Creativity works better for small businesses. Why? Simply because they face more issues and creative ideas can be a quick fix for their issues. The next question is: How does one advocate a culture that is purely based on creative thinking? The article covers a few ways through which any small business owner can inspire their employees to “think out of the box”.
The Secret to Success is Failure
Even the biggest companies did not build overnight, there were countless nights of hard work, hundreds of projects – some successful, and some not so successful. The point being, it is OK to fail. Playing safe will only bound you in a vicious cycle, take your chances and take the leap of faith. This doesn’t mean that you need to go all out with experiments. Do your risk analysis, you don’t want to be super adventurous and end up in a pool of nothing. The lessons one learns from failures are what make it all worth it. Be bold with your decisions and once you have decided to go ahead with something stand by it till the end. You would rather not do something than do it half-heartedly. Stand by your decisions and you will be surprised by how things fall into place.
Practice Divergent Thinking
The idea behind divergent thinking is to brainstorm all the solutions for one problem. This is your chance at thinking of every single solution and then find out what works best for you. Divergent thinking helps you get to the very depth of your brain and extract ideas that you can never imagine producing otherwise. Below are a few tips on how you can practice divergent thinking within your organization.
- Do not rush into judging a particular idea or situation. Give it time to let it completely sink in, this doesn’t mean you can’t have an opinion at all.
- Encourage your employees to give their opinion. The more the ideas, the better. Each idea can be like a base for another. Combining and improving ideas can help you generate a favorable outcome.
- Encourage all kinds of ideas. Even if they don’t make sense at that time, you never know what might work for your company.
- Always keep a record of the ideas. Using a tool to store your list of ideas is a good option. Most online tools have free versions, you can install a few and see which one works best for you.
- Give your employees a workplace that is friendly and clean. You can hire the relevant cleaning services, to give your office a fresh look. Check out this link if you have any questions regarding professional carpet cleaning services.
Step out of your Comfort Zone
When you endorse a culture of creative thinking in your organization, the same idea applies to you. Step out of your comfort zone when you are trying to come up with a solution. Broaden your horizon when it comes to problem-solving. All great ideas seemed crazy in the beginning.
Create the kind of office environment in which you encourage people to try out new things in order to unearth all those hidden talents. Be that mentor that people need in their careers for professional growth. The more open your mind is towards new ideas, the greater things you will attract towards yourself. It may seem difficult to deploy a strategy like this at first but once you do you will realize that it is the best way to solve problems.
Get you Staff On-Board
If you want to implement a culture in your company that is focused on creative thinking and innovation, the first thing you need to do is have your entire staff on the same page. Educate your staff on the importance of creative thinking and let them know about the outcome that can result from it. Practice small exercises that will help your employees understand the benefits linked to it. Here are a few ways through which you can encourage creativity in your workplace:
- Brainstorm during meetings.
- Dedicate 15 minutes every day towards creative ideas.
- Present your employees with imaginary problems and ask them to come up with different solutions.
- Assign a person someone else’s job for a day or two.
Try to understand the different aspects of your business. It may take some time, but spend time to find out what works best for your company.