Creativity in a business is an essential ingredient in the success recipe.
This does not mean being able to draw more than a stickman or out-of-this-world cupcake designs! This is the creative thinking required to come up with innovative ideas, different ways of solving problems and conceptualisation of new products or systems or services in your business.
It has been proven that businesses that remain creative in their thinking have a significant advantage over their competitors. We at WSI believe that the fact that we are a smaller dynamic team actually gives us more flexibility to be creative! Often bigger companies have more set ways to do things, and I’m not saying that proper rules and systems are not good, but beware that it does not stifle creative thinking amongst employees because they are used to ‘doing things the way it has always been done’.
In a smaller business team members are very often required to perform tasks outside of their normal skillset and this in turn also provides more fertile grounds for the seeds of creativity to take hold.
Here are a few tips to nurture more creativity in your business:
- Don’t knock ideas
The craziest ideas can create conversations that can lead to great ideas. - Change is good
Don’t be afraid to change things. Change keeps a business dynamic. - Leaders inspire
As a business owner, lead by example. Doing this gives others the courage to communicate ideas. - Create platforms for creative ideas
Whether it is a pin board in the office or a shared file that people can drop ideas in for later discussion.
To narrow it down to a more personal or individual level, I found these interesting suggestions to spark your own creative thinking:
- Work from a new space
A change in environment helps us to see things differently, even something as simple as changing the arrangement on your desk. - Take more walks outside
We all know exercise stimulates the mind – even if you just take a 10 minute walk. - Add the colour blue to your office
Blue is said to calm the mind, that gives the brain the ability to add new connections to existing information. - Listen to music while working
No matter what genre, music helps us to focus by engaging our senses. - Try a new restaurant or go do your daily shopping in a different store
Be a customer and take note of things that you could use in your own business - Take time off
Consciously making time to recharge actually leads to a higher quality of work and productivity. - Stop multitasking
We all multitask, but learning the ability to focus on exactly what you are busy with stimulates creativity, because ‘focus’ is an important part of the process of creativity.
Tags: Business
