The Creative Organization Project:
New Original Work Announced via article in the Journal of Professional Communications

Hamilton, Ontario, Canada – July 31, 2013: In a peer-reviewed article released today in the Journal of Professional Communication (JCP) co-authors and consultants Dr. Denise O’Connor and Ginny Jones, APR FCPRS, assert that too many organizations are squandering the potential for creativity within their workforce.  “Instead,” says Jones, “management can unlock that potential through an intentional approach to designing and maintaining a creative culture that serves as the “contextual” shell for incubation of the people’s ideas, as well as, of their willingness to collaborate.”

The article introduces the Creative Organization Project, a body of original work by Canadians O’Connor and Jones designed to “test” a business model that they maintain will improve productivity and employee engagement at a time when collaboration, adaptability, new products and services and better ways of doing things are needed more than ever to compete in a global economy. During a series of podcasts with exceptional leaders and blog postings over the next year, the two will specifically examine the roles that two-way communications, organizational conversations, core values, trustworthy leadership and support for risk-tasking play in setting a creative culture for staff engagement and higher productivity.

“It takes attention and intention to create the organizational culture you want (i.e. success) where staff become creative problem-solvers and imaginative thinkers and, the leadership is trusted,” adds O’Connor. “We think it starts with leaders who truly believe and are guided by values, as well as a philosophical commitment to and practice of two-way communications. It’s an intentional approach to providing opportunities for others to shine and all to succeed. We want to test our current thinking that there are certain skills as well as, a set of values that build trust – so necessary for risk-taking and innovation to occur – as well as a separate set of values that build creativity.

"I am proud to include a peer-reviewed practical paper by Denise O'Connor and Ginny Jones in this third issue of the Journal of Professional Communication,” said Editor-in-Chief Alex Sévigny, McMaster University. “Their work is based on theory, evidence and measurement. Exactly in line with JPC's mission." JCP is an international publication for practitioners, policy makers and academics to explore the intersections between public relations practice, communication and new media theory and is housed in the Department of Communication Studies & Multimedia at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.

- 30 –

For more information, please contact:

Ginny Jones, APR FCPRS                    OR           Denise O’Connor, PhD
President, Acuity Options                                     President, Moving Perspectives
905 648 2049  gjones@acuityoptions.com      905 928 8294 doconnor@acuityoptions.com