Encourage Thinking Outside the Box

At times, workplace creativity needs to be unleashed in order to experience a professional culture of trust, productivity, and overall excellence!  Being creative is how individuals, and ultimately societies, are able to move forward. We can all agree that without creativeness, we wouldn't have many of the niceties we have today. At Edwards Electronic Systems, we use creativity to identify unique solutions to problems, increase co-worker engagement, and distinguish our company from others through innovative workmanship. Here are 4 ways to encourage thinking outside the box in your business or organization! 

1. Allow people to share ideas in a variety of ways. We are all familiar with the charismatic employee who has an idea to share at every meeting. While these employees are great and shouldn't be stifled, we must not let this personality type take over. Do those less talkative in your work arena have a place to comfortably share their novel ideas? Perhaps creating a "Ideas?" bulletin board or providing an idea jar would allow for more innovation and collaboration, and get creative energies flowing in your office space!

2. Limit bureaucracy. No one enjoys jumping through hoops, especially unnecessary hoops. Removing the number of people an idea needs to be shared with before change happens is crucial to autonomous thinking! Making managers, directors, and CEOs available to employees will promote a culture where everyone feels the motivation to think for themselves, solve problems independently, and share ideas openly. Finding a way to streamline ideas and make positive changes is vital to creating a culture of improvement.

3. Invest in professional development. An environment of acquisition and curiosity directs employees towards engagement and self-awareness more so than a stagnant environment of repetitiveness and bleak forward-looking opportunities. Investing in an employee's education via conferences, in-house learning sessions, online training, classes, etc., encourages employees to stay motivated, alert, involved, and interested in the well-being of the company or organization they are a part of.

4. Reward creativity! Criticizing failure is not productive since (1) most people already know why they failed, and (2) failure is only a small part of the overall innovation process. Be sure not to demean the pursuit of progress when failure happens. Conversely, acknowledgment of an individual or group's creative attempts encourages continual critical thinking, advancement in workmanship, cohesion, and professional development. Validation of a job well done is huge in terms of relationship building, trust, and employee satisfaction! 

As you continue on your endeavor to create a work culture of creativity, take into account other aspects that may limit one's ability to think outside the box. Perhaps work discipline and productivity is lacking, thus, leaving no time for extra cognitive activities. Maybe the expectations for production are unreasonable and should be reconsidered. It could be that there has been a long time culture of stagnation that needs some rekindling. Regardless of the circumstance, finding and removing obstacles are important as you discover ways to introduce more creativity into your work environment!