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Nel M. Mostert
Lot H. Frijling
Creativity in organizations can be measured and
acquired
November 2001
Vol. 31, No. 11, pp 50–
53.
Creativity plays an ever-increasing role in organizations as they strive for a
continuous flow of innovations. After all, there is no innovation without
creativity. A model consisting of five criteria for creativity in organizations
was the foundation of the Creativity Awareness Programme (CAP), which is
being applied successfully at Unilever Research Vlaardingen (URV,
Vlaardingen, The Netherlands). Unilever (www.unilever.com) is a global
corporation that manufactures food, home, and personal care products. At
URV, 1600 employees support the Unilever companies worldwide by
providing them with the latest technologies and insights to improve and
develop these consumer products. Like many other companies, URV wants to
stimulate creativity in its workers to reach big and bold innovations (see box,
“‘The making of . . .’ Creativity within URV”).
The Creativity Awareness Programme

We developed CAP as a tool to place creativity in individual and

organizational contexts. As such, the program can be used by individual staff
members, teams, departments, or entire organizations.
The package comprises the Creativity Awareness Model, the Creativity
Climate Questionnaire, and the Creativity Awareness Training Modules.
Together, these form an all-in-one package suitable for individuals and
organizations looking for ways to enhance the use of creativity. We foresee
that the outcome of the program will be the implementation of Creative
Problem Solving methods in the daily working environment and will result in
new creative projects and patents, as well as new individual and organizational
attitudes.
CAP aims to make creativity the subject of discussion within organizations.
All too often, the concept of creativity is vague and hard to describe. This
program focuses on making the concept tangible and concrete by measuring
and learning to use creativity. Participants are offered a set of tools to tap and
 use their own creativity and that of the team, and to
implement the results in the work and structures of the
organization.
By following the program, participants are able to
change their work processes and environment and to
remove barriers to creativity once and for all. They do
this by singling out the organizational aspects of
creativity, such as required resources, time, rewards,
idea management structures, and high-level support.
The Creativity Awareness Model
The Creativity Awareness Model, which supports the
program objectives, defines five creativity criteria:
attitude, behavior, skills, structures, and environment (see box, “Five
creativity awareness criteria”). This model has a multilevel focus: personal
attitude and creativity skills, team behavior, and organizational structures and
environment. The first three criteria are used to find out what employees think
of their own creativity (Am I creative?) or the way they handle creativity
within the team (How do we react to each other’s ideas? Which creativity
skills are used most often?). The last two criteria are aimed specifically at the
implementation of creativity in the workplace. They help organizations focus
on establishing creativity as part of daily routines: making time to work on
creative ideas, providing rewards, implementing idea management structures,
and ensuring high-level support.
The Creativity Climate Questionnaire
The Creativity Climate Questionnaire is a tool to measure the individual, team,
or organizational creativity. It is based on the five creativity criteria, and each
section consists of a number of questions relating to the specific criterion.
The questionnaire can be used by individuals and within groups. When it is
used as a self-assessment tool, the employee fills in the questionnaire,
determines a score using the enclosed score sheet, and reads the provided “tips
and hints” to improve on specific areas.
When the questionnaire is used as a tool for measuring creativity within a
team or entire organization, each member completes the self-assessment. All
of the score sheets are then sent to the facilitator, who works out the scores
and analysis for the teams or organization. The anonymity of participants can
be guaranteed. On the basis of the results, the facilitator recommends a
training plan for the individual or the team by designing the Creativity
Awareness Training Modules using all five modules, or just the ones needed.
If necessary, the Creativity Climate Questionnaire is repeated after a specific
period of time to measure changes in the creative abilities of the employees
and the creative climate of the organization.
The Creativity Awareness Training Modules
Creativity training helps to make individuals aware of their own creative
abilities and the abilities of the team. The outcome of the Creativity Climate
Questionnaire may lead to the conclusion that creativity training is needed.
