How to make space for creativity – five tips you can implement today
When things are moving at pace, it’s all too easy to forget about creativity. With deadlines and KPIs to meet, it’s tempting to stick to what you’ve always done, the classic “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.”
But the truth is, injecting creativity into your organisation can be hugely beneficial to both employee satisfaction and quality of work. It helps create the environment to find that ‘ah-ha’ moment and find better processes and approaches.
Adobe research results show a growing belief that creativity is a crucial skill for a successful career. And studies in recent years suggest creativity as a critical part of company growth, resulting in increased decision effectiveness, loyalty, confidence, quality culture and knowledge.
Don’t let this overwhelm you. You may not be Google or Netflix with a warren of workshop rooms, flashy tech and free sushi. There are other ways to be creative, and even making small changes can result in a big difference.
One of the best ways to get your colleagues thinking more creatively is to talk about creativity. Make creativity part of the culture of your organisation, rather than an afterthought.
Creativity is not always about coming up with the next big advertising campaign – embracing creativity means giving people the time and space to think through problems, strategies and challenges and come up with new and insightful ways of solving them.
At contentgroup, we inject creativity into everything we do, whether it works for a client or internal team meetings. We’ve come up with a few great, cost-effective tips that you can implement in your workplace today:
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Themed morning huddles
Our teams get together for a quick-fire check-in and ideas sharing session every morning. Often we use the power of the contentgroup hive-mind to solve problems. It’s an open space to chat, comment and share ideas and helps build a culture of collaboration.
These huddles work best with a rotating moderator and also some tight deadlines around when they start and finish.
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Lunch and learn sessions
Every month we draw from in-house and external expertise to present a topic or theme to the group. It’s a great opportunity for personal growth too. Team members bring along their lunch. It might be a best practice case study, the latest innovative ad campaign or discussing how to make our content more creative. It’s a great space to learn and gain a broader perspective, from both inside and outside your industry.
Often the best ideas and most productive work happen when teams are seated around the table, relaxed and enjoying lunch. The cake is an optional extra.
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Creative RIG sessions
Now, these are fun. Rapid Idea Generation sessions really let the creative juices flow. Led by a facilitator and lasting around 60 minutes, we brainstorm creative activations for our clients, tuning in to their specific audiences, breaking down communication challenges.
In these sessions, there’s no such thing as a bad idea. Refining and fine-tuning can be done later. This is the time to let your ideas take over!
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Walking meetings
It’s amazing how regenerating it can be to get outside and start moving. It’s proven walking is a great activity to get your creative juices flowing so we host walking meetings around Canberra to get our minds working and find inspiration from the outside world. Plus, bonus points, you rack up your daily steps count.
Similar to morning huddles, walking meetings need a clear purpose and time frame. Otherwise, you may find yourself having to get an Uber back to the office (with sore legs).
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Friday Influencers
Friday is a perfect day for some feel-good inspiration. Bring in experts in interesting fields to share new insights, ideas and learnings with you and your team – it doesn’t always have to be an immediately relevant topic, but something that will engage and inspire your team to think outside the box. We’ve enjoyed presentations on Defence, change management and many more!
Of course, it doesn’t always have to happen on a Friday afternoon (drinks anyone?). Pick a day that works best for your team and make it consistent, something for them to look forward to.
Where relevant, consider taking one or two of these on board to increase creativity in your team and get the creative juices flowing. Whether through frequent morning huddles to discuss last weeks innovations or taking your weekly coffee catch-up for a walk down a street, your creativity will soon start to soar.
