Leaders can successfully encourage organizational creativity and innovation by designing the organization to foster an environment conducive to creativity to flourish. Leaders can do this by creating friendly and inclusive working conditions for members of the organization. The first six tips are adapted from Dubrin, Dalgleish and Miller (201) and are based on research by Teresa Amabile (199) and her collaborators on the links between creativity and the work environment. They can often be approached collaboratively to diversify the proposed solutions and processes.
They can also challenge employees to think beyond the status quo, because critical thinking and creative thinking can work well together. Encourage team members to decide for themselves how to achieve the goals you've set for yourself. What techniques will they use? Would they like you to implement the agile project management method? Would your work benefit from using one of these 16 different decision-making techniques? Giving your team members their capacity to act to achieve the objectives you have set for yourself can encourage their creativity, allow them to take advantage of their strengths and increase their motivation to help the project succeed. According to a report by Hongkiat, Google strongly supports creativity in the workplace and has created a “20% program” that allows its developers to dedicate 20% of their working hours to their own creative project.
This way of thinking has become popular and has been introduced in many workplaces, giving companies new ideas and strategies to grow their businesses. We often get obsessed with the how and forget the why. There may be 20 ways to get from your home to the office, but since we've always traveled one route or everyone travels that route, we're going in the same direction every day. If you provide your team with the end point and allow them to design the route, you're more likely to receive creative solutions.
Employees need to feel like they have space to talk and be heard. Managers can cultivate an environment in which team members aren't afraid to propose bold ideas by establishing specific forums that encourage creativity. For example, organize specific brainstorming sessions with your team, in which you support expansive thinking and reinforce the idea that there are no suggestions or bad ideas. Encourage employees to talk about action plans to get new ideas and demonstrate their candor by being as transparent as possible with staff members about why previous ideas were or were not successful.
Its goal is to encourage creativity at work, not to inculcate a fear of mistakes.
