How to Boost Creativity in Your Workplace
Creativity is a very important tool if one is going to be successful in the workplace. Some believe creativity is a gift that some people have and not others. Creativity indeed is a gift for some just like some people have a natural gift for athletes but that doesn’t mean creativity cannot be cultivated. Anyone can be good at athletes by training constantly and with diligence. The same goes for creativity, it can be cultivated. It just takes hard work, practice, and discipline.
What then is creativity?
Creativity is simply the art of finding innovative ways to solve problems. It’s bringing to reality imaginative ideas.
Creativity is not limited to musicians, painters, graphic designers, and some people we have attached creativity to. Creativity is an important skill to have now and a basic requirement when being recruited into any organization.
Creativity is important in every setting. Why?
- Creativity creates better teamwork – how? Employees collaborate with there is a good idea to work on. Organizations have to encourage employees to continuously learn, try new things, and gain new information. Ideas may come from one person but you need a creative team to bring them to materialization.
- Creativity improves the ability to attract and retain employees – creativity is exciting. People love doing or trying new things. Employees are committed and loyal to organizations where creativity is encouraged.
- Creativity increases problem-solving – creativity makes you think outside the box and with this, employees are not narrow-minded when dealing with problems. This makes running a business effective. Creativity in the workplace encourages employees to have ideas and when they have innovative ideas, the business will flourish. The business world is becoming more competitive so innovative ideas are needed to be ahead.
- Makes employees confident to discuss their ideas and think of better ideas.
- Productivity comes as a result of creativity and productivity is what every organization aims for. You must be open-minded to the ideas of your employees if you are aiming for productivity as a boss. Don’t be too attached to old patterns of doing things because the world and the business world, in particular, are changing every day.
- Creativity increases an individual’s ability to learn and curiosity.
How to Boost Creativity in the Workplace
Become a leader who champions creativity– your employees have to see you do what you want them to do. Come up with ideas, and allow them to brainstorm on how to bring them to reality. Give them an assignment and take one too. Come up with something unique and they will model you.
Encourage Both Individualism and teamwork – one of the importance of creativity is that it fosters teamwork and that’s good. But we need to also encourage individualism, where people can up with ideas on their own, and work on them to bring them to reality. They should not wait until they all come together to come up with an idea. An individual can come up with an idea and the whole team works on it.
Never Say No – Don’t easily shut down ideas. You can encourage your workers to do better by saying “that’s good but you can do better “. Criticize constructively, point out where and needs amending, or communicate effectively why the idea may not be the best, instead of shutting the person down. That kills confidence for future ideas, especially when a team has been brainstorming to get the solution to a problem.
Diversify your team – let there be a variety of learning techniques, insights, and perspectives allowed. The ideas generated are important but how your team works are more important.
Ask questions – Ask your employees questions and expect and demand an answer from them, even the least person. Engage them, this helps them build ideas.
Create a space for critical thinking – People think or brainstorm easily in the right environment. A space can be created in the organization where a team can meet and rub minds together. Consider the lighting, the color of the room, and even what they can eat in the room. Concentration is important and proper illumination aids that. Natural sources of light during the day can also be refreshing.
Act on good ideas – Implementing good ideas builds confidence. Don’t just keep piling ideas for the future and never implementing them. It discourages creativity. Commending ideas publicly and investing to make the idea a reality, makes other employees want to work hard to come up with new ideas.
Reward creativity – create a creative atmosphere and encourage it, not just by commending with words. Create reward systems whichever way you choose but let there be a reward for both individual creativity and team creativity. Bonuses can be given, Vacation opportunities, a treat for the team, and even awards can be given to individuals and teams. Rewarding creativity makes employees feel their efforts were acknowledged and they work to do better. It’s exciting knowing that if l put my effort into coming up with an idea, it will not only be acknowledged but a reward follows it.
Offer further training – you can send your employees for training programs or train them right there in the office by getting experts to train or teach them. Let them learn new skills to help the company. Let them know that their skills, values, and ideas are important to the company. When people feel valued, they are more committed and your employees are no different. They work hard knowing they are valuable to the company or organization.
Established a clear mission and vision – let the company mission and vision not be ambiguous or limited to certain people. It should be as clear as possible and every employee should be aware of it so that they know the goal of the organization and strategies to apply. Trust is a function of adequate communication and how much information is accessible to the employee and it creates a stronger bond among employees because the employees understand the current condition of the business and how much their efforts can help make the business better.
Communicate the company’s direction – Set long-term and short-term goals for the organization and effectively communicate them to the employees. You can draw statistics to show how each person or team affects the success of these goals. It makes the employees understand their importance to the achievement of the company’s short-term and long-term goals and take seriously their tasks. Acting like with or without them, you can make it, makes them slack and uncommitted to the success of the business.
Get Employees more involved – Do not hoard or hide information from your employees, be as transparent as possible. When employees sense transparency and are aware of relevant information, they feel like they belong. Let them be part of the decision-making, it makes employees feel a sense of ownership and encourages them to work better and come up with more creative ways to move the company.
Create time and space for fun activities – Plan for recreational or outings activities within the year as you plan yearly schedules. It can be a treat to a meal or even as expensive as a vacation trip. Including facilities for fun in the company is not a bad idea because it saves money and keeps them closer to work. It reduces the stress at work.
No matter the organization or company, there are always ways one can be creative. So don’t be stereotyped or narrow-minded as either an employer or employee. Challenge yourself to try new things. Even if you fail, don’t be discouraged, instead, strive to do better. Increasing creativity takes time and effort but both employers and employees benefit from it.