In this series I will give my HO (humble opinion) in response to questions I have come across.

How does your organization reward creative or innovative thinking?

IMHO, rewards are a behavioral management technique that are useful only
in a) master-slave relationships and b) in dealing with cognitively
simple organisms (a more benevolent form of the master-slave relationship).

Examples of a) are i) the Military, ii) most Businesses (standard
business management practices are modeled on the Military’s command and
control structure) and iii) Schools (standard educational management
practices are based on the command and control structure of
businesses).

Yes, I agree it is unfortunate that we model our schools and businesses on a military structure.  The result is a dehumanization (Military loves this) of just about everyone involved. This has such a negative impact on innovation and creativity that you have to create a reward structure just to make people motivated enough to get past their fear of doing something wrong or making a mistake that costs the business money and themself, their job.

Examples of b) are dealing with i) very young children and ii) animals.

If your organization is democratic and circular, as opposed to
autocratic and pyramidal, the reward for creativity and innovative
thinking is the successful fruition of the team member’s idea.

In this way, the creative and innovative thinking is internally motivated, as opposed to an external reward structure.

If you really need a reward system for innovation and creativity try a) not firing those who dare to innovate and create b) not yelling at those who dare to innovate and create c) not punishing people for mistakes.

Rewards can be powerful tools, even a self imposed reward structure.
The difference here being the ‘self imposed’ portion. One may choose to
motivate himself to lose weight by creating a reward structure with
milestones. This is a far cry from a weight loss reward system imposed
by some authoritarian party.

And there, exactly, is the rub of the situation. In your life you
are free to lose weight or not lose weight, save your money or not save
your money, and most importantly, cast your vote, not as a voice but as
an influence.

In the history of the world (and I mean it) is there ANY
autocratic (dictatorial) nation that is/was more prosperous with happier,
more liberated people than ANY democratic nation? I can’t think of any.

There is an intelligence and robustness to a democracy that not
even the smartest and most well intended autocratic leader could
create. The fear of course is in letting go and fear is the motivator
behind many if not most business decisions.