The Importance of Nurturing Creativity in Your Business
Business creativity is what keeps businesses alive and thriving in this economy — and through the next. It is a thinking skill that all workers possess but few find the wherewithal to use.
Why? Because after we go through school, most of us believe that creativity is an art form that belongs to someone else. This is a sad state for our world. Because we need business creativity and we need more of it — now.
Creativity Allows You to Think Outside the Box
What happens, even to entrepreneurs inspired by shiny new ideas, is that we quickly establish rules in our businesses, that if not adjusted on occasion, cause us to suffocate. Our minds become numb and our actions go on autopilot. Creativity is the only thing that not only will allow us to think outside the box, but will allow us to breathe outside the box -- and deeply.
Creative thinking is the ability to come up with new and different viewpoints on a subject; it involves breaking down and restructuring our knowledge about a subject in order to gain new insights.
Every employee, business owner, client, and stockholder can be involved —and should be involved — looking for better ways to improve systems, products, and services. This method of thinking takes a company from good to great to astonishingly fantastic. Companies like Apple, Nissan, and IBM know this, and their employees practice business creativity all the time.
Get Ideas From Your Frontline People
If creative thinking is going to become a core style of thinking in your organization, then our advice is to start from the bottom up. Most innovative ideas and suggestions for improvement come from the frontline people, not the suggestion box hung outside the HR Director’s door.
Talk to employees who work face-to-face with clients, or who are involved in the production of your product. Listen to their ideas. Eighty-five percent of new ideas come from workers who interface with customers.
The best way to encourage creative thinking among your staff is to make certain that everyone understands the company's goals and which goals you're seeking to solve with new ideas.
Let your employees understand that their input is valued by setting aside a formal time for idea generation and discussion of ideas. This time should include creative thinking — or idea generation — followed by critical thinking — or analyzing purposefully.
Nurturing Creativity Matters
Developing business creativity is a collaborative effort. It is something that needs to be nurtured, practiced, and respected. As a business leader, help your workforce learn to nurture creative thinking, and listen to new ideas from fellow employees and consumers.
Regaining confidence to think creatively may take time. Schools have effectively brainwashed the masses, but business creativity is an important commodity to broaden. Your company's survival may depend on it.
