There are so many benefits to cultivating creativity in your office. It helps generate new and exciting ideas, pushes your business forward, gets people talking about you, and helps you to create a workplace where staff feels valued and free to share their ideas. This can, in turn, help you to attract and keep hold of the best employees. If you want a business that’s pushing the boundaries, known for up-to-date ideas, fantastic products, innovation, and being a fantastic place to work, you need to cultivate creativity. Here’s a look at some of the easiest ways to do it.
Encourage the Sharing of Ideas
If you dismiss ideas, say no too often, or say things like “but” or “how” instead of exploring the possibility, you will struggle to get your employees to share ideas. Encourage them to have ideas and to share them by responding positively, asking for suggestions and opinions, and by never being dismissive.
If your employees feel like they can bring something to you without judgment, they will be far more likely to do it, and you will probably find that creativity is contagious. Once ideas start being shared, more and more of your employees will do the same, encouraging each other and working together to iron out any kinks.
Hire Diverse Talent
If everyone you hire has the same background, education, and qualifications, then a lot of their ideas will be the same. This can stunt creativity. Instead, you want people that bring different ideas and values to the table. You want a range of personalities that can bounce off each other to work things out creatively.
Hire people with different backgrounds and qualifications, but also people with diverse experience and even hobbies. When you make a new hire, try to think about what they will bring to the team. Where you can, opt for diversity.
Utilize an Open Plan Space
Private offices can be a good thing but having an open plan area where your team can come together, or just lay out their work and get a little messy in a larger space, will boost creativity massively.
Challenge Your Team
If creativity is hard to find, challenging your team to come up with something new or offering an incentive for new ideas is a great way to promote creativity and give your team the push that they might need to express themselves.
Get Visual
Visuals around the Office, with plenty of colors and easy messaging, are a great way to inspire creativity. Using visuals by creating infographics, looking at how to make stickers online, and behind-the-scenes sharing videos on social media helps you to create an atmosphere where people feel free and creative and are more likely to share their ideas. If you have a bland office with white walls and little personality, start adding color today with posters, prints, plants, and some more personal touches.
Don’t be a Micromanager
Micromanaging can mute creativity. Stand over someone’s shoulder or offer a very strict set of directions, and you give them no room to be creative. Try to give your team more freedom and even more time to run with their ideas instead of taking over or supervising more closely.
Don’t Lead Discussions
As a manager, you might call and open meetings and start discussions. But that doesn’t mean that you have to lead them. Try to direct, and make sure people stay on track, but let other people talk and even take turns running staff meetings.
A more creative office is often an office with a great atmosphere where people want to come to work. This is certainly worth encouraging and investing in.
