives who valued inclusion and diversity in their organizations. Director of global diversity and inclusion at Intel notes that the productivity of the company has tremendously improved as a result of div ersity (Csikszentmihalyi and Sawyer, 2014 p.70). Therefore, it is true to conclude that diversity is a key innovation driver and also essential for global success. At this point, it is perhaps worth acknowledging that creativity in the office environment is of utmost importance. Notably, the cubicle is seemingly outdated and no employee would want to sit all day in a corner, separated from the entire office. Hence, if an organization needs to promote a creative culture, the office environment should mirror a new approach. The modern organizations which are regarded as more innovative and progressive have developed outstanding office spaces that are tailored to unite employees. Such designs are often composed of modern furniture, open spaces, activity centers, comfortable seating zones, bright colors, and so forth. These spaces ensure or give ample room for employees to chat, air their opinions and ideas, bond, and collaborate. Some of the outstanding office environments, as showcased by Forbes include Google, Microsoft, Epic, Infosys, and Box. Taking a look at Google office environment, for instance, employees can slide from one office floor to the other. At Microsoft offices, there are comfortable seating zones and big tablets for exploration and discussions. Conclusions As seen in this report, the time for transforming the working environment into a more innovative one has come. These new transformations should be aimed at redefining the functioning of organizations. This report not only outlines a clear plan for promoting creativity to achieve innovation but also briefly outlines the benefits that come along with creativity which include enhanced intra and inter-team collaborations, ease in attracting and keeping the best talent and better profits and productivity. For this reasons, promotion of creativity should be one of the top agendas in any organization. This report notes that to achieve creativity, the organization should start by promoting a culture of creativity. A workplace with a creative culture is associated with tremendous energy that is seemingly absent in the traditional office environment. In short, the working space is synonymous with excitement, employees can be seen to be actively thinking and sharing their thoughts, chatting, an d developing worthwhile concepts that aim at increasing the organization's productivity. The organization can achieve this by encouraging thoughts that exhibit creativity, offering a fun and collaborative working space, offering freedom coupled with the necessary boundaries, and encouraging diversity. Finally, as seen in big and innovate corporations such as Google and Microsoft, the time has come where organizations need to shift from outdated cubicles to a modern office landscape that reflects creativity and innovation. Recommendations Taking all the evidence provided in the analysis section into consideration, there is the need for organizations to foster and sustain creativity and innovation. The suggestions proposed by Ekvall and Amabile should serve as reference points for organizations. Ekvall proposes that organizations should strive to clinch a high score on the 8 dimensions and a low one on the conflict dimension. By doing so, enhanced creativity would be realized. The climate at the organization also plays a huge role in creativity as it impacts the productivity and efficiency of the business and also an impact on the innovation ability, job satisfaction, and the general wellbeing of the employees. Amabile insists that support from the entire team is important if creativity is to be realized. In this regard, leaders in the organization should be willing to enact the right systems and structures which stress on creativity as the most important aspect of the organization. Also, the organization needs to fost er diversity as multiple studies have been presented to argue the case that diversity promotes creativity. Such studies include those conducted by EY Insight, Ford Germany, and Henley Management College. These studies unanimously agree that the greater the level of heterogeneity, the more creativity is observed, translating in an improved thought process. In addition this, the entire working space matters a lot and time has come to where modern environments should reflect creativity and innovation. References Amabile, T.M., 1997. Motivating creativity in organizations: On doing what you love and loving what you do.California management review,40(1), pp.39-58. Csikszentmihalyi, M. and Sawyer, K., 2014. Shifting the focus from individual to organizational creativity. InThe systems model of creativity(pp. 67-71). Springer, Dordrecht. Dawson, P. and Andriopoulos, C., 2014.Managing change, creativity and innovation. Sage. Ekvall, G., 1996. Organizational climate for creativity and innovation.European journal of work and organizational psychology,5(1), pp.105-123. Prajogo, D.I., 2016. 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