A top 4 global auditing and consultancy firm initiated a Women’s Leadership Series, that includes a number of programs and workshops which are designed to provide university students and new professionals with tools to help them build leadership skills.

The Women’s Leadership Programme is unique in addressing the whole person and their potential to progress. Not only do those on the programme receive mentoring and coaching, the programme addresses conscious and subconscious issues of confidence, self promotion, and political savvy in the context of senior level progression.

It attempts to work with all associates of the firm to ensure they are open minded to diverse talent, aware of the benefit to business of diversity and finally have clarity on what actions to take to ensure diversity is integral to our business.

The consultancy has set targets at each grade and level within the organization to provide both direction and aspiration as to where they want to get to by 2018. Working back from those targets, they ensure that the diverse talent is sponsored by senior influential individuals whose role it is to support the candidate through promotion to partnership. They have also recently published a target for female partners in their Annual Report.

How impactful are the initiatives taken by organizations to empower women employee? An American multinational clothing and accessories retailer working across global locations initiated a Personal Advancement & Career Enhancement program to positively impact female garment workers. It seeked to provide foundational skills and support that will help these women through life skills education and technical training, advance in the workplace and in their personal lives. Did it have the desired impact?

Globally the garment industry is one of the largest employers of low-skilled female workers. Despite their large numbers in the workforce, relatively few female line workers advance to positions of supervisors and managers, as they have few opportunities to enhance their managerial and life skills that would enable their professional and personal growth.

In response to this need, a top Garment Brand initiated the Personal Advancement & Career Enhancement – life learning program. Research, design and development began in late 2005 and a pilot program was launched in 2007. The program has since expanded to Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Jordan, Myanmar, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam. An innovative factory-based program, the main focus is to positively impact female garment workers (FGWs) by providing them with foundational skills and support that will help them advance in the workplace and in their personal lives, through life skills education and technical training.

The P.A.C.E. curriculum covers a variety of topics related to life skills that are crucial to the growth and development of the FGW. Each module is designed to enhance specific competencies and to help participants understand concepts in a holistic way. Currently the program covers up to 8 modules of learning: (1) Communication; (2) Problem Solving and Decision Making; (3) Time and Stress Management; (4) Water, Sanitation & Hygiene; (5) Execution Excellence; (6) General and Reproductive Health; (7) Financial Literacy; and (8) Legal Literacy and Social Entitlements.

The International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), headquartered in Washington, D.C., conducted evaluations across multiple geographies to determine whether the program is achieving the desired outcomes and impacts (both social and business).

The P.A.C.E. program is unique in that it is a women’s advancement program that is delivered in the workplace. While the program seeks to create a change in women’s personal lives (Personal Advancement), it also seeks to positively influence their work lives (Career Enhancement). Thus, the evaluation carves out social and business outcome indicators as defined below.

SOCIAL IMPACT

The social impact looks at two key outcomes:

– Self-efficacy: A person’s belief in her ability to produce the desired results through her own actions.

– Self-esteem: Awareness of being competent to cope with the basic challenges of life, and feeling worthy of happiness.

BUSINESS IMPACT

The business impact looks at the following outcomes:

– Work efficacy: Ability to demonstrate aptitude, take initiative, and meet work-related deadlines resulting in increased productivity and improved quality of products.

– Influence on the workplace: Deeper understanding and improved professional relationship with co-workers, and ability to communicate problems effectively as well as garner support for oneself and one’s peers.

The short-term outcomes of the program, such as higher self and work efficacy, improved communication, a better, more collegial workplace environment, higher self-esteem, improved knowledge of health, and improved financial efficacy, have been evaluated in Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam.

So many of us really do want to touch the lives of those less fortunate. When it comes down to brass tacks, do we really persevere and see the end result? Here is the story of an organization that spent time, effort and money on running an initiative that made a difference. Through the 10,000 Women initiative, the charitable foundation of a leading global investment banking and investment management firm fosters shared economic growth, by providing 10,000 under-served women around the world with business and management education. The story showcases how through sustained efforts of providing management education and mentoring to women entrepreneurs a ripple effect is felt on GDP growth across geographies.

