Creativity is the ability to come up with good ideas and solutions. Whether or not you are in the traditional creative role, you can add a lot of value to your organization if you have the ability to think creatively. As an employee, you can do this by going beyond the existing rationale and logic.
Likewise, managers should also encourage the team members when they come up with creative ideas. There shouldn’t be any hierarchy in appreciating the young minds and their innovative thinking. At the end of the day, encouraging and improving employees’ contributions is the key to an organization’s success.
Without creativity, every business would be the same. Everyone will be offering the same products with similar kinds of marketing and advertising. What makes a business stand out from its competitors is the ability to think differently and innovatively. So how do you pump the muscle of creativity? Here are a few tips that can help you upgrade your creative team.
1. Pose questions, not problems:
Instead of asking your team members “why we couldn’t reach certain targets”, ask them where it went wrong and how you can improve collectively as a team. Get your team to think about problems as questions. This way they are more likely to come up with effective solutions to solve those problems rather than sticking to well-worn strategies.
2. Encourage new ideas:
As a manager your judgments and ideas carry a lot of weight, so try to speak at the end of every meeting. This allows every participant to talk and share their own ideas. On the other hand, If you start the meeting by sharing your ideas, it is more likely for others to simply extend them without putting much thought into it. Thus, you should give enough space for everyone to contribute and appreciate their ideas.
3. Training and development:
It’s always said that ‘Knowledge is power- and in many ways, it is true. Constant upskilling from learning and development is the cornerstone for outstanding performances. The more knowledge your employees absorb, the more creative and innovative they become. With the technology expanding exponentially, there are a lot of tools and software that organizations and professionals can utilize to train and upskill themselves.
A great example could be using tools like LMS(Learning Management Systems) that help you manage your employee training better with its amazing features like data tracking, centralized learning materials, and much more. Some features like gamification and mobile learning support can also improve employee engagement.
However, with so many options, choosing the right LMS can easily become a daunting task. Fortunately, there are a number of platforms where you can choose and compare various enterprise learning management system and then select the one that fits your organization. Check their website to know more.
4. Facilitate diversity:
Organizations should try to put together employees of different genders, academic and cultural backgrounds. Multicultural teams tend to give more ideas than teams with similar backgrounds. So never back off from hiring people from different backgrounds and cultures.
You can also promote diverse ways of working. For instance, some people like to work alone while some prefer to work in a team. So, allow them to work in their own way. Eventually what matters is how creative and productive they are.
5. Provide honest feedback:
Give unbiased and thoughtful feedback to your team members based on what you see. Rather than just saying ‘it’s good’, appreciate them more enthusiastically when they come up with good ideas. Tell them what you really like about their ideas. This will motivate them further to contribute more. Likewise, tell them where they can improve if their contribution is not as expected.
Conclusion:
Creativity is one of the key skills most organizations want but unfortunately, they do not invest enough time in harnessing them There is no one-size-fits-all approach for this. Apart from the above-mentioned tips, you need to figure out your organization-specific ways of tackling these problems.
