Inspiring creativity in your team

How conducive is your workplace for your team members to think creatively? It’s not just the physical space but also the culture, interactions and systems in your organisation as well. Creativity is important in your day-to-day activities in business. Whether it is for a major project or a simple solution to a minor mishap, a dose of creativity can go a long way.

Creativity can thrive in an environment where there is fertile ground for the mind to flourish. Once the mind works, it can know no bounds unless you block it and do not nurture its capabilities. If you want your workplace to be charged with creative energy, there are many things you can do to encourage it in your team.

Come up with special projects

It could be a group project or an individual activity that you can allow your staff to initiate in your office. You can even come up with small contests or competitions depending on the interests of your staff and team. Some companies empower their members to organise fun bonding activities or volunteer works where they get to shine outside their scope of work.

Make room for collaboration

Many say that two heads are better than one. Allow your people to expand their knowledge and learn from each other through collaborative works that you can enforce within your organisation. They can share their expertise and enhance their skills by mentoring one another on something that they can consider as their special skill or talent.

Invite experts and allow sharing of ideas

Let your staff learn something new by inviting outside experts that can introduce a fresh concept to them. Third-party consultants can judge their special projects or conduct activities that will add a different perspective to the team. People usually act differently when with a new person than with familiar faces, and having someone on certain occasions may inject a fresh vibe to your team.

Have time for fun and play

Allot a corner in your workplace where your staff can take a break from work and relax their minds. Come up with fun games outside of work. Celebrate little successes. Eat out. Take a trip together. Share a hobby or interest. Let them stretch out their mind by getting involved in something that can make them smile and laugh. Give them a free hand in organising such things o that they won’t feel it as an obligation at work.

Do brainstorming sessions

If there’s a crucial point in your business that you need to do, such as meeting targets or levelling up a service to a client or scaling your venture, involve your team members in the process. Cultivate the culture of challenge and openness to ideas by conducting brainstorming sessions whenever you can. Letting your people know that you value their inputs will motivate them to think creatively.

Acknowledge great ideas and reward them

Another good way to encourage and inspire creativity among your team members is to recognise their good works and reward positive results. That will boost their morale and push them to strive to be even better. It will also embolden the rest of your staff, especially new ones, to aspire for something and aim to achieve a certain goal.

There are other different ways to incite creativity in your workplace. It will depend on the kind of people and culture you have within your organisation. You will have to observe, get inputs and often test the waters on the various methods to find the most effective ones that can foster inventiveness, innovation and ingenuity among your team members. And often, you have to introduce new ways to keep them coming and evolving.

Finding ideas for creative marketing

There are times that your marketing ideas hit a slump when your brand appears ordinary and your activities become a routine. It’s always good to put variety in your marketing strategies. You can brainstorm with your team to get various insights, but you still need to widen your horizon to find inspiration from things within and outside your workplace.

The question is: where do you start?

Inspiration can strike anytime and anywhere. All you have to do is open your senses and allow your imagination to take you further. However, if you have a timeline to follow and you are pressed to deliver something, you can get ideas from the sources below.

Internet

The world wide web is a rich repository of concepts and information. You can search for a particular topic, read websites and blogs, browse social media networks, watch online videos or listen to podcasts. Discover new things by going through these platforms where you can come up with new thoughts that may fit perfectly with your brand.

Commercial Centres

Go to where the crowd goes and observe what draws them together. Attend events and check out shop interiors. See how consumers react to brands and marketing campaigns. Actual situations can help you formulate marketing concepts that you can bring full-scale to your venture.

Traditional media and resources

Don’t discount books, magazines, newspapers, TV and radio as they still hold great value when it comes to knowledge and viewpoints. Revisit old ones because they are a treasure trove of concepts that you can modify to modern settings.

Surveys and interviews

If you want data as your reference to your marketing ideas, surveys, focused group discussions and interviews are the best way to go so you can customise your campaigns according to the preferences of your target market. Market research is a big help when you plot your marketing plans because you can align the data you’ve gathered in every aspect of the business.

Business groups and conferences

Another avenue that can help you generate ideas in marketing your enterprise is by interacting with other entrepreneurs and like-minded individuals. Joining groups like EO Melbourne, attending learning events and participating in conferences will enable you to listen to their stories and encourage you to craft your own while taking into consideration the lessons from their journeys. You can also throw in your thoughts and test how they are well-received by your peers.

Neighbourhood, family and friends

Walk around your area. Talk to people. Look at your surroundings. Meet with your friends. Listen to family members. Big ideas often come from small things. You can also find marketing gaps just by consulting with your family and friends. Create something new that you can get out of day-to-day slices of life.

If you think you need to inject new things to your brand to re-introduce it to your existing clientele or launch to prospective customers, there are plenty of ways to do it. Keep your eyes, ears and mind open to various ideas that can boost your business and take you closer to your goals.