The 10,000 Women initiative was launched in 2008 by a leading global investment banking, securities and investment management firm, providing 10,000 women from across 56 countries with business and management education, mentoring and networking.

10,000 Women has supported women from countries as diverse as Liberia, Egypt, Brazil, India and China through a network of 100 academic and nonprofit partners. More than 30 of the world’s leading business schools have participated in the program. The initiative is founded on research conducted by the investment firm – Womenomics and Women Hold up Half the Sky – the World Bank and others which suggests that such an investment can have a significant impact on GDP growth.

10,000 Women graduates report immediate and sustained business growth. Eighteen months after completing the program, nearly 70% of surveyed graduates have increased their revenue and nearly 60% have added new jobs. On average, graduates doubled the size of their workforces and revenues increased nearly fivefold. An independent assessment by the International Center for Research on Women found that graduates attributed changes in their businesses performance and increased confidence to the business and management education and support they received through the program. 10,000 Women has demonstrated that investing in women creates a virtuous cycle, as women use their income and skills to support their families and communities. Nine out of ten participants pay it forward by mentoring and teaching business skills to other women.

10,000 Women and IFC are bringing together their resources and expertise to launch the first-ever global finance facility dedicated exclusively to women-owned SMEs, deepening 10,000 Women’s commitment to women entrepreneurs. The Investment Firms Foundation, IFC, and other investors will contribute up to $600 million to create The Women Entrepreneurs Opportunity Facility, which will enable approximately 100,000 women entrepreneurs to access capital.

The Facility will be managed by IFC, the leading investment manager of global development finance vehicles, with a network of nearly 1,000 bank clients around the world. The Foundation will provide a $32 million anchor investment in order to catalyze capital from commercial investors and bilateral donors. The Facility will extend lines of credit and share risk with local banks in emerging markets enabling them to on-lend to women-owned SMEs.

In order to spur innovative approaches to lending to women entrepreneurs, The Foundation will provide an $18 million anchor donation to fund capacity building support for banks and women borrowers. Capacity building support will address the barriers to banks deploying capital and women entrepreneurs accessing it.

10,000 Women is committed to expanding business and management education to reach new high-potential women entrepreneurs around the world. Along with the capital this partnership will catalyze, women entrepreneurs will in turn have a much greater chance of reaching their full potential.

When we design a CSR initiative, what are the objectives we seek to achieve? A corporate social responsibility program that made a difference. The efforts of an Indian Sewing Machine manufacturing company to create a viable source of livelihood for women across India by setting up Sewing Schools is chronicled in the story below. This corporate initiative works towards women empowerment by making village women become entrepreneurs who are taught sewing and stitching within the precincts of their homes.

An Indian Sewing Machine manufacturing company aims to work with the women in the villages and believes that helping women develop their inherent latent potentialities would bring about a holistic development for the society at large. In the last three years the company through a Sewing School Program has reached out to remote villages across the country. This is a community based initiative with the aim of empowering village women to become entrepreneurs and teach sewing and stitching within the precincts of their homes. This programme is necessarily “inclusive” in character, thereby implying that the programme is implemented for the economically poor irrespective of caste, class, religion or creed.

As on February 2015, in partnership with 48 NGO partners there are 10,185 Silai Schools being run across India. The company has trained (in stitching, tailoring and repairing of machines) all village women, provided them a sewing machine, a syllabus and a Silai School signage and encouraged them to teach other community women the art of stitching and sewing. The trainings have been conducted in their vernacular language with the syllabus available in the same language. More than 36,000 learners have completed their course from Silai Schools and nearly 8000 learners continue to get sewing skills training every day from these schools.

The schools are making a marked difference in the lives of the women. The women, on an average have started earning Rs. 3000/- per month, with the highest earning going up to Rs.18,000/- per month. This earning, though small, at the moment is working as a catalyst in building the self-confidence of women and raising her status within and outside the family. This financial income and increased self-worth is facilitating in creation of empowered change agents in the villages of India.

