To truly gain an edge over your competitors, what you need is bags of creativity. To stand out from the crowd, your work needs to be more innovative and imaginative than the rest. Creativity can't be forced, it has to arise naturally. Despite this, there are several things that you can do to encourage creativity and ensure the best conditions for it to thrive.
1 . Creative training
If you want to boost creativity in your office, it can be useful to offer your team some creative training workshops. There are a number of corporate workshops which offer 'creative innovation' sessions, or 'creative at work' training. These workshops focus on adopting the mindsets of creative people across the fields of art, science or business. Your staff will also get to practice creative idea forming strategies (which are far more effective than conventional brainstorming)! Companies such as Creativity At Work, provide such courses.
2. A diverse team
For creativity to thrive, your team must be as diverse as possible. Build yourself a team of various backgrounds, ethnicities, genders, university degrees, skills and personalities. The things that make us different are often the sources of our best ideas and our most valuable talents. By building a diverse team you'll never be short of innovation, and you'll find that one person's strengths balances out another's weaknesses.
3. Color & art
It's impossible to achieve creativity in a workplace that's lacking in charisma and inspiration. Bright colors are best to encourage creative ideas and energy. Art work is a must-have to create a vibrant space. It can be tricky to choose corporate artwork, it's a completely different process to choosing art for your home. Art consultants can be handy to help you find the perfect art for your office space. To learn more, check out International Art Consultants.
4. Creative book groups
To find creativity, we need plenty of sources of inspiration. Reading books by the best thought leaders in the industry can help us to get inspired and arrive at new ideas. To help your team go on this journey together, why not start a book group? You could choose an industry book each month, and meet to discuss the key themes, and new ideas. To shake things up a bit, switch a few of the books for relevant TED talks or documentaries.
5. Mentoring schemes
It's helpful to carry out mentoring schemes. With a mentor, your staff have a more experienced individual to help them grow professionally. Setting up mentoring schemes is a great way to help staff learn from each other and improve their creative ideas. You can assign your staff mentors within the company, or encourage your employees to find their own mentors online.
Above all, creativity is only achievable when employees are happy and satisfied within their roles. With this in mind, improving your company culture is the best way to ensure that creativity continues long-term. By improving your office space and ensuring a vibrant company culture, you'll soon see more creative energy.
