Here's how you can foster a creative culture in your Enterprise Software team.

Encouraging risk is essential. Think of your team as explorers charting unknown territories. Just as explorers take calculated risks to discover new lands, creating a safe space for experimentation allows your team to innovate without fear of failure. Each setback becomes a valuable part of the journey, leading to bold, creative solutions.

Exactly creating a safe space for failure will nurture the culture of innovation at your organization. This will also encourage the team to fail fast and drop ideas that won’t work at earlier stages were leaders will put more weight on fostering the experimental culture than on the importance of being right all the time.

Failure only happens when you don't learn something or don't try again. Building something new is and always will be surrounded with attempts that didn't meet the expectation. Enabling your engineers to try some off the wall solutions will net a more creative culture, allowing for more innovation to prosper. An example of this was an internal automation suite I was assigned. I could've built out a basic cron app, but instead implemented a new method using software we were already using in a way we as an org hadn't up to this point. While it took a few more weeks than a simple cron app, it allowed us to integrate with our other systems with little to no extra work, saving us integration headaches and weeks if not months down the road.

Risk of Failure. If you look closely failure is misalignment: of a product/feature to market needs to route to market. I have rarely seen “failed due to wrong technology”. So re define failure. Call them as proof points of what will not work. Then you will automatically remove the stigma of “fail” and encourage engineers to try new things my applying the available data points. In the recent past I have been able to re position 2 “failed” products to be fairly successful by addressing the misalignment. Sometimes you land up re writing it to modernise, sometimes use componentised (micro services) architecture to to retrofit older components into a newer go to market POV. I have done both. Encourage team leaders to identify misalignments.

One aspect of preparing a safe space for creativity that I have often seen missed is clearing the task list. Unless one's role at work is 100% creativity I find that the task list from the non-creative parts of their roles can often drive vertical, action-oriented, thinking rather than lateral thinking. I make sure to take the tasking out of work when creativity is what we are optimising for.

Diversity is the catalyst for innovation. Think of it as a symphony orchestra, where each instrument brings a unique sound. When you assemble a team with diverse backgrounds, skills, and perspectives, you create a richer, more harmonious blend of ideas. This mix of cultural, social, and cognitive differences enhances brainstorming and leads to more innovative and creative solutions.

Diversity of ideas is the basis of brainstorming. Or as we call in India "Manthan". In #designthinking you will call it divergence. The richer and "off the wall" ideas you have - the better. When you get to the convergence phase in #designthinking, the richer the ide set, the more vibrant is the convergence. Its not bland and unidimensional. Diverse ideas come from diverse individuals. The more diverse in experience, expertise, background the people in the room are - the better is the palatte of the divergent ideas. All of the above come from peoples life experience, their experience is shaped by what they are. So assimilate people for what they are and then they will bring unique perspectives to the table. This way you avoid blind spots

Encourage and reward experimentation. Don't punish failure. Maintain diversity. Treat others with the respect that you expect from them.

Open dialogue is crucial. Picture it as a roundtable discussion where every seat is equal. Encouraging everyone to voice their thoughts and opinions ensures all ideas are heard and valued. This can lead to unexpected connections and insights, fostering a creative atmosphere. When team members know their input matters, they become more engaged and motivated to contribute, driving innovation forward.

It's also important to know your team. I have worked with creatives who come alive with a deadline, and I have worked with creatives who fall apart with the mere mention of a deliverable ... let alone a deadline. It's important to create and champion the kind of environment that generates the creative energy of the group and for creative projects, I am quite unapologetic about it. Other types of projects are not as susceptible to terminology and timing so where you need a high-performing creative team, I find that being deliberate and diligent about the energy of the work energy is key.

People talk about using new concepts and technologies but few people bother to take the time to experience and learn. Unless you experience the technology, you cannot imagine how it might be used. For example, have you experienced Virtual Reality or Augmented Reality? Experience Interactive 3D Augmented Reality training with our FREE Deming Funnel app. Learn how even an in-control process can mask a massive loss in productivity. Search "Deming Funnel" in the app stores. Put a piece of paper on the floor to give the AR something to lock onto. Try the manual mode to experience interaction with virtual 3D objects.

Granting autonomy is super critical for scaling. have a escape hatch mechanism like office hours, open doors, escalation (read Jeff Bezos talk about this), retrospective etc. are super important. As a senior leader, you have to play the job of a coach and be non judgmental. When the team goes to play - they play "their" way with their own team dynamics. The team can sometime form their own unique plays, that was not provided by the coach. I am not sure Pele was not coached to use the banana kick in the circumstance. Autonomous teams tend to produce results as they have the passion and a sense of ownership of the deliverable. The team "owns" the product and its delivery. They need the guidance, overall direction, alignment and mentorship.

This aspect of fostering a team creative culture with Enterprise Software, though important, it must still be monitored from a software development perspective. Agreed that people tend to be more creative and invested when they take ownership of their portion of a project. What is paramount though, is that the team must still come together to ensure funtionality synergy. Too much autonomy can set the precedence of having to re-do processes and development.

This is super important. Celebrations, formal and informal are very important to break the monotony and look back at the journey and reflect (preferably over a beer!). Celebrations are collective reflections. It is wrong to assume that by rewarding some one you are enraging someone. I have often seen that when a team mate is rewarded, the whole team feels proud of that work for which the reward is given. From time immemorial ceremonies are important. Making success celebrations a ritual ceremony has a meaning to humans. They can show them to their loved ones. And this is important. We are away from our loved ones slogging it out for a mission (and getting paid). You need something to take back to your loved ones so they feel proud as well.

I think celebrating both big and small successes go a long way in fostering a rich culture within an organization. Doing so motivate staff and encourage them to bring even better results at their esteemed organizations.

Fostering a creative culture in your Enterprise Software team involves encouraging open communication, promoting a growth mindset, and providing an environment that supports experimentation and innovation. Encourage team members to share ideas freely and hold regular brainstorming sessions where all contributions are valued. Implement practices like hackathons or innovation sprints to give developers the opportunity to explore new technologies and approaches without the pressure of immediate deliverables. Provide continuous learning opportunities through workshops, courses, and conferences to keep the team up-to-date with the latest trends and techniques. Recognize and reward creative solutions and innovations