The positive results from the Silai Schools in the villages have created a lot enthusiasm amongst the people in the adjoining Silai School villages too. There is an increased demand from the community about starting Silai Schools in the nearby villages and hence the concept of starting the Satellite Silai Schools (SSS) have been started from Aug 2014. Under the SSS model, Silai Schools would be started by any women knowing sewing and stitching (preferably a learner from the existing Silai School) in the neighbouring village. She would then start teaching others or doing job work. By March 2015, the company plans to start about 6,000 SSS across the country. Hence, by this period they aim to have covered 9,000 villages in all the states of India.

The company also recently launched the Silai School Programme in Bhutan in association with Tarayana Foundation.

All of us do not get equal opportunities, but do those of us that have been blessed with “more”, move out of our comfort zone to spread the good fortune.This is the story of a company that changed their policies to truly make a difference. A Sri Lankan apparel manufacturing company with over 90% women employees initiated a “Go Beyond Program”. The aim was to create an atmosphere where women could learn skills like financial management, computer literacy and hence not only empower but recognize the contribution of women in the workplace and beyond.

A Sri Lankan based company specializing in the production of intimate apparel and sportswear goods initiated the “Go Beyond Program” in 2003. The program, targeted at women, provides career development, life skills education and recognition for female garment workers. Prior to the initiative, the company plants provided meals, banking services, skills building classes and transportation to their garment workers, however, the extent and funding of each program was at each plant manager’s discretion.

With the “Go Beyond Program”, a company- wide framework was established to standardize and evaluate employee programs at each individual plant based on internally identified best practices. The program identified a four-point framework of empowerment and development based on career advancement, work-life balance, rewarding excellence and community activation. Specific classes included: awareness on domestic violence, stress management, balancing multiple roles of a woman, dressmaking, financial management and computer literacy.

During the initial roll-out of the program and based on an impact measurement framework that was developed in July 2004, the company plants implemented 290 programs in the four thematic areas and reached the average worker 3.7 times in the first year. Since its rollout, the program has been extended to India and Vietnam.

As 90% of its employees are women the company became aware of the need to be supportive of women who commit to developing themselves and reward those who achieved excellence. The ‘Women Go Beyond’ programme seeks empower women at plants and communities by recognizing their contributions to society and rewarding excellence in academics, sports, commerce and arts thus eliminating the perceived image that all apparel is manufactured in sweat shop conditions worldwide with rampant child labor & non compliance with human rights & acceptable labour conditions.

The program concentrated on promoting knowledge, awareness, leadership skills, attitudinal changes, the ability to balance work and personal life etc and encompassed the following main areas; Women Go Beyond Framework Training for career development for employees – e. g. Training in English language Training in Information Technology Training in Financial Management – personal & professional Soft skills – Presentation, Time management, Leadership Skills Supporting work-life balance initiatives– e. g Assisting in the creation of crèche facilities Encouraging team sports at MAS Beauty culture training/dress sense/grooming & patchwork Special programs for pregnant employees. Conducting programs on Health & Hygiene – Reproductive health, 5S, HIV & STD Awareness, Nutrition, Domestic Violence Rewarding excellence of women at the plants – e.g. Awards based on performance at plant/regional/national/ international level in areas of arts. Each plant chooses & rewards women who reflect the Go Beyond definition of an “Empowered Woman” annually – thereby creating role models for others to emulate from.

Contributions can be made to gender sensitization in so many different ways. Are we sensitive enough to see how we can do our bit? This is the story of a large software company that decided they would ensure gender equality through a project called the Gender Equity Image. The aim was to ensure ethical standards be set in respect of all marketing and promotional material vis-à-vis women imagery. And year on year targets were set on improving scores on the same.

A United States based software company, implemented the Gender Equity Image Project to promote gender equality within the company. The goal of the program was to work toward the ongoing improvement of gender representation and the reduction of the use of stereotyping imagery wherever possible. The project strived to ensure ethical marketing standards by respecting the dignity of women in all sales, promotional, and advertising materials.

In 2012 the Corporate Marketing team conducted a benchmark audit to evaluate how gender was represented through imagery in the organization. They reviewed for not only presence of gender based imagery but also gender split and position of power. It was discovered that overall the company relied heavily on the use of non-gender logo based imagery, however, where gender based imagery existed they had an opportunity to improve.

