Article Review Number Three

Article Review Assignment: Innovation and Creativity in Leadership

Name of Article: “From Quality to Breakthrough: New Heights in Innovation”

Name of Journal: Annual Quality Congress

Name of Authors: Steven Zeisler

When and how did you locate this article?

I located this article by searching Murphy Library’s article databases. I ended up locating this article on October 24, 2011 using ProQuest.

Two paragraph synopsis of what you learned in this article:

This article discusses five essential components that make up successful organizations. The first is the Greenhouse Climate which states that leaders should create a climate that nurtures creativity and innovation from its members. The article talks about nine fundamental dimensions that compose a great climate. These dimensions are challenge and involvement, freedom, trust and openness, idea time, playfulness and humor, conflicts, debates, idea support, and risk-taking. The second component is Stability = Death which states that organizations need variability in order for them to reach their maximum potential. The article states that structuring for equilibrium and stability will only inhibit the organization’s members’ creative thinking. The third component is Nudge and Disturb which pushes the organization in the direction needed in order to establish clear goals and targets for the organization to reach its’ peak performance. The fourth component is probe and learn which involves taking risks and experimenting. The article states that probing is seen as successful information finding, and that it is essential for leaders to probe and ask good questions in order for them to find the unknown information.  The final component is Speed which successful organizations see as critical because in order for their ideas, products, and solutions to be heard, they need to get them to market first.

From this article I have learned that the five essential components teach organizations how to be innovative. Innovative organizations are able to come up with new ideas and take imaginable approaches. These organizations are great at moving from idea to implementation flexibly and with speed. Their leaders are committed, involved, and passionate at all levels of the organization. They remain completely engrossed in the success of the organization and support all of its’ decisions that are made. Everyone in the organization is on the same page and has equal opportunity to state their opinions and ideas freely. I believe incorporating the five essential components would be great for all types of organizations, and would lead them to lots of success.

How will you apply this knowledge to your professional development?

I will be able to apply this knowledge to my professional development because I think it is very important to know what makes successful organizations tick. As a TR specialist, I will soon be part of an organization and will be required to come up with creative ideas and programs. I believe if I was part of an organization that had these five components incorporated into their program prior to my arrival, it would provide a much better foundation for me to present ideas and receive beneficial feedback since everyone is working towards a common goal. I think it is important for the whole organization to be in sync and consistently push each other to be the best they can. This article gave a lot of information that I think would be beneficial for any organization to incorporate into their programs, as well as give them something to strive for in the future.    

Would you recommend this article for other TR students? Why or why not?

I would recommend this article to other TR students because I feel it is a great resource that exemplifies what a successful organization is based off of. All of us will be part of organizations in the near future, and having the knowledge from this article would better prepare us for making suggestions which could benefit multiple areas of the organization. I think it is good to know how successful organizations are run because it provides us with a better understanding of what can be done to fix a lagging aspect of an organization that we may be a part of in the future. This article does a great job explaining why each of these five components is beneficial to the organization’s success and how leaders can incorporate them into their organizations.