Boost Your Team’s Creativity
| Creativity is critical for innovation, and bringing it out in your team requires a lot more than simply scheduling brainstorm meetings and whiteboarding sessions. Here’s how to foster a culture of creativity. * Generate lots of ideas—even bad ones. When you want your team to solve a creative problem, try implementing an “idea quota”: a deliberate practice of generating lots of options to solve a problem instead of going back and forth trying to arrive at the “right” answer. Pushing people to come up with multiple ideas can unlock less-obvious solutions. * Emphasize that failure is a necessary part of experimentation. Take some of the pressure off. Sometimes, discovering what works starts with discovering what doesn’t. * End the culture of “schedule Tetris.” Remind your team—and yourself—that protecting open, unscheduled time on their calendars is not only permissible, but necessary for innovation. * Take care of yourself. Job hunting can be exhausting. Take time to do things you’re good at or love, such as playing a sport, biking, or simply reading a book. Adding low-pressure, achievable goals to those activities—for example, “I will read 30 pages a day,” or “I will bike 10 miles this week”—can help you feel accomplished. * Appreciate problem-finding. Throw out the old leadership adage, “Don’t bring me problems, bring me solutions.” Routinely ask your team for input on what isn’t working, what’s missing, and where the status quo falls short. Problems are a prerequisite for innovation. |
| This tip is adapted from “5 Ways to Boost Creativity on Your Team,” by Jeremy Utley and Perry Klebahn |
