We want to inspire our employees, but in order to do this effectively, we’ve got to make sure that they are creative. Creative employees can boost your business in many ways but if you want them to come up with great solutions to problems and make your business a far better entity, you’ve got to foster a creative working environment. So what are the best ways for us to encourage creativity with our employees?
A Stimulating Environment
When you start to think about your office space, there are a number of elements that you will need to consider, not just the lighting or the temperature, but the colors you display and the sounds you hear. It’s also about remembering the appropriate stimuli to help them become more creative. If you get the balance right and the senses are aligned, you need to make sure they have the appropriate ways to note down information. Having a standalone drawing tablet can be a very simple way to do this. But when we think about stimulating creativity, a working environment needs to cover a number of areas to stimulate the brain.
Setting the Stage
Allowing your employees to brainstorm is crucial. Giving them an empty board, pens, and paper so they can come up with ideas within a collaborative forum, gives them a far better opportunity to go wild with their ideas. Brainstorming is one of those things that are not always given enough emphasis within a business. People like to come up with ideas, but they also don’t like to be wrong. When you start to encourage brainstorming sessions where there is no wrong answer, it takes the pressure off and it means that they will generate more ideas.
Focus on Anonymous Suggestions
Following on from idea generation, sometimes if people don’t want to make public suggestions, you can encourage employees by removing social barriers. Suggestion boxes around the workplace and identity-protecting forms are an amazing way to make sure that employees are making themselves heard.
Bring About Individuality
Employees need to know that we value their input. As simple as it sounds, employees get used to feeling like one piece of the puzzle rather than someone who is encouraged to bring their individuality forward. This is why you need to make sure that employees feel supported to be themselves. You need to show them that they are interesting individuals and are unique. Employees will respond well to these types of gestures and will give you more insight as a result.
Make a Move When You Find a Good Idea
Employees are more likely to offer suggestions if they think their ideas will become part of the fabric. This is why you need to determine, as part of your decision-making process, if that idea is a potential success, so you need to go ahead and let your workers know how the idea came about. You don’t need to shout from the rooftops about who came up with this idea until you have results to display but if you are looking to increase creativity and motivation this is an amazing practice.
