How can you foster creativity in the workplace?

I agree to the above and in my experience encouraging teams to question the norm also leads to curiosity. Ask relevant questions and think better possibilities are 2 simple methods that I usually try.

Curiosity is the desire to find out more or learn more about something and can be very subjective. What interests me in my role may be completely different to what interests my colleague sitting right next to me, performing the same function. It’s because of this, that leaders should focus on ‘Job Enrichment’ over ‘Job Enlargement’. By allowing the employee to work in a ‘richer’ environment, automatically creates curiosity. Understanding the employee’s interests and strategically aligning the workload toward the interest of the employee will grow natural curiosity leading to the discovery and exploration of new ideas and concepts.

Allow For Flexibility. I worked in the public service for over a decade and one of the greatest hinderance to progress is inflexibility, this notion of “this is how we do things here”. For creativity to be achieved people must be allowed to explore new and better ways of doing things. As long as people are clear on the organisation’s mission, vision, values and guidelines opportunity should be given to people to explore other ways of doing things. A good way to unlock peoples’ creativity is the encourage journaling. Some time could be set aside each day or a specific day of the week where employees just journal on a work question or problem or even on the current way things are done and answer if it’s the best way yet.

We can almost view diversity in the same light as a list of pros and cons. Think about it, having a team discussion about how to improve customer experience and hearing the views of 23 year old contrast the views of a 33 year old, will spark some very interesting conversations. The younger demographic will view customer service from their expectations which may lean toward a faster more digital approach while the older demographic would consider the ‘human element’ as more valuable. Both of these opinions are crucial to foster creativity and bring in new ways to better support the customers and improve business performance.

Here is a real life example of implementing this type of Autonomy: In my current role, one of the KPI targets is to enable ‘Business Value’ based on a monetary value. Usually we try to aim for a value equivalent to our annual salary - as this nicely justifies the need for my role in the business. I approach this KPI by working on one or more of the below items: - New ideas (products/services). - Revamped processes to create efficiency. - Proactive measure to reduce cost impacts. The output being a business case that can either provide the additional income or prevent losses of that agreed value. This level of autonomy loops back into encouraging the employee to be creative and engaged in their role.

This may not apply to all industry types and while I still believe it is a key part in employee engagement, it may very well be a key driver for the Marketing industry compared to the medical profession.

I use a combination of these techniques to encourage creativity within our Analysts. During training I provide as much information as possible, incorporating explanations, dependencies, examples and stories from my experience. They are introduced to my relationships throughout the organization so their sources and support are readily available. Then I present them with a problem or inefficiency that requires a solution. The parameters and goal are provided along with a rough timeline for completion. They allow them to use the resources provided to find their own way. Part of my training process is to ensure they know that failure is just an opportunity to find a better path, the failures are the situations that help us remember.