KNI Articles
Succeed Magazine
Are company values important?
How to design company values that motivate staff
Today a set of company values has become like the human appendix – we all have one but we’re not exactly sure what it is for. While many companies have a set of values, their employees often do not know what they are, or what to do with them.
Kobus Neethling, president of South African Creativity Foundation, says that for most companies, values have become empty words on a company profile, collecting dust in a bottom drawer. “The problems in world markets today are largely due to companies whose values have become meaningless. It is not uncommon for a company to list integrity as a value, while using unethical means to increase profits,” says Neethling. Companies need to anchor themselves in a totally new way, with values that are meaningful and lived every day. “We have to redesign our values and breathe new life into them – only then do they have an impact.” In order to have your values work for you, design them so that they speak to all your employees. A good way to reach all your employees is to communicate with all the different kinds of thinking types. Neethling identified eight different types of thinking, or dimensions, based on what he calls his eight dimension whole brain instrument. The instrument is able to measure and describe thinking preferences in people. By answering a list of questions, Neethling can determine what type of thinker you are. There are only eight thinking types: strategist, imagineer, empathiser, socialiser, organiser, preserver, analyst, and realist. Most people are dominant in one of these thinking styles, with one or two minor styles.
Beyond the impossible
Some years after African Bank acquired Ellerines, which has a national footprint of 650 branches and 100 stores in neighbouring countries, the CEO approached Sedick Arendse to become the managing director. He warned Arendse that there was a culture of non-performance, the business was unprofitable, and it needed to be turned around. And Arendse thought, this sounds like an exciting job!
In the two years following, Arendse says, “We have enhanced the business to the extent that our profitability at the end of 2011 was 153% higher than the previous year. Implementing a Neethling Brain Instruments [NBI] creativity programme has had a profound impact on bottom line results. “The approach was to ask: What needs to change radically to create an enabling organisation, with new
and innovative ways of approaching the business and
servicing the customer? In the last four to five years, the retail landscape has changed, and we are faced with complex, sophisticated customers that buy in different ways. The demand is to be customer-centric—to understand the customer. We are not only in the business of selling goods but also in the business of being chosen by customers.
Create your perfect future
Kobus Neethling on how creativity translates into business success
Creativity is available to everyone. This is the teaching of Kobus Neethling, internationally revered creativity expert and the only non American ever to receive the “The International Who’s Who of Intellectuals Award”. To Neethling, creativity is not just the preserve of poets or composers, but is available to all of us in whatever we do. The core of creativity is simply looking at the world with fresh eyes. The creative person has a new perspective on life. Things that were once impossible, are now possible. It is this new thinking that has a life-changing effect on those who take hold of it. Very few South Africans have had the positive effect on this country that Neethling has had. Week after week, at Neethling’s Place near Bela Bela, he trains groups of South Africans to be creative. His students range from corporate leaders and executives to civil society workers, teachers, civil servants, and anyone else seeking to grow as a person. Neethling’s work extends far beyond our borders, regularly taking him to North America, Europe and other continents.
Creativity is the secret to business success
Consider the sheer volume of negativity, distractions, and energy-draining factors that exist in the world today. Once you have done this, ask yourself how much it impacts the productivity of your staff and your business’s bottom line. Kobus Neethling The first step to injecting a refreshed flow of lucrative and creative ideas back into your business is accepting the fact that you need to improve staff morale. The best way to do this is to facilitate the generation of creative ideas. Dr. Kobus Neethling, president of the South African Creativity Foundation, has developed The Kobus Neethling Creativity Guide, the most acclaimed creativity curriculum in the world. The guide consists of courses intended to improve innovative thinking for employees across all levels of any business. The guide offers individuals and businesses
opportunities for personal training and development to complement their formal training and work experience. As Neethling puts it: “All organisations that pass through the programme have the opportunity to re-establish passion, energy and courage while gaining a high level of insight into the primary creative skills and the application of these
skills in business.” Flexibility is key in The Creativity Guide. It contains courses that can be customised to meet the requirements of any business.
Humour sparks creativity
Humour allows us to relax and think about situations from different perspectives. And, as it happens, creativity requires exactly that. Therefore, it stands to reason that humour and creativity should go hand in hand. Humour should be encouraged in the workplace to foster a playful, creative atmosphere.
Tap into your full potential today
Every generation throughout the ages have developed the relevant knowledge and skills to deal with their immediate world and circumstances. According to Dr. Kobus Neethling, this understanding has been entrenched so deeply into our existence that we have been conditioned to think in a particular way. The end result is narrow mindedness and an inability to use the entire brain to tap into our true potential. Kobus Neethiling Neethling spent most of his life studying the intricacies of the human brain. His qualifications are formidable. They include two Master’s degrees, a Doctorate, and a Post-Doctorate degree in the identification and development of creative behaviour, from the universities of Cape Town and Georgia in the USA.