Companies Recognize Mistakes in an Attempt to Increase Creativity

Grey Global Group is a global advertising agency with its headquarters in New York City. They have 432 offices in 96 countries spread throughout North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Asia Pacific, and Latin America. Grey Global Group provides a number of different services including: brand management, marketing strategy, creative development, direct marketing, public relations, public affairs, digital marketing, and production through its subsidiaries worldwide, such as Grey New York. Some well-known clients of Grey Global Group are Proctor & Gamble, Nokia, DirecTV, Downy, NFL, and TNT to name a few. In 2010 Grey Global Group was listed on the Fast Company’s “50 Most Innovative Companies”.

Grey Global Group has a very unique culture. As stated in the book they have “The Heroic Failure Award.” Greys motto is “better to attempt something astonishing and go down in flames than to gingerly hold back.” In order to be an innovative business you need to embrace the importance of failing, and then trying again. To go along with risk taking, astonishing acts, and being innovative, Grey Global Group has a No Meeting Zone every Thursday morning from 9am to noon. They encourage everyone in the company to spend those 3 hours doing something challenging and unexpected. This company continues with their innovative style with the use of the Corkwall. It is used as a message board where all ideas are out in the open and up for discussion. Also health and wellness are a key part to a healthy mind and lifestyle. Creativity booms on the clearness and confidence that comes with good health. At Grey Global Group they offer such things as Yoga, Zumba, softball games, and tips on healthy eating to help keep a healthy and fresh mind and body. All of these very innovative approaches are what make Grey Global Group a top innovative company.

What will Grey Global Groups next step be in becoming more innovative? They are started to expand with a theme called “The Healing Power of Creativity.” This theme is used to inspire children to become more self-expressive and
creative. This pro bono work connects the people at Grey Global Group with children who can benefit the most from a yearlong worth of event, fundraisers, and creative initiatives. Grey Global Group is on the right track being a multibillion dollar company with over 10,000 employees as of 2014. The opportunity to inspire others seems limitless. Considering all of their innovative ideas they have already implemented, I foresee most of Grey Global Groups employees stepping out and taking those innovative risks to accomplish something astonishing! Questions and Answers

1. Did Amanda Zolten use more of a rational or non-rational process when deciding to bring kitty litter to a meeting? Explain.

Amanda Zolten used more of a non-rational process when deciding to bring kitty litter to the meeting. She used Lucy Belle, her own cats “mess” buried in her clients product (kitty litter). Amanda’s decision was satisficing. Her decision was satisfactory and worked well to showcase her client’s product; however, it may not have been the most rational decision.

It was not stated how the kitty litter and “mess” was under the table before brought to the attention of the executives , but it seems to have been a short term solution. The executives making the decision on the product may never know the length of time it would have had to sit until they were able to actually smell it. I do believe this short-term, quick thinking decision will help in the long run of the overall decision. Amanda definitely used her intuition when making her risky decision.

2. Which of the seven evidence-based decision-making implementation principles is consistent with the idea of recognizing failure to promote innovation? Provide exampled to support your conclusion

Evidence-based decision-making is making a decision based on previous decisions that actually worked. Failure is considered a major evidence-based decision-making aspect. No one wants to fail, ever. You will never be able to improve or grow without failure. People always say “you learn from your mistakes,” and it’s a very true statement. In Amanda Zolten’s case, her kitty litter stunt made two top executives leave the meeting. It was a huge risk she was willing to take to make the product a more memorable one.

She also knew her boss, Tor Myhern, applauds and rewards risk taking. He gives away an award called “The Heroic Failure Award” each quarter for risk taking. In companies such as Grey Global Group, upper management does not want anyone in the company to become complacent and conservative. It is believed that innovations coincided with a high right of failure. In today’s society there becomes no growth in a company without innovations, and no innovations without failure. Mr. Myhern acknowledges the previous statement and accepts risks and failures.

3. What types of decision-making styles were used by Amanda Zolten and Tor Myhern? Amanda Zolten and Tor Myhern heavily rely on the conceptual style of decision-making. Amanda was willing to take a risk with her creativity in presenting the kitty litter. However, just because they enjoy taking risks doesn’t mean the conceptual style is the only decision making style they possess. The both of them show characteristic of the behavioral style as well. Behavioral types are said to be open to suggestions and supportive (Tor Myhern). Amanda clearly shows she enjoys social interactions in which opinions are openly exchanged. I think pocessing more than one decision-making style is ideal in today’s workplace. Amanda and Tor seem to be on the right track.

