Innovative Companies

How to Encourage Employees to Be Creative

Wondering how to get employees to be more innovative and creative? These simple creativity steps will help your organization to have better ideas and more creative thinking.

Creative thinking is what leads to the kind of innovative ideas that will help grow a business, save money, and make customers happy.

Given that creativity is an important trait for all employees to possess, the question that's often asked is: How can I get my employees to be more creative?

It's a great question. How do you keep creative juices flowing when you're caught up in the daily routine?

Following these creativity tips will help you harness your organization's powers of imagination:

• Devote extra time to being creative. Be willing and prepared to spend some of your own time to explore, develop, and present your ideas.
• Educate yourself. Attend seminars, workshops, in-house sessions, and other classes that may be related to your ideas or areas in which you are interested in developing ideas. These outside activities will stimulate your imagination and expose you to new concepts, trends, and thoughts.
• Get out and about. Get to know what others within your company are doing and what their responsibilities are. Learn how everyone works together and how all other areas connect to you. Creativity thrives on diverse stimuli and connections with others.
• Keep your ideas on track with organizational goals. Make sure your thinking is in the right mindset. For instance, if current financial goals involve streamlining production, train yourself to look at ways all areas of your job could be pared down or enhanced in order to save money.
• Be determined to pursue a good idea. Don't listen to those who criticize your ideas, or tell you it can't be done. Believe that you do have good input that can make a valuable difference. Keep plugging away and look for the right avenue to present your idea. But, don't discount positive, constructive criticism.
• Keep your mind open to creativity. Sometimes the best ideas occur as the result of an accidental occurrence, or a totally unexpected incident. Always be on the alert for new opportunities.

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