The training modules that have been developed especially for this purpose can
be used in any sequence, and their contents and duration can be adjusted to
each specific team or work environment. Each complete training consists of
separate modules composing a training route.
 Supported by established management science and
psychological theories, the modules relate to the five
creative criteria defined earlier. Through the use of
assignments, participants put the theories into practice
for themselves. After the training, participants will be
aware of the meaning of creativity and its influencing
factors. An assessment of creativity skills and
techniques that are used in practical assignments are
offered to them as well. After the training, participants
will be able to eliminate barriers to creativity within
the structure of the organization and promote progress
in the efforts of the organization.
So far, 300 URV staff members have followed the Creativity Awareness
Training modules, and their responses have been very positive. The program
has also elicited positive reactions from persons outside the company, because
CAP has influenced the organization as a whole, in addition to increasing
individual creativity.
The creativity awareness route
A manager who wants to assess the creativity of his or her employees would
initiate a discussion with a facilitator and potential participants to determine an
individual’s or a group’s objectives and the best steps to take at that time. The
individual or group completes the Creativity Climate Questionnaire (CCQ),
and a facilitator reports back to the manager. A program is designed based on
the report, in consultation with the manager and the group. Multilevel
intervention may be an option. The facilitator adjusts the training modules on
the basis of the CCQ results and the wishes of the manager and the group.
Ongoing intermediate assessments take place with the manager. If necessary,
the CCQ is repeated after a specified period of time.
What are the results?
After completing the program, we foresee that participants will have
developed their creative problem-solving skills that allow them to begin new
projects and have a changed outlook toward creativity. At URV, the number
of Creative Problem Solving (CPS) sessions has increased considerably since
they were first introduced. CPS has become a standard tool that project teams
use whenever applicable. Sessions are organized to generate ideas for
innovative food or detergent products or to solve technical problems. These
sessions typically produce 120–160 ideas; some of them are worked out in
detail, potentially leading to innovations.
At URV, several projects have started from the ideas that were generated in
the sessions. Some of the ideas arising from a CPS session have even
produced patented inventions. Some project teams that have used the CPS
sessions to advance their project have been nominated for the annual Unilever
Research Vlaardingen Award, where creativity is a criterion.
Of course, the results are not apparent overnight. The Creativity Climate
Questionnaire reveals any bottlenecks in the organization on an individual
level, team level, or senior management level. A team may have high scores
for “own perception of creativity”, while falling short in “team behavior”.
Analysis of the results may lead to the conclusion that individual creativity
does not surface in the team. Apparently, team behavior does not provide
members sufficient stimulation to show any creativity they may have.
Conclusions such as this may demonstrate the need to reopen the discussion
on organizational changes needed to break down obstacles to creativity.
The discussion may give rise to a new outlook on the subject of creativity in
which employees share their problems and accept different opinions and ideas.
“Funny” ideas are considered a potential source of innovation and are taken
very seriously. Consequently, people appreciate each other more, which,
naturally, has a positive effect on the work climate.
New developments
The Creativity Awareness Programme has been designed to be used in any
company. The package is available in English and Dutch. URV is currently
investigating the possibility of licensing the package to one or more training or
consulting agencies to guarantee sufficient coaching as the program is
implemented in other companies. Future plans involve introducing the
questionnaire on intranets or the Internet so that interested people could
conduct their own self-assessments.

References
1. www.synecticsworld.com/home.htm (accessed November 2001).
2. Gaspersz, J.B.R. Management van creativiteit (Management of creativity);
Kluwer Bedrijfsinformatie: Deventer, The Netherlands, 1998.

3. Kao, J. Jamsession op the werkvloer (Jam session on the work floor);

Uitgeverij Contact: Amsterdam, 1996.

4. De Bruyn, M.; De Bruyn, R. Creativiteit, alfa–omega, visie–vorm (Creativity,

alpha–omega, vision–form); Creatief Atelier Windekind: Antwerp, 1999.