One of the pieces of the improvement plan was to initiate an annual audit of gender representation in various forms of our marketing communications. The audit used an Excel spreadsheet to track a range of image categories and their gender statistics (male only, female only, mix of gender, position of power).

Further, in order to promote the Gender Equity Image Project; the company added language to both the Corporate Editorial Style Guide and Visual Guidelines to educate the marketing and sales organization as well as the agencies they work with to embrace all aspects of diversity, including gender.

The Symantec Gender Equity Image Project used straightforward and easy-to-understand metrics. Several members of the marketing team evaluated over 300 images across several categories in an effort to understand how gender is represented in the corporate imagery. The initial results were presented to all of the teams with various control areas. Each team committed to a 5 percent improvement in the overall representation of gender in the first year, based on the results of the annual audit.

The project was formalized in 2013. The goal of the project was to increase the percentage of imagery that is considered a positive representation of gender roles. After completing the first gender representation audit, the company worked with its marketing agencies and key stakeholders to set a target of 5% improvement in scores over the first year. They also used the lessons from this project to update the Visual Guidelines and our Corporate Editorial Style Guide in order to educate all groups involved with marketing and sales on the company’s commitment to positive gender representation.

All of us recognize the importance of gender diversity &women empowerment. The question that needs to be asked is: what are we doing to promote it? The beautiful Chanderi fabric which had for centuries been worn by royalty found itself to be no longer a favoured textile. The situation made worse by middlemen and traders who garnered a master share of earnings left the poor weaver with next to nothing. A private-public initiative helped women weavers to not only reinvent designs and styles but helped them to become entrepreneurs in command of their own future.

For centuries Chanderi, situated in the Ashok Nagar district of India’s largest state has been the hotbed for weaving. Chanderi textiles were patronized initially by the Mughals and later by the Scindias.

In this town of 30,000 people, about one third of the population is from the weaving community, which includes both Hindus and Muslims. But the weaving community began facing trouble when the market for their traditional product — Chanderi sarees — started declining. Also as most of the weavers were contractual workers, they had no control over the production process and falling capacity utilization.

Resultantly, their earning capacity began to suffer as the master weavers and traders cornered all the benefits and gave them nominal incomes. This is when the 30 odd women weavers got together to form ‘Bunkar Vikas Sanstha’ under the aegis of United Nations Industrial Development Programme. Since the time of its inception this Sanstha has already sold goods worth Rs 8.3 million even as they continue to get more orders.

Owing to this business, BVS was able to give 10 to 15 per cent extra wages to their weavers and even the profits were distributed amongst them. “The programme was started as an experiment if the development of this artisan cluster could alleviate poverty. However it has not only generated income but also empowered women to take their decisions. Empower the weavers not only through income generation but also empower them to take their own decision.”

Under BVS, the women shelved the existing weaver-master weaver, weaver-trader and weaver-retailer relationship and created new production relationships where they themselves became entrepreneurs and managed everything. “After the formation of our Sanstha, we source our own raw material and even market it and take all decisions on our own,” says Muzaffar Jahan, another member of BVS.

The project also facilitated an interaction between these women weavers and some designers from National Institute of Technology and National Institute of Design who shared their experiences with the rural women and “helped” them to improvise their designs.

In addition to this, they also struck business deals with Fab India, known as one of the biggest handloom and handicraft-marketing organization in urban India. “Fab India gave us tips on how to modify our products so that they suit the interests of Europe and other Western countries. They give us bulk orders for various products, right from dressing material to cushion covers. They are our biggest market. Fab India’s subsidiary company has an office in Chanderi that procures materials from us,” says Batti Bai, another weaver.

Today BVS, comprising 30 women has an executive committee of 19 members that take all major decisions regarding business. “We are glad that we have rid ourselves of the traders and retailers now. We share the profits that the Sanstha earns. Earlier our skills were almost wasted as these middle-men would mint all the money. Also, we were short of work and we had a low income. We couldn’t save any money. But now we have expanded our markets, are getting regular work and have a better income. Things have changed,” says Muzaffar.