4. Which of the common decision-making biases is likely to be reduced by encouraging people to take risks and fail? Explain your rationale. The Representative Bias would be reduced by risk taking and failure. Instead of small sampling or a single event occurring to produce an outcome, sampling larger crowds and doing things more than once, even if failure occurs, you will still get better results. Taking risks more than once will also produce better results. Another bias that would be reduced would be the Overconfidence Bias. If you complete something and it works, you would tend to try that same something over and over because it was already successful once. Thus becoming very or overly confident in what you are doing. However, if you change things up and start taking risks, you may fail. But failing is ok and will bring your ego back down to size. You have to learn how to fail and still be confident in what you do. A third bias, the Hindsight Bias also may be reduced by risk taking and failure.

Doing something risky which heightens the excitement for the outcome, and most risk taking involves not knowing the outcome to begin with. So when they outcome finally occurs, you cannot say something along the lines of “I told you so” or ‘I knew it all along”.

5. What are the pros and cons of encouraging people to take risks and fail in the pursuit of innovation? Taking risks obviously comes with its pros and cons. In the business world today taking risks shows that you take initiative. That is major step in trying something new. Without initiative, it may never happen. Taking initiative shoes leadership; which is another pro of risk taking. Leadership in today’s business world is a must. It shows management you possess the right skills to progress and shows them you will be an asset to their business. Amanda Zolten is an asset to Grey New York as well as Tor Myhern. Where there are pros there are cons too. Failure is always a concern. Failing may lead to being considered incompetent or rejected by others on future projects. Losing the support of other coworkers and management because of too much risk taking could become tragic to your abilities. If this happens the issue at hand may never be resolved. There are always two sides to every story, always advantages and disadvantage, when it comes to risk taking Reaction

Overall I believe risk taking is what has to be done to stay employed and on top of the game in the business world today. Everyone wants to be innovative. Without innovation and staying one step ahead of your competition, your business will never grow. Without taking risks, innovations do not exist. Businesses doing to same thing over and over gets boring and eventually will be at a standstill or fail altogether.

Secondly, too much risk taking ad failing every time (or the majority of the time) you take a risk; can lead to loss of your support from your superiors and even investors. They know edgier innovations need to happen, but failing constantly can lead to them not believing what you have to offer works. Without a healthy support system, it is hard to do your job properly and be able to prevail.

Thirdly, failing and making mistakes is sometimes a god thing. You find out what works and what doesn’t work. Being in the business (even the world in general) world today you cannot be afraid of failure. Failure is what makes you. It makes you a stronger and better business person if you have learned and adjusted your ways to be able to try other things. No one should ever tell you failure is not an option. Recommendations

Since the business world today is continuously evolving, you do need to take risks and step out of the norm on occasional instances. However, you do not want those risks to be unwise. In order for this to happen, a good balance between the benefits of the risks and the potential for failure must be obtained. In order to minimize the potential for failure, prepare for the risk you are going to take. Proactive for what you want to do and do thorough research. You need to become an expert at what you are planning to accomplish. If something in your risky plan goes wrong, you need to have a backup plan.

In this business world, you also just have to take action and be willing to just go with it. Meaning everything doesn’t have to be perfect for you to take that risk. That is why it is called risk. Thins can always go differently than what you expected. You just have to roll with the punches. Also, you should constantly be analyzing your risk or new venture, both during and after. Figure out what worked and what didn’t, what could you improve on knowing what you know now, and most importantly get feedback from others. Use that feedback to grown and improve on your next risk taking adventure.

The most important think about risk taking is simply taking one. If you were to continuously function in your security zone you many never accomplish something truly amazing. When you do creative and interesting things, averageness and boredom will decrease and your workplace becomes more fun. If you are willing to try something risky, new, difficult, and what others wouldn’t dare try, you are the one that will be noticed. You are the one that will be making a difference in the business world. So continue to take risks and reap the resulting rewards even if you do not obtain them on the first try.