One of the best ways to make and keep your company innovative is to have people invent solutions to their own problems or needs. In other words, be your own customer and satisfy yourself. If that is not possible—if you are in a business where you cannot be your own customer—then figure out a way to experience the world as a customer experiences it.

Eight Management Techniques for Stimulating Creativity

We’ve spent most of this chapter describing the traits of companies that remain innovative. We’d now like to discuss things individual managers can do to stimulate creativity.

1. Encourage; Don’t Nitpick. Keep in mind that there’s no shortage of good, workable ideas, but that there’s a tremendous shortage of receptivity to ideas. Don’t be like one of those “wet blankets” that shot down the radio, the telephone, Federal Express, the personal computer, and NIKE shoes as “dumb ideas.”...

1. Be Not Judgmental. Harshly critical people destroy creativity and initiative. The fear of being criticized or being made to look and feel stupid is the biggest impediment to people experimenting, initiating, trying new things. The problem is not that people are inherently uncreative, it’s that people are afraid to be creative—afraid of being laughed at, ridiculed, personally attacked, or otherwise psychologically abused. It’s the deep-rooted fear we all carry around of the seventh-grade math teacher making an example of us in front of our peers. …

1. Help Shy People. Some good ideas never go anywhere because the people who have them are too shy to speak up. In fact, some of the best ideas come from quiet people. Quiet people tend to be excellent observers and thinkers; like cats, they’re watchful and attentive, and often intensely curious. Yet they’re also often fearful of voicing their ideas….

4. Stimulate Curiosity. Relentless curiosity, the pure desire to know things, to test them, to see if something will work, fosters creativity. The most creative people ask many questions; it’s as if they never outgrew that naive childlike desire to ask why. Create an environment where it’s ok to ask questions. Ask questions yourself—not critical questions (again, don’t be a wet blanket), but open ended questions in the spirit of inquiry. A favorite question of ours is, “What did you learn from that experience?”...

1. Create Necessity. Human beings have an amazing ability to innovate their way out of seemingly impossible situations. “Necessity,” as the cliché goes, “is the mother of invention.” But cliché or not, it’s true. In fact, many great ideas have emerged precisely because a company lacked the resources to do what it ideally would have liked…

6. Allow Time Away from the Fray. Certain highly creative individuals need solitary time to do their best thinking, time away, time to think in silence. Phil Knight, founder of NIKE, believes that people get their best ideas away from the office, at the beach, or running, which is one reason why NIKE has a wide ranging campus with running trails, tennis courts, basketball courts, weight rooms, and aerobics studios. Herman Miller lets its designers choose their venue for creativity—and some choose to do much of their work at home or somewhere else off-site. .. At Patagonia, the pattern-making group (part of the design department) has a little sign posted near its area: PLEASE OBSERVE QUIET TIME. Closed from 8:00 to 12:00.

1. Catalyze Group Problem Solving. “Quiet time” is not the whole story at Patagonia. In addition to letting people have quiet, solitary incubation and thinking time, it’s essential to capture the creativity of multiple minds thrashing about together. Brainstorming and other group activities produce extraordinary ideas.

Desks at Patagonia are jumbled together in large, open bullpen-style pits (called “Bangladesk”). People are expected to work closely with others—both spontaneously and scheduled—in coming up with new ideas and solutions to problems….

8. Require Fun. “As far as I’m concerned, the most important thing is having fun,” explains Ted Nierenberg, founder of Dansk International Designs. “If you’re not having fun in what you do, lock it up and try something else.”

We’re serious about fun. Fun leads to creativity. Ask people, “Are you having fun?” Ask yourself. Set enjoyment as an absolute requirement of work; if there’s no joy, there will be little creativity. Have you ever noticed that some of the most creative people are a lot like little kids? They like to play, and, to them, work is play.

This doesn’t preclude hard work. Creativity is hard work, but it should also be fun.

In any given Pixar film, every line of dialogue, every beam of light or patch of shade, every sound effect is there because it contributes to the greater whole. In the end, if you do it right, people come out of the theater and say, “A movie about talking toys - what a clever idea!” But a movie is not one idea, it’s a multitude of them. And behind these ideas are people. This is true of products in general; the iPhone, for example, is not a singular idea - there is a mind-boggling depth to the hardware and software that supports it. Yet too often, we see a single object and think of it as an island that exists apart and unto itself.

Many of us have a romantic idea about how creativity happens: A lone visionary conceives of a film or a product in a flash of insight. Then that visionary leads a team of people through hardship to finally deliver on that great promise. The truth is, this isn’t my experience at all. I’ve known many people I consider to be creative geniuses, and not just at Pixar and Disney, yet I can’t remember a single one who could articulate exactly what this vision was that they were striving for when they started.

In my experience, creative people discover and realize their visions over time and through dedicated, protracted struggle. In that way, creativity is more like a marathon than a sprint. You have to pace yourself.

Culture isn’t something you can build up and then ignore. At Netflix, we are constantly debating our culture and expecting it will continually evolve. To build a team that is innovative, fast, and flexible, keep things a little bit loose. Welcome constant change. Operate a little closer toward the edge of chaos. Don’t provide a musical score and build a symphonic orchestra. Work on creating those jazz conditions and hire the type of employees who long to be part of an improvisational band. When it all comes together, the music is beautiful.