In traditional Indian villages it is usually taboo for women to move out of their homes without being accompanied by men folk. This story tells us about women who went beyond the confines of their homes and villages to bring electricity via solar energy to light up their lives in more ways than one.

On the edge of Rajasthan where shifting sand dunes mark the border between India and Pakistan, four villages have had their dark nights lit up by incandescent bulbs running on renewable solar energy. The villages, which are a series of homesteads scattered across an undulating dessert landscape of the western Indian state of Rajasthan, have never been connected to the power grid. The lights they now have are part of the Government of India and United Nations Development Programme project ‘Renewable Energy for Rural Livelihoods’ that trained and engaged village women as “Barefoot Solar Engineers” for generating renewable solar energy.

Four young women – one from each village – have assembled these lights from scratch and are paid to maintain and repair them. It took a leap of faith and a great deal of persuasion for the families to allow the four women to be trained to serve their own communities. The Social Work and Research Centre (SWRC) which implemented the programme in Barmer district of Rajasthan, runs a residential training programme for women from selected villages at its campus in the Ajmer district of Rajasthan.

It was unthinkable for the four families to have their daughters leave home let alone go and live among strangers. The four women have attended school only up to class five or eight. None of the four had ever lived away from their families or travelled much further than a neighbouring village, and never without a male escort. Three of them, Sajani, Saleemati and Chano are married. Like all married women in their communities they wear veils. The fourth, Bhagwati, is engaged to be married. “No one in the village has ever done anything like this, people said that boys should get the training, and then we were told that the project would only train girls. It took people a long time to accept this,” says Bhagwati.

“In the evening we would leave the village with an agreement that the girl could go; in the morning we would return to find that they had changed their mind,” a project officer working with the SWRC recalls.

After much persuasion, Bhagwati, Sajani, Saleemati and Chano spent two months at SWRC’s campus in Tilonia and a month of field training. Following this they assembled each of the lights and lanterns installed in their villages and oversaw their installation. Now, they undertake regular checks in the village, respond to complaints, repair faulty lights and maintain the batteries that power them.

SWRC has also set up a workshop at its centre in Dhanau in the same bloc. Repairs that cannot be done in the village are brought to workshop. The four women travel on the irregular buses that connect their villages to Dhanau when their work demands. They spend a day, or if the work necessitates, a few days at the centre each time.

In the villages there are many still bemused that young women who until a few months ago were like any other – cleaning the yard, fetching water, helping with the cooking – are now called “engineers”. But, they would rather have lights irrespective of who is maintaining them. Each family with a light contributes to a village fund from which their woman “Barefoot Solar Engineer” is paid a salary ranging from Rs.1,000 to Rs.1,350 a month. And the villages are full of little girls, who trail their barefoot engineer and watch in awe as she fiddles with wires and fuses, hoping they too will someday be engineers.

In rural areas, where traditionally men are sole bread-earners, what does a woman do when tragedy strikes and she is left alone to fend for herself and her family. This is a story of one such woman Chandrakala and countless others like her who with some state assistance started a profitable vermi-compost initiative. Hope you enjoy the read.

Chandrakala’s husband was electrocuted. Her brother-in-law, the sole bread-winner in the family, committed suicide. The events were enough to shatter her. Instead, Chandrakala scripted a success story — one which most women in the tiny village of Bewal are trying to emulate.

As president of a self-help group (SHG), Baba Anantpuri, Chandrakala, in her individual capacity, has manufactured and sold vermi-compost worth Rs 60,000 in one year. Her SHG, on the whole, has sold vermi-compost worth Rs 1.27 lakh within 15 months.

The SHG, comprising 20 women, is part of 33 such groups which have been constituted in select villages of Jatusana division under the Haryana Community Forestry Project (HCFP). ‘‘This project has not only made us financially independent but has also given us the confidence to do things on our own,’’ Chandrakala says.

This is how it all happened. ‘‘As part of the project, our SHG was provided training to make vermi-compost. We were given a grant of Rs 2,500 by the Forest Department to buy earthworms and start making compost,’’ Chandrakala says. Since then, her group has sold 200 quintals of vermi-compost to clients ranging from the Forest Department to zamindars. ‘‘Last year, the sale of worms itself fetched Rs 24,000,’’ she says. As far as leftover is concerned, she says, “We can use it in our fields as it would greatly cut our costs for buying urea.’’

