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Negativity, judgment and fear are the enemies of creativity. To the extent these exist in the work environment, there can be little creativity.

In business, it isn't enough for an idea to be original; it must also be applicable to creating greater economic growth. It must improve a product or service in some way. Ideas can come from anybody, anytime, and anywhere within the organization.

What can managers and leaders do to enhance creativity in the workplace?

People will be most creative when they feel motivated by the work itself. When people are engaged because of their own natural interest and satisfaction in their work, they will be challenged to be creative through their own intrinsic motivation. External pressures or rewards are never as effective as internal motivation. In order to tap into that resource, people must be matched to jobs that tap into underlying values that motivate and excite them.

Theresa Amabile defines three components necessary within an individual for creative resourcefulness:

1. Intrinsic motivation: a person is naturally stimulated and motivated by their work.
2. Expertise: a person must have the necessary technical, procedural and intellectual knowledge.
3. Creative-thinking skills: a person must be able to use their thinking in flexible and imaginative ways.

Trying to develop someone's expertise and creative-thinking skills can be time-consuming. It is far easier to enhance and tap into someone's internal motivation.

Amabile wrote (HBR, Sept.-Oct. 1998) about six managerial practices that enhance creativity. These categories emerged from more than two decades of research that focused on the links between environment and creativity.

1. Challenge: Matching the right person with the right job in order to play into their expertise and creative thinking skills. This can ignite the intrinsic motivation that is the key to unleashing creative potential.

Making a good match requires the manager to have access to important information about employees and their preferences. This may mean using information available through assessments such as DISC, PIAV, Meyers-Briggs or any other instruments that indicate values and preferences. This also requires good listening and observing. People express what interests them and excites them all the time; are you listening?

2. Freedom: Intrinsic motivation and ownership is enhanced when people are free to approach their work the way they choose. They may not choose the mountain, but at least let them decide how they will climb it.