Article: Unzip Your Workplace Creativity

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The best way to improve efficiencies at work is to create, plan and execute. Most people plan a little, execute a lot, and then use their creative powers. Start with creativity.

You are a much more valuable employee when you contribute significant practical ideas for improving processes at your workplace. To be your best creator of meaningful ideas, enlarge your Creativity Quotient (CQ). Your CQ is your ability to find solutions.

I have noticed that some people have situational creativity. When they are in the presence of someone they perceive as brighter or more creative than themselves, they tend to slow down their thought processes and idea contributions. In essence, their “idea button” is switched off. In environments where they are valued, they contribute freely (button switched on). At your next brainstorming session, observe how many people are actually contributing ideas. You can turn a person's creativity button on by encouraging their efforts and recognizing them for their offerings no matter how small.

People become more creative when they have an awareness shift by observing from a different perspective. Being inventive/creative is nothing more than teaching yourself to observe a problem or opportunity from a different viewpoint. For example, businesses hire secret shoppers to determine the quality of their customer’s experience. Owners feel it will keep employees on their toes if they are aware that a secret shopper might be evaluating them (a fear-based approach).

A different perspective would include looking at customer service from the frontline employee’s perspective. They see what customers want and they notice the shortcomings of their peers. Ask them for their opinions, insights and ideas on how to improve customer relations (recognition based) and they will freely and gladly donate their perceptions. I have found the latter strategy to be the more effective of the two.

Five attitudes people have that kill creativity:

1. Feeling mentally less competent than those who hear or receive their ideas (situational shutdown). Do others feel uplifted or shut down when around you?

2. Do not want to risk appearing dumb. It is easier to clam up than to speak up. A good facilitator finds ways to get these people to contribute because some of their ideas are fabulous. The extra time and effort it takes to get these people to participate and contribute is worth it!

3. Previous experiences have reinforced their lack of creativity. Someone has shut them down and they believed them. Before a thought-storming session, ask people if they have been shut down in previous sessions. Assure them that you value their efforts and input. At the beginning of the meeting passionately assert how valuable they are to the process. (You must believe with your heart that they are important.)

4. Have no desire to be creative. They are comfortable letting someone else come up with the ideas. This kind of apathy is hard to fight. Individually ask this person for solutions to problems. Over time they will develop means and methods for improving their CQ (Creativity Quotient).

5. Negative self-talk/internal dialogue. What you think about comes about. Make a concerted effort to think and say positive uplifting things about yourself and others. This takes a lot of effort but the results are more than worth the extra effort. The most successful people have the most positive self-talk.

Encourage productivity and creativity with these three ideas:

1. Encourage people to be more creative by verbally and in writing complementing the little things they do. They will come along as they learn that you value their input.
2. Up-play the fact that creativity has little to do with a college education. It is more about looking at problems and opportunities from different points of view. Many of my entrepreneurial clients with large businesses have little or no college. In my opinion, in many cases college training teaches people to be average. It is possible for college trained people to learn how to increase their creativity.
3. Teach techniques for responding to problems and opportunities from different viewpoints. Some categories include: reverse logic, mind mapping, affirmations, expectations, brainpower conditioning, location change, and interviewing others, to just name a few.

Who do you admire that has great creative skills? Interview them about how they became creative, what techniques they use, and who taught them. They will be pleased that you sought their counsel and will most likely tell you everything. Take notes and construct a document of their sayings. Study and test their concepts and find ways to do what they do in a way that works for you.

Everyone is more creative than the picture they have of themselves, including you. I am here to affirm that you can be more creative than you ever dreamed possible! Try looking at something from a different point of view today.

Discover viable creative team building concepts from nature in the innovative article: “Think Like a Coyote”. The coyote is the master of cooperation and exploitation of any environment. This article will inspire and provide a framework to work from when you need new team building ideas in the future. You will catch the vision of how to leverage another person for generating new ideas.

The workplace creative team building article “Think Like a Coyote™” is Part Three of the Managers Best Practices Toolkit™, a unique highly refined package of management tips.

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