A big thank you to everyone who participated in the Unlocked Box Creativity & Innovation at Work poll! The results are in and I’m excited to share them with you.
First, 66.67% of poll takers were entrepreneurs, solopreneurs or otherwise self-employed.
This result could mean that those who are self-employed are just more interested in creativity and innovation at work then the rest of the working population – and, thus, more attracted to taking the poll. I’d be curious if you have thoughts about that: Are those who are self-employed (entrepreneurs and solopreneurs, especially) more interested in or dependent upon creativity and innovation at work than those who work for someone else are?
What made me think this may be the case were the responses to the next question in the survey: What role does creativity play in your work?
Almost 45% indicated that creativity is encouraged, but not required, with another 35% stating that their primary responsibility was to be creative at work. Yet only 11% said that they either would be let go or risk their company not doing as well if they weren’t creative.
I think this might indicate that the core products/services of poll takers businesses are likely not creative products themselves – meaning, as a whole, they likely don’t own or work for design, advertising, fashion, media or other types of firms where the primary output is some form of “creative,” and where everything lives or dies based on creative execution specifically. Which in no way would imply that creativity and innovation with regard to products and services are not important to poll takers (obviously, it’s extremely important per the responses), but simply that the core competency of these companies is likely not around producing “creative” itself (ads, logos, photos, film, etc.).
One of the most interesting insights from the poll was the down-the-middle split between those who are highly comfortable with their creativity at work (55%), and those who would either like to be more creative at work (22%) or who have some fear around their level of creativity at work (22%). This is interesting especially because, when it came to the final question, every respondent indicated they would like to enhance one or more things around their personal creativity and/or innovation at work – and about one third of poll takers checked more than one option.
To me, this speaks to the inherent nature of those interested in creativity and innovation – to this group, there’s always something new to learn and there’s always more room and motivation to stretch.
The results that blew me away most (and excited me the most), though, were the responses to questions about innovation – 78% of respondents indicated that they would like to innovate more. To me, this speaks directly to what we talked about two weeks ago: The possibility of a coming Age of Innovation.
It would seem that many believe that innovation is becoming more and more of a requirement in the workplace – and that we’re raring to take this on and become more innovative, not to mention help others enhance and increase their ability to innovate.
Here are the exact results to the last question of the survey – When it comes to creativity and innovation at work, what would you like more information about or resources on? (multiple responses were allowed):
Enhancing my personal creativity – become a better creative professional at work: 45%
Increasing my personal creative output – producing more ideas at work: 22%
Increasing my creative thinking skills: 44%
Improving the quality of my ideas: 45%
Increasing my personal ability to innovate: 33%
Increasing my company’s or workplace’s ability to innovate: 11%
Overcoming concern, anxiety or fear around creativity or innovation at work: 12%
Navigating my ideas through the “system” and into reality: 23%
Creating consensus for my ideas at work: 0%
Increasing the overall creativity of my team: 0%
Increasing the number of innovations my team produces: 0%
Creating a culture of innovation: 22%
Creating a culture that’s supportive of creative thinking: 0%
Creativity and/or innovation tools and resources: 24%
Getting more creative thinking and innovation from others: 12%
The above results lead me to several questions/assumptions (things I’m now even more curious about). The survey sample was small and I think these numbers may have been a little different given larger sample size, and most certainly given a larger group of respondents in the corporate or non-profit arenas. Oh, well, until next time!
To getting curious about creativity and innovation at work.