Initiative for Distributed Innovation (IDI) How to harness the engineers' creativity
It is obvious that Dilbert's boss (http://www.dilbert.com/) has read none of the excellent references provided in the linked paper. I got to it through the Career section of the printed edition of IEEE Spectrum (http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/). Reference is also made to a book by some people in Synectics: Creativity, Inc.: Building and Inventive Organization (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1578512077/103-7833340-1683053?v=glance)
The Spectrum article highlights tha fact that "All the coloured walls and free food won't matter if people are bored". Too true. A few years ago, during the .com frenzy, my company had built some 'creative' spaces for young software engineers. One of them was pink, with plush purple seats and carpets, toys for boys, elaborate lighting, etc. I dubbed it "The Brothel". It did work as a creative space but only because the group was spun off from its risk-averse parent and allowed to pursue .com business [N.B. it has now been re-absorbed into the 'bricks and mortar' marketplace]. It was not the brothel atmosphere but the autonomy that let engineers innovate. As the article suggests, engineers need some autonomy and some 'percolation time' off the dreaded timeboxed project tasks in order to innovate. Whoever is lucky to have escaped the tyranny of delivery programmes knows how true this is.