Creativity fosters innovation, but how can you ignite
creative sparks within your organisation? The people around you are an
inexpensive and efficient source of creative new ideas and innovation. How can
you unleash the creative spirit within your organisation?
There are a number of ways to build a vibrant research and
development strategy in your organisation without spending a fortune.
Here are a few strategies:
1.
Every person
is a potential designer of a new idea and just needs the opportunity to be
heard. Do not restrict creativity and innovation to your ‘creatives’.
2. Ask lots of questions…What if? Why? Why not? Imagine
if? Allow your people to imagine new possibilities.
3. To bring together great ideas utilise cloud-based software
that allows sharing and development to occur anytime, anywhere.
4. Provide opportunities for reflection, retreat and problem-solving
so that good ideas will emerge.
5. Encourage risk-taking. Failure is part of all innovation.
People need to feel safe to try and fail and then try again.
6. Host a scholarship program to encourage innovation within
the organisation and also to attract new talent from outside.
7. Reward brilliant ideas with tickets, celebratory meals or other
forms of concrete acknowledgement.
8. Innovation
occurs from diversity. Bring together the most diverse teams possible to solve
your biggest challenges.
9. Allow people time to invent new ideas. Creative companies
offer their employees time to work on their own projects. Intuit employees get 10%
of their time free for creative exploration of new ideas. Google’s employees
get 20%.
10.
See creativity as a core business goal.
Creativity is the strategic tool of the 21st century. Organisations
that are not creative will not be around in five or ten years’ time.
