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How can I stimulate and encourage creativity in a team or individual?
Home » Careers » Creativity » How can I stimulate and encourage creativity in a team or individual?Posted by Your Guide on October 5, 2005 10:02 AM
It is easy to want creativity or to know that creativity is valuable, but it is a much more difficult matter to actually spark creativity on your team. The traditional view of creativity is that of a team brainstorming ideas. This is a tried and true method of creativity. Resolve that there are no bad ideas during this first step and let your team offer any and all solutions to an issue. You’ll be surprised at how quickly the creativity momentum will take over.
It is also important to expose your team to a diverse group of people and ideas. If you are holding a creative meeting, invite more people rather than less, and even include individuals who are not technically necessary. People from different departments have varied perspectives and can offer insight you would not have otherwise considered. In addition, try bringing in speakers or individuals from outside the company to discuss creativity or other topics that challenge your employees to think broadly.
Many companies also employ a variety of creative exercises to challenge their employees. Some of these exercises have direct applicability to the project at hand while others simply aim to improve employee creativity in general. Comedian John Cleese said, “If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play.” Give employees useless items and ask them to design something or sell it to the group, for example. This exercise challenges them to work in groups and think in creative ways.
After your team has developed a creative idea, it is very important for you to put it into practice. Nothing kills creativity faster than fear of rejection, and if your employees have worked hard to give you a creative idea only to see you reject it, they will not want to think creatively in the future. Instead, they will try and give you exactly what you expect, which is the opposite of creativity.
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