How to Get a Bigger Dose of Creativity
Supply chain professionals have stepped up their savings game due to the effects of the recession of 2009, but are they really creatively driving the last dollar out of your supply chain or just nibbling around the edges? Here are five big ideas that will give you an even bigger dose of creativity to ramp up your savings in these unsettling times:
1. You don’t have all of the good ideas
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen the door closed on good ideas because they weren’t invented by the supply chain department. It’s now time to encourage new and better ideas to bubble up from your vendors, staff, co-workers and department heads to bring new inspiration to the job at hand.
2. You need to collaborate more with your peers
Too many supply chain professionals act as if they are lone rangers as opposed to collaborating with their peers in teams to make savings happen. As an individual you can only accomplish a minuscule amount of work on a daily basis, but you can supercharge your savings efforts by teaming up with your peers to get this hard work done.
3. You need to have more diversity in your teams
Teams that act, look and think alike won’t generate new, different and better solutions to your challenges. One little known secret to boosting your creativity is to get people with different backgrounds and expertise to work together as creative contributors.
4. Accept some failures and dry holes as inevitable
Don’t be frustrated by some failures and dry holes that your team(s) will experience in searching out savings, but instead consider them a learning experience. It’s your job to make your team members feel safe, confident and risk averse so that they can filter the best ideas for implementation and kill projects that are leading to a dead end.
5. Give your team members as much responsibility as possible.
Your team members should be given as much responsibility for their projects as possible. They shouldn’t be second guessed by your team leaders or senior management on their findings and recommendations. Most importantly, they need to be given sufficient time and resources for exploration and implementation of their projects.
Getting a bigger dose of creativity for your supply chain initiatives is more about the process you follow to get results — than luck. It involves tapping into the ideas of right people with the right diversity, accepting some failures and dry holes, and giving your team members as much responsibility as possible. Simply stated, it’s not about being a lone ranger!
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