Chandrakala is not alone. Ask Santosh from the same village and she will tell you how her SHG, Bawalia, started making soap on a small scale and earned handsome rewards. Or meet Vinod Devi, who leads a SHG called Mukteshwari, in village Bhurthala. ‘‘We identified duree-galicha-making as our income-generating activity and can already see the difference it has made to our lives,’’ she says. ‘‘As a result of this project, a feeling of cooperation has emerged,’’ says Ranjit Singh of Bewal. ‘‘Now, cutting across caste and gender, everybody participates in the decision-making process,’’ he adds.

Such is your nature – You can feel any amount of sadness and unhappiness, but the fact remains that you can never become unhappy.

What kills creativity more than anything else is non-creative people being responsible for the development of a creative individual. Creativity more than anything else is in the mind. We need to ask ourselves: are we creative enough to recognize and reward creativity. A cute story…

Once a child was taking the Minnesota Test for Creative Thinking developed by Dr. E. Paul Torrance. The child was working on the Circles and Squares Task. She had 42 circles to fill in with sketches of things and was making slow progress. When the teacher announced that there was only one minute left the child quickly drew a man at the bottom of her page of circles and added lines from his hand to each of the circles to show a balloon man.

How would you evaluate this imaginative solution compared to the solutions of other kids who sketched 42 different things? What she may have lacked in fluency (numbers of ideas) she made up in originality (unusual and unexpected solutions). Creativity can manifest in more than one way.

Creativity by definition is unconventional. We need to accept that and we need to ask ourselves…often the creative solution that is presented to us does not come out the way we envisaged but do we have the courage to reward “creativity” in any case. Read on….

This is a true story. Once a student took “Psychology of Personality” at Boston University. She had read all but two chapters among the required books. The final exam consisted of just one essay question: Apply the principles of analysis to a specified character in a chapter I had not read!

Realizing she might flunk this class, the student tried to salvage what she could. She wrote a note to Professor Smith (his real name) at the top of her answer sheet, admitting the truth and asking for some credit for whatever knowledge she could demonstrate. And expressed hope that he might enjoy her writings— regardless of my grade.

Since she knew the principles of analysis she applied them to someone familiar to all of us: Benjamin Franklin. With little to lose and an hour to kill, she wrote a humorous essay using Ben Franklin’s proverbs to prove her points. While her classmates struggled and sweated, she giggled her way through the final. “A penny saved is a penny earned” shows an anal retentive personality and “Fish and visitors stink after three days” describes an OCD personality with a possible fish phobia. She explained how it all works.

A few days later she was astounded to see an A+ on my exam, along with a note from the professor: “The highest goal of psychology studies is to help people cope with life. You deserve an A+.”

It’s hard to accurately define creativity. It has so many shapes, sizes and forms. The story given below is a great example of quickness and agility of mind. This is a manifestation of creativity.

There is the story of William Pitt, 1759-1806, British statesman and Prime Minister from 1783-1801, who once sought to expedite a crucial agreement in Parliament for the movement of the British fleet to defend against the French. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord Newcastle, had certain objections, but when Pitt called on the Chancellor endeavouring to resolve the differences, he found the Chancellor distinctly unhappy in bed suffering with gout.

The bedroom was freezing, and when Pitt remarked on this, Lord Newcastle replied that the cold weather would hinder the fleet movement, but more particularly that the combination of the cold conditions and the gout would prevent any further discussion of the issue at that time, which Pitt quickly judged to be at the root of the problem.

Begging the Chancellor’s pardon, Pitt calmly removed his boots, climbed into bed and drew up the covers (apparently there was another bed in the room), whereupon the two were able to discuss the matter and soon agreed a united way forward.

For all those of us who manage teams: creative or otherwise, it’s extremely important to ALWAYS remember that criticism encourages the “creative” portion of the brain to shut down and go into a “defensive” mode. If you are criticizing anyone, beware of the consequences.

