Success hinges on creativity and innovation. If your company isn’t creative, then it’s not evolving and growing. This can have a major impact on customer retention, productivity, and, eventually, your bottom line.
If, however, you’re not sure how to develop a culture with creativity and innovation at its core, here are some tips to get started.
Tip #1: Be clear about goals.
When employees aren’t clear about what you’re trying to achieve, they don’t have any parameters to follow. This can actually hinder innovation and creativity, along with engagement. So make sure they have clarity about goals, boundaries, parameters, or expectations, so they can start to brainstorm, experiment and innovate.
Tip #2: Create a culture built on trust.
If your employees don’t trust you or feel like sharing ideas is risky, it’s hard to be creative. Instead, work toward creating a culture built on trust so employees feel comfortable taking risks, sharing thoughts and perspectives, and using their creative power and energy to solve problems.
Tip #3: Promote collaboration.
Creativity can happen anytime, anywhere. However, many ideas come when people are working together toward one common goal with a few parameters in place. By brainstorming and collaborating, employees can work together, build off one another, and get inspired by each other’s energy. This enables people to think more deeply and uniquely, providing one-of-a-kind solutions and ideas in the process.
Tip #4: Keep toxic people out.
There are always those naysayers or highly critical people. They are toxic, though, and do not help to create a positive working environment. As a result, they will when it comes to creativity and innovation, which is why it’s important to keep them out of these collaborations.
The rest of the team won’t feel safe sharing ideas otherwise. Just one toxic person can make your employees uncomfortable, shutting down productive collaboration.
Tip #5: Make it fun.
When you add some fun and playfulness to the mix, it can enhance the creative process. For instance, take your team outside for a brainstorming session. Or bring in a sundae bar to treat your employees. When you keep the atmosphere fun and light, it can lead to unexpected, new ideas. If, on the other hand, people are stressed out, negatively affects their ability to be creative.
Tip #6: Cut the red tape.
Red tape kills creativity. It makes it hard for people to innovate, and it sucks the life from collaborations. If your team is forced to work within strict confines, it can hinder their ability to be creative. While some amount of bureaucracy is unavoidable, make sure the red tape you do have in place is absolutely necessary.
Need help hiring for creativity?
At Provisional Recruiting, we’re one of the top staffing agencies in Boise and Coeur d’Alene’s, ID, and can help you source and recruit the creative innovators you need to drive success at your organization. Contact us today to get started.