Two factors that impact individual creativity and business performance

   Yesterday in the article "Creativityin business" we talked about brain training is inevitable for people to keep their competitive advantages in business environment nowadays.

   From my point of view, the factors that may impact individual creativity and business performance can be roughly categorised into two groups, the institutionalised factor and individual factor.

   Institutionalised factor indicates the layers of rules, standard operating procedures, and bureaucratic processes. Organisations develop these rules in order to operate and manage their business. However, bureaucratic structure and rigid norm can stifle creativity. Some organisations have started to streamline their extant rules, yet providing an environment that is creativity-friendly sometimes contradicts the extant rules. Encourage employees to break the extant rules through empowerment may help stimulate their creativity - with the precondition that no deviant actions will take place. 

   Individual factor refers to personal behaviour, internet addiction disorder (IAD), is specified here. For individuals, to keep one's brain in an actively creative status, one has to be aware of the IAD. IAD indicates the out-of-control internet using behaviour and is recognised as one kind of clinical disorder. Researchers from China have conducted studies by MRI brain scans on 35 participants, in which 17 of them are internet addictive. They found that in IAD patients' brain, abnormal white matter exists in brain regions involving emotional generation and processing, executive attention, decision making, and cognitive control. They concluded that IAD may have same effect on human brain as cocaine. Cocaine is central nervous system (CNS) toxic when over-dosing or abusing. Hence, IAD may have negative impact on individuals' abilities in generating creative and innovative ideas and enhance their competitive advantages.

   Silicon Valley has also suggested individuals to be away from the devices, including computer and internet, in order to prevent themselves from the occurrence of IAD and keep personal performance and interpersonal relationships in workplace. 

Reference:

*BBC: Web addicts have brain changes, research suggests

*The New York Times: Silicon Valley Says Step Away From the Device