Years ago there was a group of brilliant young men at the University of Wisconsin, who seemed to have amazing creative literary talent. They were would-be poets, novelists, and essayists. They were extraordinary in their ability to put the English language to its best use. These promising young men met regularly to read and critique each other’s work. And critique it they did!

These men were merciless with one another. They dissected the most minute literary expression into a hundred pieces. They were heartless, tough, even mean in their criticism. The sessions became such arenas of literary criticism that the members of this exclusive club called themselves the “Stranglers.”

Not to be outdone, the women of literary talent in the university were determined to start a club of their own, one comparable to the Stranglers. They called themselves the “Wranglers.” They, too, read their works to one another. But there was one great difference. The criticism was much softer, more positive, more encouraging. Sometimes, there was almost no criticism at all. Every effort, even the most feeble one, was encouraged.

Twenty years later an alumnus of the university was doing an exhaustive study of his classmates’ careers when he noticed a vast difference in the literary accomplishments of the Stranglers as opposed to the Wranglers. Of all the bright young men in the Stranglers, not one had made a significant literary accomplishment of any kind. From the Wranglers had come six or more successful writers, some of national renown such as Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, who wrote The Yearling.

Talent between the two? Probably the same. Level of education? Not much difference. But the Stranglers strangled, while the Wranglers were determined to give each other a lift. The Stranglers promoted an atmosphere of contention and self doubt. The Wranglers highlighted the best, not the worst.

If you look at the history of most brilliant inventions or inventors, there is a common thread…there is an obsession about the work that is being done. You can only create if you are “driven” by the desire to create and not by the kudos those inventions will bring.

The Brooklyn Bridge that spans the river tying Manhattan Island to Brooklyn is truly a miracle bridge. In 1863, a creative engineer named John Roebling was inspired by an idea for this spectacular bridge. However, bridge-building experts throughout the world told him to forget it; it could not be done.

Roebling convinced his son, Washington, who was a young upand coming engineer, that the bridge could be built. The two of them developed the concepts of how it could be accomplished and how the obstacles could be overcome. With unharnessed excitement and inspiration, they hired their crew and began to build their dream bridge.

The project was only a few months under construction when a tragic accident on the site took the life of John Roebling and severely injured his son, Washington. Washington was left with permanent brain damage and was unable to talk or walk. Everyone felt that the project would have to be scrapped since the Roeblings were the only ones who knew how the bridge could be built.

Even though Washington was unable to move or talk, his mind was as sharp as ever, and he still had a burning desire to complete the bridge. An idea hit him as he lay in his hospital bed, and he developed a code for communication. All he could move was one finger, so he touched the arm of his wife with that finger, tapping out the code to communicate to her what to tell the engineers who were building the bridge. For thirteen years, Washington tapped out his instructions with his finger until the spectacular Brooklyn Bridge was finally completed.

Often the people who do well in life are not those who graduated at the top of their class at school. It’s often those people that spot an opportunity in adversity and capitalize on it where other people only see the adversity.

My friend’s neighbor, Carla, found herself stranded one day without a car and without enough money for a taxi home. But she did have an idea, thanks to “flexible thinking.” Carla noticed a nearby pizza place, walked in, and ordered a pizza for delivery to her home. She waited for the delivery guy to get into his car with her pizza and hitched a ride. She was home in 30 minutes or less, guaranteed, while the pizza was still hot.

Creativity isn’t always about producing things. Sometimes people use their creativity to respond to unexpected challenges in everyday life.

Everyone likes a creative team member, whether it is the research team or the operations team. The question we need to ask ourselves is what are we doing to encourage this creative streak in team members. Unstructured time to pursue an idea is a risk…but the surest way to encourage a creative mind set.

The 3M Company encourages creativity from its employees. The company allows its researchers to spend 15 percent of their time on any project that interests them. This attitude has brought fantastic benefits not only to the employees but to the 3M Company itself. Many a times, a spark of an idea turned into a successful product has boosted 3M’s profits tremendously.

Some years ago, a scientist in 3M’s commercial office took advantage of this 15 percent creative time. This scientist, Art Fry, came up with an idea for one of 3M’s best-selling products. It seems that Art Fry dealt with a small irritation every Sunday as he sang in the church choir. After marking his pages in the hymnal with small bits of paper, the small pieces would invariably fall out all over the floor.

