Spring is here and I always feel a sense of creative awakening at this time of year. The dark winter mornings can be a real creativity drain so the light and sunshine can awaken the buds of thought and bring ideas to the fore, so what better way than to share my Spring 2022 thoughts with you all?
With a background in people development, I know the importance of mood, environment and inspiring leadership to creative thinking – we are all influenced by things around us at all times.
With this in mind, to change your team’s approach and encourage more creativity, it will be important to make some changes. These changes can take very different forms and will need some development of their own. All the things I recommend in here are proven techniques and work for me.
Introduce creative opportunities – always
Build creativity into meetings, events and the working day as much as you can. Giving your team time and the catalyst to think creatively will change things quickly. Build creative thinking into meeting agendas and the working day for everyone – block out and allocate time for creative thinking. Oh, don’t forget to celebrate great thinking and new ideas too.
Know your team profiles
For those of you familiar with team profiling, you’ll know the benefits of carrying out this exercise with your team. Preferred working styles, ways of thinking and working are internal to all of us and there are a number of tools to help with this such as Belbin Team Roles, MBTI and one of my favourites, De Bono’s Six Hats. This is one of the most accessible and fun tools I’ve used a lot with clients over the years.
Choose different places and ways of working
I’m writing this blog in a coffee shop I’ve never sat in before and people watching of course. I’ve always enjoyed a nomadic approach to working brings out my creative side and actually, it’s one of the hardest things to get our own team to change in their working practice, especially having been stuck at home during the pandemic. We’ve introduced things such as daily budgets for our team to encourage them to work outside home or the studio and are formulating memberships with locations so they can use different spaces throughout the week.
Encourage team and individual working and thinking
Do you include creative thinking in your team’s individual development and organisational goals? This is one of my top recommendations and if you can also tap into what makes individual members of the team excited about their work, then you can tap into something amazing with them. When interviewing potential new people I always explore their creative thought process in my questions – it’s not all about skills but creative thinking for me.
Review what is different
Finally, make sure you track progress and keep the creative spirit alive – seek feedback and keep encouraging your team to evolve their own creative practice by putting it at the top of your own agenda.
Want to know more? You can download our free, in-depth guide to creative thinking, which includes a 90-minute creative workshop session. Enjoy refreshing your creative spirit this Spring!
