5 Tips to Building Creativity in your Team

We live in times of ongoing innovation and change. Leaders know that their companies need to evolve. Yet, when you require innovative ideas from your team, often you hear the same old ideas and solutions. The question is, how do you draw out creativity from your team?

It is difficult to disrupt the existing machinery and come up with fresh ideas when people are comfortable with the current status quo. Here are some tips that will help you take that first step and get the creativity flowing.

1. Diversity

When people hear the word diversity, they instantly think of how many men and women are on a team, what backgrounds they have, and so on. These however are only outward differences. The inward differences of your team members are more important; in other words, the diversity of talent on your team will help it be successful.

For example, when you create a marketing team, it is important to include people who are idea generators as well as those who are implementers to get the work done. Similarly, IT teams can benefit having process oriented people in combination with process disruptors who will look for shortcuts and innovative solutions.

The right mix of talent will challenge your thinking, processes, and focus if you encourage them to. Diversity allows you to have multiple perspectives looking at the same project. This will result in more creative solutions.

2. Communication

Both open communication and an environment built on trust are crucial for creative teams. Some work environments are crippled by peer pressure. If your team members are worried that their ideas will get shut down then they will feel too intimidated to share their best ideas with you. In turn they will alienate themselves from their direct supervisor or peers.

It is leader’s responsibility to create a safe space where people are able to communicate openly without fear of being put down, laughed at, or feel that they are jeopardizing their career. Open communication encourages a free-flow of ideas and allows for creative solutions.

3. Motivation

Motivation is a key to achieving results. Your team culture needs to shift from rewarding sameness to rewarding creativity. Here is a well known truth – if you’re motivated to do something, you will make it happen, but if you lack motivation, nothing will happen.

So then how do we build a motivated team?

The easiest way is to hire motivated people whose enthusiasm will become contagious to the rest of the team.

If you cannot hire a new addition, how can YOU become that person that will pioneer motivation on your team? Discover what people care about and encourage them to get involved in your team projects.

Remember that not everybody is motivated by a salary increase; some care about meaningful change, or others about having recognition of people around them. Listen to your team, get to know them well and feed their motivation daily until they are capable of doing it themselves.

4. Train your team

There’s incredible potential hidden inside existing teams in companies. In order to bring it to the surface, you might need to take a step forward and help them understand the talent, strengths and contribution they can make when they set their creativity loose.

Teaching your team creative problem solving, idea generation and evaluation methods might be transformational not only for the individuals on your team, but also for the results your team creates.

5. Reward creativity

What you reward you will get more of. Start paying attention to the sparks of creativity on your team. Keep in mind that we all create in our own unique ways. Some conduct in depth research and discover new trends that might take your team in a new directions. Others improve existing systems and processes, saving your team valuable time and resources. Some are idea machines who see opportunities all around them, and others will help you pin point the ideas that are the least threatening to your company.

By following all five of these steps you will build your team and get to know your people. As you discover their talent, give them the freedom to use it, and reward them when they do.                                                                              -(Credit:  Silvia Pencak)