Suddenly, an idea struck Fry. He remembered an adhesive developed by a colleague that everyone thought was a failure because it did not stick very well. “I coated the adhesive on a paper sample,” Fry recalls, “and I found that it was not only a good bookmark, but it was great for writing notes. It will stay in place as long as you want it to, and then you can remove it without damage.”

Yes, Art Fry hit the jackpot. The resulting product was called Post-it and has become one of 3M’s most successful office products.

To my mind the single most important quality that inspires creativity is an open mind. Serendipity comes everyone’s way, but how many of us are able to harness the good fortune that has come our way? Are we able to see the potential in the event or do we just look at it as another event and let it pass by?

In 1879, Procter and Gamble’s best seller was candles. But the company was in trouble. Thomas Edison had invented the light bulb, and it looked as if candles would become obsolete. Their fears became reality when the market for candles plummeted since they were now sold only for-special occasions.

The outlook appeared to be bleak for Procter and Gamble. However, at this time, it seemed that destiny played a dramatic part in pulling the struggling company from the clutches of bankruptcy. A forgetful employee at a small factory in Cincinnati forgot to turn off his machine when he went to lunch. The result? A frothing mass of lather filled with air bubbles. He almost threw the stuff away but instead decided to make it into soap. The soap floated. Thus, Ivory soap was born and became the mainstay of the Procter and Gamble Company.

Why was soap that floats such a hot item at that time? In Cincinnati, during that period, some people bathed in the Ohio River. Floating soap would never sink and consequently never got lost. So, Ivory soap became a best seller in Ohio and eventually across the country also.

Like Procter and Gamble, never give up when things go wrong or when seemingly insurmountable problems arise. Creativity put to work can change a problem and turn it into a gold mine.

Often we turn to the most brilliant minds and expensive tools to find solutions for problems at our workplace. Are we too focused in finding complex answers, when the solution might really be more commonplace? This story highlights how an ordinary worker found the simplest and the most inexpensive solution to a big problem being faced by his organization. Read on.

A Japanese soap factory had a problem: they sometimes shipped empty boxes, without the soap inside. This was due to the way the production line was set up, and people with experience in designing production lines will tell you how difficult it is to have everything happen with timings so precise that every single unit coming out of it is perfect 100% of the time. Customers who come all the way to the supermarket would end up buying someone else’s product.

Understanding how important that was, the CEO of the soap factory got the top people in the company together and they decided to start a new project, in which they would hire an external engineering company to solve their empty boxes problem, as their engineering department was already too stretched to take on any extra effort.

The project followed the usual process: budget and project sponsor allocated, RFP, third-parties selected, and six months (and $8 million) later they had a fantastic solution — on time, on budget, high quality and everyone in the project had a great time. They solved the problem by using some high-tech precision scales that would sound a bell and flash lights whenever a soap box weighing less than it should. The line would stop, and someone had to walk over and yank the defective box out of it, pressing another button when done.

A while later, the CEO decides to have a look at the ROI of the project: amazing results! No empty boxes ever shipped out of the factory after the scales were put in place. Very few customer complaints and they were gaining market share. “That’s some money well spent!” – he says, before looking closely at the other statistics in the report. It turns out the number of defects picked up by the new high precision scales was “zero” after three weeks of production use. It should’ve been picking up at least a dozen a day, so maybe there was something wrong with the report. He filed a bug against it, and after some investigation, the engineers come back saying the report was actually correct. The scales really weren’t picking up any defects, because all boxes that got to that point in the conveyor belt were good.

Puzzled, the CEO travels down to the factory, and walks up to the part of the line where the high precision scales were installed. A few feet before it, there was a $ 20 desk fan, blowing the empty boxes out of the belt and into a bin.

“Oh, that — one of the guys put it there ’cause he was tired of walking over every time the bell rang”, says one of the workers.

Moral of the Story: Everyone has a “solution” sometimes requiring an expenditure of “8 million bucks”. It requires an engineer with a high spirit of innovation and ingenuity to come up with a ”$20 – simple cost-effective solution”!