Being creative is a desirable trait for someone who works in an office environment. When workers are allowed to express themselves, they can come up with unique ideas and solutions that can help a company overcome problems. While some people are more creative than others by nature, anyone can be creative with a little inspiration. Use these tips to inspire your employees to be more creative at the workplace.
Be Open to Employees’ Experimental Ideas
An easy way to inspire creativity at work is to simply be open to your employees’ ideas. One of your employees may have an incredibly interesting idea, but he or she may be afraid that it’s too outrageous to present. Showing interest in your workers’ ideas can be very beneficial, even if all the ideas are not the best.
You don’t have to follow through on every idea presented, but by showing interest you are letting employees know that you are open to their ideas. This can inspire them to brainstorm more ideas in the future.
Let Workers Be Flexible
If you offer employees more flexible work schedules, you can help them come up with more interesting ideas while they work. Certain workers are able to express themselves more when they don’t have to worry about abiding to a specific schedule. For example, letting employees take a lunch break at any time can give them the free time needed to create interesting ideas.
Other workers may be more productive at home, so let them work from home every once in while if they are able to do so. This can be a risky move for some companies, but many times the payoff ends up being more than worth it.
Incorporate Color & Personality into Office Décor
Another good way to inspire creativity at work is to bring in more colorful office décor. Vibrant colors inspire people in different ways, so try setting up décor of varying colors into the office. For example, having a yellow lamp in the office can make workers more vibrant and energetic.
Additionally, you should let your employees decorate their workspaces in a way that lets them be expressive. If someone likes a particular show or movie, let that employee decorate his or her workspace with merchandise from that franchise.
Vibrant and unique decorations can help make workers a lot more expressive, as long as you don’t go overboard with them.
Encourage Collaboration
While working in an office environment, only a few of the best ideas are created by a single individual. Many great ideas are brought up by a collection of workers, so you should try promoting collaboration if you want everyone to be more creative.
Allow people with different skills to work together on a team to formulate new ideas and proposals. Each person has his or her own ideas, and combining those ideas together can lead to interesting results.
Do Not Fear Failure
Out of all the tips you can provide in regards to the process of brainstorming, this is perhaps the most important one. Not all of the ideas your employees will bring forward will pan out perfectly, and if an idea ends up failing, you cannot reprimand the people involved. If you are too harsh towards workers for presenting a bad idea, you could discourage them from coming up with other new ideas.
If an idea doesn’t work, offer feedback to let the everyone know what went wrong. Encourage them to learn from mistakes so they can go back and try again. You can’t foster creativity when you’re afraid to fail.
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