The ability to generate new ideas to tackle existing or newly occurring issues and situations is what makes creativity a vital factor of success in the business world. Young entrepreneurs tend to wrongly assume that they are solely responsible for bringing creative solutions into the company. In reality, regardless of their understanding of the products and services and their ambitious motivation, it would be unfair to assume that the only place where inspiration happens in the director’s office. In truth, inspiration is a common force that needs to be shared across the company. Successful businesses don’t have a creative leader. They rely on the skills and imagination of all employees. Your team is your biggest asset, because they are the ones who come up with the best ideas. Indeed, thanks to their in-depth knowledge of the business sector and the inner processes of the company, your employees are most likely to come up with a brilliant idea than any company director. Unfortunately, in the real world, most employees find it tricky to cope with their daily tasks, let alone generating new ideas on demand. There’s an odd dualism about modern workplaces that demands on the one hand speed and effectiveness, and on the other hand creative and engaging approaches. As a result, most employees rely on online searches to come up with the next best strategy, from copying what competitors are doing to checking out the latest digital trends. If you want to unlock true creativity within your team, you need to provide them with the opportunity to explore their thoughts.
Nothing like a green environment
The urban lifestyle has been made stressful through the increase of vehicles on the road, grey and artificial architecture, and fast-paced environment and behaviour. As a result, you’ll find that your employees tend to maintain high levels of stress throughout the day. Additionally, many scientists have shown that a quick stroll in nature can restore mental peace and unlock creative thinking, proving once and for all that urban landscapes destroy creativity. Admittedly, it’s not easy for entrepreneurs to move their companies to the centre of a nature park. However, you can introduce a relaxing green environment, using fertilising solutions such as Seasol to turn the inner courtyard into a lush and green lawn, for instance. While this might sound like an unnecessary luxury, the presence of plants – inside and outside the office – can significantly reduce your team’s perception of stress. As a result, employees are more relaxed and consequently more likely to engage in creative activities.
Remind everyone of your brand story
A new idea is pointless if it doesn’t fit in the company vision. However, for anyone who’s going through piles of daily tasks, day after day, the company vision is the kind of things that is easy to forget. When you’re racing time to finish an urgent client’s project and chasing another client for information, you can’t see the bigger picture. Consequently, if you want to encourage your staff to generate ideas towards a common objective, you need to introduce reminders of your brand journey in your office. The about us page on the website is not helpful to people who don’t need to read the site in their everyday job, for instance. But you can use the office decor to incorporate branding and place the company on a strategic path. Using visuals on the wall to showcase your fundamental beliefs and your brand identity can make a significant difference.
Include brainstorming meetings to your routine
Generating new ideas is an unnatural behaviour in the workplace, where most employees are used to getting on with the workload without asking further questions. You can, however, push your employees in the right direction by making brainstorming sessions an inherent part of the day-to-day work. Encouraging your team to exchange and explore ideas regularly can help in making brainstorming a habit. There are plenty of effective methods available, from brain-netting for remote teams to rapid ideation where nothing is overthought or filtered – in other words, it needs to get silly.
Stay tuned to the latest trends
Ultimately, if you want your employees to think creatively about how to adapt their tasks or their services to a moving industry sector, you need to provide the facilities they need to stay updated. Innovative thinking is about reacting to a situation before you’re confronted with the events. It’s all about adapting in advance; consequently, your team needs to know what’s coming and what others are doing.
Reduce workload and working hours
Did you know that working long hours is bad for your creative thinking? Teams that are overworked have no spare mental ability to be creative. Their focus is to meet the deadlines so that they stick to the most effective and productive routine. If you want employees to be able to identify potential issues and to bring a creative approach, you need to offer some spare time. Reducing working hours without cutting down wages can be a practical solution to build an innovative company.
Bond with the team
People who know and understand each other are more likely to explore creative strategies together. Indeed, team-building activities tend to be designed to encourage productivity and integration. However, when your team shares common values and attitudes, they can also combine their strengths to offer creative approaches together. The better you know each other, the better you think together.
Encourage everyone to explore new horizons
At the heart of creativity, there’s the ability for an individual to remain open-minded to new and different ideas and solutions. Open-minded, especially at a business-level, is something you need to cultivate for your team. At an age where everyone is a specialist, thinking outside the box is more than the ability to accept that there might be other solutions to one problem. It’s about knowing as well how others would tackle the same issue. That’s precisely where your training programme is crucial in broadening your team’s horizons. As they can discover new skills, they can also learn about new methods – that might be used in different sectors.
What turns a hard-working team into an idea-generating machine? Creativity is more than a state of mind. It’s a business requirement, and it is the responsibility of the business owner to encourage it within the company.
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To your success,
Vinh Van Lam & Stuart Horrex
Your Coaches ArtSHINE industries
