Scenario: You are part of a government innovation team at the UAE President’s of

Question

Scenario: You are part of a government innovation team at the UAE President’s office and you have been assigned to lead a team that will devise creative new ideas and strategies for the government to implement in efforts to help the next Emirati generation and the nation prepare for the changing job market.

Question:

• What paradigm shifts does your team need to make?

• How do you overcome creativity blocks?

• Apply each Condition of Creative Thinking to the scenario and describe how each condition would be fulfilled.

Explanation / Answer

The UAE job market is about to see growth in the next 6 months according to Middle East Job Market survey. Michael page conducted this survey among 1700 respondents from UAE. About 83% of the respondents believe that the UAE job market will improve in the next 6 months and they will end up in new jobs. Oil companies and construction companies are the major employers in UAE. This is followed by banking, retail, finance and IT sectors according to naukrigulf. The survey identified that employee turnover was high in the UAE job market. The main motivator for employees shifting the job is found to be better salary followed by new skills development, improving work-life balance and a career change. The survey indicates that attracting and retaining talent were the major challenges. The GCC employer trends report indicate that the average salary rise is expected to be around 3.5%.
From the above industry data, I understand that the UAE job market is changing leading to the creation of new jobs in the future. I would urge my team to focus on retaining employees with more than 8 years of experience as talent crunch is evident in the near future. Innovative strategies for hiring and retaining talent are the need of the hour in the UAE job market. I would focus on improving the work-life balances of the employees giving more importance to the family of the employees and their welfare like introducing family health care and medical claim policies. I would hike the salary of the employees according to the industry average. My team would aim is to hire new employees with industry par salaries and retain the experienced employees by focusing on work-life balance. Hence the paradigm shift would be from managing employees to managing their work-life balance.
The ways to overcome creativity blocks in the given scenario is to develop an innovative work environment for the employees. Team building is the first step to overcome the creativity block in the routine oil and construction companies. Creating a creative work environment with gym, library, walking area, music station, drinking water booths and other measures to relieve the employee from work stress would produce great results in overcoming the creativity block. When employees are stress-free, fresh ideas start to flow leading to new products and services. Researches have indicated that a subtle perfume smell from an incense stick can trigger creative ideas and meditation is an essential tool to induce creativity. I would recommend meditation and yoga techniques across all industries in UAE to overcome the creativity hurdles or block in an effective manner.
According to Ken Robinson, creativity has the following conditions including permission, failure acceptance, time, choice, divergent thinking, convergent thinking and culture. Most of the companies in UAE have rigid rules, especially in the oil and construction sector. Employees must be given permission to be creative in these sectors and employers must be ready to accept failure with new ideas emerging. Most of the UAE companies have a fixed or scheduled time for work hours. Steps need to be taken to convert the fixed work hours to flexible work hours. Employees must be given this choice of preferring to complete tasks by the deadline or follow the routine work schedule. Both divergent and convergent thinking must be encouraged to form new structures in the organization. UAE companies must focus on developing a unique company culture and values. These conditions will foster creativity in the organization.

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