5. Frijling, L. H.; Mostert, N. M. Creativity Climate Questionnaire; Unilever

Research: Vlaardingen, The Netherlands, 2000.

Recommended reading

Basadur, M. The Power of Innovation; Pitman Professional

Publishing: London, 1995.

Rickards, T. Creativity in Organisations; The Management

Bibliotheek: Amsterdam, 1990.

Nel M. Mostert is an innovation process facilitator for the Facilitation Unit at Unilever
Research Vlaardingen (PO Box 114 NL, 3130 AC Vlaardingen, The Netherlands;
+31-0-10-4606393; nel.mostert@unilever.com).

Lot H. Frijling was a creativity facilitator in Unilever Research Vlaardingen’s

Facilitation Unit. Currently, she is studying business administration at the Erasmus
University, Rotterdam.

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"The making of…" Creativity within URV

November 2001 In late 1998, Unilever Research started the Creative Pathways program, training
Vol. 31, No. 11, pp 50– facilitators in the Synectics method (Synectics, London) (1). The Synectics
53.
Creative Problem Solving Method (www.synecticsworld.com) stimulates creative
thinking by establishing connections between aspects of the problem at hand and
contexts outside the problem area, allowing novel ideas to emerge. Early in 1999,
45 project leaders held a conference at which members of the Synectics crew
gave a presentation on creativity. Each member of the conference was asked to
name a few creativity enablers and barriers within the organization. This resulted
in a list of subjects that was later used to draw up a Creativity Awareness
Programme (CAP).
In 1999 and 2000, several Creativity Awareness sessions were held for those
groups of employees who wanted to learn more about the potential benefits of
creativity to their work, and various Creative Problem Solving sessions were
organized.

As a result of the Syntectics conference, programs, facilitator training sessions,

and a literature study on the subject of creativity (2–4 and other resources), we
developed the CAP at URV. We interviewed 10 senior managers at URV to tackle
the crucial question, “What is creativity and where does it get us?”. The program
was set up on the basis of the collected information.

As the need arose to make creativity measurable, the Creativity Climate

Questionnaire was developed. With the help of the Creativity Awareness
sessions that were already organized at URV for training the creativity of a few
interested individuals, the program reached its final form, comprising the
Creativity Climate Questionnaire and the Creativity Awareness Training Modules.
The program has developed into a comprehensive package that can be used by
organizations focused to improve creativity.

The concept version of the Creativity Climate Questionnaire underwent careful

pretesting by a representative and varied group of URV staff members. Their
findings were used to validate the questionnaire in consultation with the statistics
department. Results are reported as a median and the 10th and 90th percentiles.
In 1999, the Creativity Climate Questionnaire was published as a book, and it is
currently listed as a Unilever Research publication (5).

Although the validated values are established within a research environment,

plans are to establish a benchmark within other environments as well, such as
with universities or service industries. As of July 2001, more than 330 people
have completed the test. All of the participants— individuals and teams—have
acknowledged and accepted the results as a useful starting point for stimulating
creativity in the workplace.

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Five creativity awareness criteria

Attitude is the perception the employees have of

their own creativity. Employees learn to pay attention
to their own flexibility, share their creativity, and
dispose of mental models (i.e., preconceived
notions).

Behavior refers to the actions and interactions of the

team with respect to creativity. Its areas of attention
include team behavior, team composition, coaching
style, and the extent to which risk-taking is allowed
within the team.

Skills comprise knowledge, learning, and creativity

techniques. The “skills” criterion includes availability
of creativity courses and the application method of
creativity skills during work or problem-solving
processes.

Structures, in this context, refer to idea management

structures and the organizational processes that
stimulate creativity. Structures include idea
management; creativity measuring plans; availability
of time, money, and resources; and creativity
rewards.

Environmental aspects in the organization

encourage or discourage creativity. Environmental
factors include high-level support, strategy definition,
decision-making, communication, corporate culture,
workplace layout, and maintenance of external
contacts.

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