Children are innately hugely creative but by the teenage years, the education system has usually served to banish this streak by consistently telling children there is a right or wrong answer for everything. The world of work picks up where school leaves off and fear of being caught out getting something ‘wrong’ in business stifles creativity in our colleagues. Are your employees afraid of the layer of management above them? This type of fear is poisonous in business and drives people to conform.
In order to harness creativity in your colleagues and businesses Dave Birss from www.davebirss.com has this advice:
- Step outside your industry – We assume that because everyone in our industry does things the same way there is no other way to do it. By looking to other industries to see how they deal with similar issues you can borrow wisdom and change the way you look at common problems.
- Escape the desk! Getting out of the office and experiencing different environments is a great way to liberate thinking.
- Be contrary – Spot things that are not going well in your business and come up with alternative approaches. This can be done much more positively than you’d think and is not just being a ‘naysayer’. Go beyond criticising and suggest solutions and improvements.
