Be creative at work

In today’s rapidly changing business environment everyone is looking for ways to become more effective in their thinking. An important way to promote effective thinking at the office, is to foster a creative work environment. Having fun is a big part of developing a creative work environment. In fact, humour makes up an essential part of effective thinking, and is the one basis of creativity. It allows us to break away from predictable, set patterns opening up the floodgates to unconventional, innovate solutions.

Employers greatly value creative thinkers because such employees can

• think of innovative work related ideas and approaches.
• solve difficult or unusual problems.
• relate meaningfully with co-workers and clients, and
• contribute positively to the growth of an organization.

Developing your creativity will enable you to do even the most mundane tasks in a mindful and spirited way, opening up the possibilities for innovation and self-fulfillment.

Three Easy Ways to Stimulate your Creativity

1. Read voraciously: Reading about the ideas and innovations in your field will help you to generate creative approaches to your education and career. Also, read about subjects in other disciplines as knowledge in one area can often inform thought and problem solving in another area.
2. Write regularly: Keep a journal of your readings and project ideas. Keep track of what you have done and what you want to do next. Describing these in writing gives you the chance to reflect and do some forward thinking.
3. Seek People who share your interests: Socialize with people who have the same interests and with whom you can share ideas about the projects outside of work will keep your personal interests satisfied and will allow you to develop them further. Networking with people in your profession who have the same interests will stimulate your professional growth and open new avenues of development.

While the thought of how to achieve creative results can seem daunting, you can start by integrating creativity in to your work environment one step at time. Here are suggestions on how you can invite creativity into your workplace:

1. When presenting information, look for ways to ADDITIONAL NOTE: a graphic such as a funny picture or a drawing to illustrate your point, or during a performance review, which is usually a very stressful time, have your employees draw a picture of their past performance in addition to the formal write-up.
2. Leave fill-in-the-blank sections on yours reports: ask for volunteers to complete your thoughts.
3. Think in opposites: present from the back of the room, start the meeting from the end of the agenda, or give a series of answers and ask what the questions are.
4. Call a daily recess: take time out to laugh or read a book of jokes for a few minutes.
5. Stop time: take off your watch and turn the clock around. Go all weekend without wearing your watch. Go all week without wearing your watch. You’ll be surprised at the way your internal clock works.
6. Experiment! Try doing something different. Go to an ethnic restaurant that you’ve never visited before. Go to a movie on Thursday afternoon.
7. If your company will allow it, dress casually one day each week. If they don’t, change the rules!.
8. Use music. Try playing background music while holding a performance review: create a song to deliver your next financial report.
9. Design and wear your won thinking cap for a week.

To remain competitive, businesses must effectively use their most valuable resource: brainpower. Any organization that can harness the limitless potential of their people’s creativity is powerful and unstoppable.