How conducive is your workplace for your team members to think creatively? It’s not just the physical space but also the culture, interactions and systems in your organisation as well. Creativity is important in your day-to-day activities in business. Whether it is for a major project or a simple solution to a minor mishap, a dose of creativity can go a long way.
Creativity can thrive in an environment where there is fertile ground for the mind to flourish. Once the mind works, it can know no bounds unless you block it and do not nurture its capabilities. If you want your workplace to be charged with creative energy, there are many things you can do to encourage it in your team.
Come up with special projects
It could be a group project or an individual activity that you can allow your staff to initiate in your office. You can even come up with small contests or competitions depending on the interests of your staff and team. Some companies empower their members to organise fun bonding activities or volunteer works where they get to shine outside their scope of work.
Make room for collaboration
Many say that two heads are better than one. Allow your people to expand their knowledge and learn from each other through collaborative works that you can enforce within your organisation. They can share their expertise and enhance their skills by mentoring one another on something that they can consider as their special skill or talent.
Invite experts and allow sharing of ideas
Let your staff learn something new by inviting outside experts that can introduce a fresh concept to them. Third-party consultants can judge their special projects or conduct activities that will add a different perspective to the team. People usually act differently when with a new person than with familiar faces, and having someone on certain occasions may inject a fresh vibe to your team.
Have time for fun and play
Allot a corner in your workplace where your staff can take a break from work and relax their minds. Come up with fun games outside of work. Celebrate little successes. Eat out. Take a trip together. Share a hobby or interest. Let them stretch out their mind by getting involved in something that can make them smile and laugh. Give them a free hand in organising such things o that they won’t feel it as an obligation at work.
Do brainstorming sessions
If there’s a crucial point in your business that you need to do, such as meeting targets or levelling up a service to a client or scaling your venture, involve your team members in the process. Cultivate the culture of challenge and openness to ideas by conducting brainstorming sessions whenever you can. Letting your people know that you value their inputs will motivate them to think creatively.
Acknowledge great ideas and reward them
Another good way to encourage and inspire creativity among your team members is to recognise their good works and reward positive results. That will boost their morale and push them to strive to be even better. It will also embolden the rest of your staff, especially new ones, to aspire for something and aim to achieve a certain goal.
There are other different ways to incite creativity in your workplace. It will depend on the kind of people and culture you have within your organisation. You will have to observe, get inputs and often test the waters on the various methods to find the most effective ones that can foster inventiveness, innovation and ingenuity among your team members. And often, you have to introduce new ways to keep them coming and evolving.