Posts Tagged ‘How To Stimulate Creativity In Your Company’
How To Stimulate Creativity In Your Company -part 3-
4. Train on different tools for thinking “outside the box”
One complaint I hear frequently is that their managers give employees incremental ideas, or more of the same, while what they want are ideas are radical and different, that have the potential to transform the business. Find below some concrete tools managers can use to stimulate more radical and revolutionary ideas in his collaborators.
Mind Mapping: One of the most powerful tools for creative thinking are the mental maps. A mind map is a graphical technique to organize and connect ideas visually created by Tony Buzan, where part of a central node and ideas unfold as the branches of a tree in a radial fashion. This way of organizing ideas break with linear thinking and helps us create new connections between our ideas. Mind maps, being a graphical tool, promoting the use of the right hemisphere of our brain, which is associated with visual thinking and creative thinking. Read the rest of this entry »
How To Stimulate Creativity In Your Company -part 2-
2. Intrinsically motivated
Several studies have shown that the intrinsic rewards, such as the satisfaction of doing a good job, are much more powerful than extrinsic rewards (rewards, incentives or money) to stimulate creativity. That is why we must try to assign work and projects in accordance with the interests and passions of the contributors. It is commonly known that companies like 3M and Google will allow employees to work a percentage of their time on projects that excite them the most personal level.
Take time to think: One of the reasons why creativity does not flourish in organizations is because we have no time to get out of everyday thinking. Creativity requires a certain period of “leisure” to incubate and mature ideas. In fact, when I ask people where you place your best ideas, tell me about places like bathroom, car, gym or bed, and almost never mention the job. Scientists believe that “Eureka moment”, that point when creating more of the subconscious to the conscious, is achieved more easily when one is relaxed and without stress. Read the rest of this entry »
How To Stimulate Creativity In Your Company -part 1-
The truth is that most organizations are designed to kill creativity. When he arrived at a company, the first thing I ask is what if someone here comes up with a good idea?
The answer I always hear is, “if I have a good idea, I say to my boss and then the idea dies, either because a) I said that it will not work, b) tells me there is no time or resources to implement c) steals it to take all the credit, which causes that no one wants to give new ideas. Many managers are in fact murderers (serial) of ideas.
However, creativity is essential to any successful business and today more than ever, is key to the survival of businesses. Unfortunately, creativity has not been in the priorities of most managers. This is, perhaps, it is considered as something intangible, elusive and difficult to administer, and we are more focused on obtaining short-term operational efficiencies, instead of thinking in creating the future of the company. Read the rest of this entry »