Here's how you can assess and gauge the impact of creativity in facilitation.

Creativity is breaking old ways of thinking. Include activities that challenge the group and get them thinking differently. Be careful not to judge their ideas as creative or not - that's completely up to them. Your job is to make them think.

Assessing creativity in facilitation begins with defining its context within your session. Creativity entails generating novel and useful ideas, approaches, or solutions, extending beyond traditional notions of artistry. As a facilitator, your task is to cultivate an environment where participants feel safe exploring unconventional concepts. This fosters a culture where creativity flourishes, allowing for the emergence of innovative solutions. By creating space for diverse perspectives and encouraging risk-taking, you can effectively assess and harness the creative potential within your sessions.

Creativity in facilitation encompasses more than just artistic expression—it's about cultivating an environment where innovative ideas flourish. It involves the ability to generate novel and practical solutions, thinking beyond conventional boundaries. As a facilitator, your role is to nurture a space where participants feel empowered to share unconventional ideas without hesitation. This is where creativity thrives and can be evaluated.

To effectively measure the impact of creativity, it's essential to establish clear objectives for your creative facilitation efforts. These objectives should delineate what you aim to achieve, whether it's generating a set number of new ideas or fostering breakthroughs in team dynamics. Ensure your objectives are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). By setting these targets upfront, you create a framework for assessing the success of the creative aspects of your facilitation, providing valuable insights into the effectiveness of your approach.

Setting clear objectives is paramount for evaluating the effectiveness of creative facilitation. These objectives should outline what you aim to achieve, whether it's generating new ideas or fostering improved team dynamics. To ensure clarity and accountability, it's essential to make these objectives SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. By establishing these targets in advance, you provide a framework for assessing the impact of creative elements in your facilitation efforts.

Participant interactions serve as a revealing indicator of creativity in action. Throughout your session, observe how individuals engage with one another. Are they actively building on each other's ideas? Is there a palpable sense of excitement and exploration in the room? These qualitative observations provide insight into the presence of a creative atmosphere. Take note of instances of collaborative creativity and reflect on their contribution to achieving your session's objectives. By monitoring participant interactions, you can assess the effectiveness of your facilitation in fostering a creative environment.

Observe participant interactions for cues on creativity's impact: heightened engagement, diverse idea exchanges, spontaneous collaboration, and enthusiastic response to unconventional activities. These dynamics signify effective facilitation, fostering innovation and problem-solving.

Reflecting on the tangible outcomes of a creative facilitation session is essential for evaluating its effectiveness. Did the group successfully address a previously daunting challenge? Did they develop a prototype for a new product or service? By comparing these outcomes to your initial objectives, you can gauge the impact of creativity on achieving these results. It's important to note that not all benefits may be immediately quantifiable; some advantages of creative facilitation may manifest over time. Thus, ongoing reflection is key to fully understanding the impact of creative approaches in facilitation.

Creativity is what infuses energy in facilitation. One way to stay creative is to constantly challenge yourself, to think of different ideas and approaches of facilitating topics you have done in the past. What also helps is doing extensive research or exchanging ideas with facilitator friends.

The experience of creativity may evoke a feeling in the moment - one of inspiration or the joy of collaboration - but the impact from creativity can take time. To reflect on and recognize the impact of creativity there should be clarity and documentation of the starting state before the facilitation - a base comparison point. At established intervals following the facilitation (30/60/90 days, 6 mos, etc) the invested leaders should gather comparative reflections on what has shifted from the creativity created during the process. These shifts could be seen in outputs, in process, in experience, or in leadership and community. The shifts - these are the stories of impact that can be lessons for the future.