Creativity is an essential part of your workplace. Having a creative workforce means that you’ll be able to come up with new and exciting ideas that will take you in a fresh direction. 

But how do you foster creativity in your workforce? What are the ingredients of creative success?

In this article, we’ll discuss some of the ways that you can boost the creativity of your team.

Create Diverse Ways Of Working  

Everyone has their own way of working. When you try and force people to work in ways that they don’t perform well in, then you will hamper their creativity. 

For some people, working in a team is important. They’ll bounce off other people and they’re at their best when contributing as an equal. For other people, working alone might suit them best. 

To get their best ideas, some people will use a notebook and pen, while others may prefer digital tools. Some people may find that getting started on the task will help them explore the possibilities better than putting pen to paper. 

There are no right or wrong ways of working. It is essential that you understand that all of your team are different and that you need to do everything in your power to facilitate diverse ways of working in your business. 

By retaining all of these different styles of working, you’ll be able to keep and develop many different skills and perspectives within your company. The more diverse your team is in terms of its approach and outlook, the wider the range of possibilities you’ll have. 

Learn to trust that your team will deliver if you allow them to work in a way that suits them best. Don’t try and micromanage the thought process as this will come back and harm your creativity levels. 

Change Things Up 

While it is essential that you keep the way that your team is allowed to work open, on occasion, it might work well if you were to take your employees out of their comfort zone and see how they perform working in new ways. 

Make sure that they understand that the process is just for a limited time only and do your best to support them while working in the new style. 

Some people may take to the new ways of working and will find that they generate different types of ideas. 

Have Team Brainstorming Sessions

Collaborative brainstorming can help to get your team throwing ideas off each other. Often, one thought shared will be a great prompt for another worker to throw in something that is equally as great. Pretty soon, everyone’s ideas will start knicking onto each other and you’ll be able to build a great idea. 

After you’ve had a round of ideas from your team, stop and discuss each one. This gives you a chance to really take apart each idea and look for creative ways to improve it as a team. 

Take the best three or four ideas and develop them further. 

Keep all of your brainstorming sessions as fresh as possible. Think about how many people were invited to attend. If there were too many and the session was not fruitful, try using breakout groups and then bring the best ideas back to the main group as a presentation at the end of the session. 

Invest In Art 

An effective way of boosting your team’s creativity is to invest in art. This means having high-quality creative pieces of artwork on your walls and adorning your office. Use an art advisory consultancy to help source the best works to display in your workplace. 

Having the visual stimulus will engage your team to be more creative in their thinking. It also creates a more inviting space that will help you to keep a happy workforce that enjoys the surroundings that they spend most of their time in. 

Make Your Employees Autonomous

While planning what your team are going to do can be helpful, it’s not going to open up the chance to be creative if they are not allowed to think for themselves. 

Avoid dictating everything to your team. You will hamper their creativity.

Find ways of letting your team think for themselves. Give them the broad strokes of a project, but don’t let them know the exact details. Make sure that your team know that they can ask you for advice, but make sure that they know that any advice is just that and that it is not an exact plan that they should follow. 

Encourage Open Communication 

If you want to boost productivity and encourage creativity you need to ensure your business has a policy of open communication. 

You can encourage communication by letting your team know that you are there for them to talk to. If your employees bring an idea to the table, make sure that you thank them for their input. Use positive language when responding, and if there need to be any changes use constructive language to help them realise how they can improve on it. 

Make sure that you work on your listening skills. This is essential in one-to-one situations as well as in group situations. 

Learn how you can encourage people to share their thoughts. If there are members of your team that are less outspoken with their thoughts, work out how you can get them talking and sharing. 

Harness The Power Of Small Gains

If you have a big task, it can be quite daunting. Your team may very quickly become demotivated if they feel as though they’re not achieving the results they are expecting. 

One way to get around this in order to bolster creativity is to implement a strategy of celebrating small gains. 

When the project seems too big, break it down into smaller goals. Focus on what you have achieved already, rather than what you have left to achieve. Then, pretty soon, you’ll find that you’re further along than you realise. 

Positive thinking will directly affect your team’s ability to think creatively.