Creating Creativity

This might seem obvious, considering we are a creative agency, but for us it is super important that the environment in which we work is one that encourages and inspires creativity.

This isn’t just important for creative agencies however, because inspiring greater creativity in your business can help spur innovation, and innovation is pretty high up on most growing and successful businesses lists of things to strive for.

So, how do you boost creativity amongst your staff and colleagues? You need to create a work culture where all employees are actively encouraged to put ideas forward…

1. Let them know

Ensure that all your staff know that you really do want to hear their ideas. Innovation keeps your business competitive, so always remember to encourage people to share their ideas as much as possible.

2. Take the time

Creativity takes time, it’s not a free flowing tap that you can turn on and off at will, so be sure to allocate the time for thinking about different approaches. Setting aside dedicated time for brainstorming, holding regular group discussions and even arranging team days out can help to inspire a creative thought process. It is also important to give individuals the space to reflect privately on their work in order to let real progress flourish.

3. Ask!

Some people might have a myriad of amazingly creative ideas, but they’re simply too scared to share them with the rest of the team, or to speak up in group discussions. Therefore, make sure you are encouraging people to work together and share ideas. Individuals within the team can feed off each other – exploring, testing and refining new approaches.

4. Advocate training

It is so important that we are always improving our skills and keeping our minds sharp, especially to allow great new ideas to develop and grow. Your staff may even be unfamiliar with the skills involved in creative problem-solving, which could be causing a road-block in their creative process. Consider leading training sessions in techniques such as brainstorming, lateral thinking and mind-mapping and then sit back and reap the rewards of a creatively competent team!

5. Mix it up

Broadening people’s experiences at work can be a great way to encourage creativity and innovation. By letting employees shadow each other in-house, it can introduce a fresh perspective and understanding of how other elements in the business are tackled. This way people can take new inspiration of how different approaches can be adapted or improved.

6. Always support

Be supportive and enthusiastic of all new ideas and never make someone offering an idea, however hopeless you may deem it to be, feel foolish. Even the most seemingly outlandish of ideas deserve a chance to be aired.

7. Tolerate mistakes

An occupational hazard of creative thinking is risk-taking, so allow people to learn from their mistakes, because with new ideas, mistakes are always inevitable. Don’t risk stemming the creative flow by penalising those whose ideas don’t work out.

8. Reward creativity

Keep individuals or teams motivated by actively recognising creativity and celebrating those who come up with successful or winning ideas.

9. Take action
Inspiring creativity is only worthwhile if it results in action. Be sure to provide the time and resources to help develop and implement those ideas that are really worth acting upon.

Following through on strong ideas is a powerful way of encouraging employees to keep being creative and to keep looking for innovative ways to improve the business.

10. Breathing space

It is very easy to constantly be caught up in a plethora of meetings, phone calls and instant chats talking about a project, what the deliverables are and how long we have to create them, but sometimes this can hinder the exploration of truly impactful new ideas.

So, it’s important that everyone is given the time to centre and focus their own minds on exploring a new idea or project, away from the constant buzz of never-ending discussions and communications.

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Thanks for reading our top tips on how to inspire creativity in the workplace. If you’d like to discuss how our creative ideas can help your business to flourish, please get in touch today, we’d love to hear from you!