Of course, the older daughter's work will then be critically reviewed and graded (risk element = judgement); the younger one will receive tremendous praise for her initiative alone (risk element = zero), then turn around and create until there are no more crayons left. Which one of these scenarios prevails in most organizations? Scenario number one, although not always intentionally. Our upbringings and educational systems make us adverse to risk - follow the examples or suffer the consequences - and our creativity (self-expression, problem solving skills, etc.) suffers as a result.

Then, once we enter corporate America, the risk saga continues as the perceived personal benefits of expressing creativity are frequently outweighed by the perceived risk of personal failure. Is it any wonder that our creativity hibernates? And to fuel our creative deceleration, down/right-sizing has put considerably more work on our plates, further eroding away at the time and energy that previously existed for generating ideas. This holds for ALL levels in the organization, not just the worker bees.

Assuming what we've addressed so far is a problem, how can we begin to turn it around?

There are three critical factors to reclaiming latent creativity: 1) an organizational foundation of trust; 2) consistent opportunities (read time) and forums to exercise creativity; and 3) acceptance of the value that creativity adds to the financial bottom line.

At ImprovAbility, we live to rekindle creativity. But all of our efforts are doomed if the organizations we partner with aren't truly committed to accept the nurturing of creativity. What is nurturing? It's making gigantic, dramatic change in an organization - change of perspective. It doesn't require overhauling of the business units' processes, just an altering of our view. And a foundation of trust is the cornerstone of "view alteration." Without trust, or a sense of community and respect for the value of new ideas, the personal risk monster looms over us and inhibits us as individuals, which then inhibits the organization's survival.

Here are some pearls from others: Albert Yu, SR VP at Intel: "understand that the creative process is chaotic…be prepared to take risks…interaction between people is essential…Failure is just part of the culture of innovation. Accept it and become stronger." Management guru Tom Peters calls the concept "failing forward", and the CEO of Coke, Robert Goizueta, has said, "We become uncompetitive by not being tolerant of mistakes. The moment you let avoiding failure become your motivator, you're down the path of inactivity. You can stumble only if you're moving."