Originally published on newsexaminer.net
Creativity is an essential skill that all employees need to master. As entrepreneur Adam Ferrari explains, creativity helps people approach situations and solve problems in new and innovative ways.
In addition, thinking creatively can help improve your company’s morale, productivity, and culture. If you’re having trouble doing this, explore some of the following thinking methods that can foster creativity.
Work from Different Spaces
Flexibility is one of the key phrases in workplace culture today. However, it’s not an entirely new concept. Before the pandemic, businesses were creating what they called “flex spaces” to allow employees to work collaboratively or alone in different environments within the office.
Today, flexible working has also come to mean working from home or other remote locations. No matter where you’re actually working, one of the best ways to foster creativity is to work from different places.
Sometimes, you may get stuck in solving a problem if you’re staring at the same four walls all day, every day. Some people benefit from brainstorming outside, while others simply need a change of scenery. By switching up where you work at different parts of the day or week, you’ll allow your mind to branch out and see things differently.
Reward Your Creativity
Many people are hesitant to be creative because they’re afraid they’ll be punished for doing so. To overcome this, reward yourself and others for their creativity.
In terms of your employees, create a culture that promotes creative thinking. For instance, you can ask employees to submit new ideas for products or services and provide awards to the employee who has the most innovative idea that month.
You should also reward yourself for thinking creatively. Pat yourself on the back when you look at a problem from a different angle or try something new — even if you fail.
Accept Failure as a Good Thing
Another common roadblock to creativity is the fear of failure. Most people don’t like to fail. Some dislike it so much that they don’t expand their horizons and try anything new for fear that it won’t work out.
If you’re looking to foster creativity, you need to flip this script. First, understand that failure is not only a standard part of learning; it’s a positive part as well. This is because people learn a lot when they fail. They learn what worked and what didn’t — and, more importantly, they learn why it did or didn’t work.
By testing and trying new things, you’ll be able to look at problems from different angles and surprise even yourself. But, of course, you won’t be able to do this if you’re too afraid to try.
Work Collaboratively
It can sometimes be hard to foster creativity on an individual basis. If you don’t have a good model for how to think creatively, it can be easy to fall back on what you know.
Adam Ferrari suggests that an excellent way to overcome this is to work collaboratively with others. When you bring others into the room for brainstorming sessions, you’ll be immersing yourself in how someone else thinks. You can see how they approach problems and different situations compared to how you do the same thing.
Then, after the session is over, you can replicate some of their approaches that you feel would serve you best. In doing so, you’re expanding your horizons and fostering your creativity.
This can be done in simple interactions with colleagues and coworkers, too. It doesn’t only have to come in formal brainstorming sessions.