6 Tips for Cultivating Creativity at Work, and Why it Matters

Cultivating creativity in your workplace

21st century teams need to innovate to thrive, now perhaps more than ever. Whether it’s adapting a whole new workflow for working at home, evolving a corporate culture which opens up a  dialogue surrounding mental health, or simply keeping up with the competitive marketplace.

Leaders are expected to be able to think creatively and offer innovative solutions to challenges such as these on a daily basis. However, too often corporate development programs leave gaps when it comes to up-skilling on creativity. These programs tend to focus on the upper echelons of leadership whilst often the richest ideas come from harnessing the creative abilities of the whole team, ensuring the knowledge of the collective and unique perspectives are leveraged fully.

There is an abundance of literature revealing the specific benefits of creativity in the workplace

Some examples include:

• Better teamwork and team bonding;
• Increased workplace engagement and interaction;
• Improved ability to attract and retain quality employees;
• Increased staff morale, fun and happiness; and
• Increased workplace problem solving and productivity.

So how do I cultivate creativity in my team?

Below are 6 tips from our team at MasterPeace based on Teresa Amabile‘s research which is outlined in her celebrated book ‘How to Kill Creativity’:

1. Creativity likes… a curious challenge: your team will love the intellectual curiosity of a challenge which speaks to their core skills. However, too much challenge can lead to overwhelm so be careful to make the goalposts realistic.
2. Creativity likes… empowerment: leaders can outline a challenge, but your team will thrive when you let them decide how to go about solving that problem. If your team feels powerless to make change happen, or nervous to challenge the norm, the creative fire will burn out.
3. Creativity likes… constraints, most of the time: setting a deadline or a budget can often stimulate creativity as your team works through handling those constraints. Tread carefully false or impossible constraints will damage trust and could burn out your team. Be honest and realistic about what the constraints are, and don’t move the goalpost.
4. Creativity likes… a little drama: your team needs diversity of thought (which often comes from a diversity in background, race, gender, skillset, tenure and so on). Homogenous teams might argue less but they are often less creative. The best ideas often come from the furnace of a little constructive conflict.
5. Creativity likes… a safe space: the key word above was ‘constructive’. Conflict is good, but judgement and shaming are not (real or perceived). Your team will thrive when they feel comfortable to share unconventional ideas, challenge assumptions and disagree with others – regardless of their seniority (or indeed the seniority of whomever they are challenging). Positively affirm creative thinking for creativities sake, as well as the ideas that are taken forward. And evaluate those ideas hard and fast: painfully slow review processes will take the wind out of their creative sails.
6. Creativity likes… to feel welcome: the whole organisation needs to genuinely embrace a culture of creativity. Not just the immediate leadership, but the whole system. That means free and fast information sharing. That means genuine collaboration and not political game playing. When your team believes that your organisation welcomes their creativity sincerely, that’s when the magic happens.

About MasterPeace

At MasterPeace we offer creative experiences to teams of all sizes, at your offices, online, or at our studio in Belgravia.We believe in the power of a structured creativity curriculum as part of any team’s wellness, reward, or innovation programs.To find out more about what we do, head to our website.This blog post was put together by Zena El Farra, MasterPeace Founder.