Practices and Guidelines That Create an Innovative Work Environment
Jeyaraman Seenivasagam
My mission is to help more people make training a profitable career with a proven roadmap.
“I have no special gift, I am only passionately curious.” – Albert Einstein
To bring out creativity and foster an innovative work environment,?you have to:
?Steps to Creativity
?Creative Problem Solving – Five Phases
?Each of these phases requires different ‘minds’ and corresponding thinking roles.?As you expand your understanding of the phases, you enhance your freedom to choose the right mind and most effective roles for your situation.
The essence of the preparation phase is to find the most useful questions to inspire your creative powers, and then commit to the process of successfully exploring, managing and solving them.?Complex problems have many possible solutions.?Many problems in organizations and personal life are complex, and initially, rather vague.?
?Possible questions to ask:
Why is this a problem?
Is this the real problem?
Why have we always done it this way?
?The classic reporter’s question – how, what, why, who, when, where - help you get right to the heart of the matter.
?Look at the details of your problem in the context of the big picture.?Seek alternate ways to frame your question, look for interdependent opposites.
?Mind Map the problem.?One of the best ways to formulate your problem is to mind map it.?
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Genius is the art of non-habitual thought.?William James
?Generation is a function of letting your mind go. As your mind flows freely, you create new pathways of association that invite the “Aha!” of insight. That sounds easy but our habitual patterns of thinking are difficult to break.?We are afraid of being perceived as foolish, silly or crazy.?Crazy people who are productive are genius.?
?How to generate ideas?
i.???????????????Move beyond brain grooves.?According to Dr. Deepak Chopra, we have about 50,000 thoughts a day, but at least 95 % of them are the some as those of the previous day.?
?ii.?????????????Go for quantity!?The more ideas you generate, the greater your chances of a breakthrough
?iii.????????????Suspend the expression of judgement. Remind people that the role of critic is valuable but this is not the time for it.?
?iv.????????????Ask, What If? “What if” questions stimulate your imagination and shake up your perspective.?
?v.?????????????Change your position.?The state of your body influences your mind.?Letting go of habitual postures energizes and inspires the creative process.?Move your body.
In the incubation phase, your sub-conscious sorts through all the data you have collected, all the possibilities you have played with, and puts it all together.?
The first step in the evaluation phase is to organize and prioritize your ideas by making a mind map of all your proposed solutions.?It helps you see relationships and discover connection, making it easier to consolidate the best elements of a number of diverse solutions.?Play the role of Angel’s advocate, Devil’s advocate and the Judge.
One weakness of many brainstorming efforts is that they end before anything is actually accomplished.?Seek objective feedback.?Assess the resistance, competition and other obstacles you must overcome to transform.?
Commitment and accountability.?Act as though you are 100% responsible for the results.?Creativity requires the courage to move forward in the face of resistance.??
Jeyaraman is a licensed instructor for Mind Mapping and Creative Thinking. He can be contacted to deliver courses on creativity and innovation, thinking skills, memory skills, speed reading and Mind Mapping. [email protected]