How to Inspire Innovation and Creativity at Work
Oftentimes, it’s hard to envision how we can achieve innovation and creativity at work. We tend to envision art studios or theaters as places where we can be free to experiment, explore, and dream, but not the workplace.
The traditional office life—what many of us see as the 9-to-6 grind at a cubicle, endlessly dreaming about weekends—does not always leave a lot of space for creativity. After all, you generally have a set of tasks you need to accomplish, and you would rather not try something new when it comes to completing them, right? But here is the thing: creativity in the workplace is absolutely important.
If you are a manager and you cannot stop feeling that your staff is uninspired and relying on the same old concepts and solutions, then it is time to start fostering creativity. Those who have the tendency to feel stagnant and bored in their work will benefit deeply from learning how to think creatively.
Six Dimensions That Support Innovation and Creativity at Work
In our work at Westford University College, we found out the importance to understand the six dimensions of employee wellbeing in the workplace. When these dimensions are combined, they can create a productive and creative office environment.
- Optimism: Encouraging creativity and innovation by getting honest about negative emotions, giving employees more autonomy over their work & fostering positivity realistically
- Mindfulness: Facilitating employee attention to the present moment in an accepting, nonjudgmental way
- Authenticity: Promoting a friendly neutral onboarding process, offering mentorship & training, and implementing a zero-tolerance policy towards hostile behavior
- Belonging: Connecting to others via memorable experiences, personalized interactions, relevant timely information, and immediate feedback
- Meaning: Recognizing & rewarding employees for their contributions to the team
- Vitality: Creating awareness to improve employee physical, emotional & mental wellbeing. This has been especially crucial during the presence of an effective national vaccination program and the uncertainty around COVID-19 risk going forward, or indeed any other future widespread health crisis.
True leaders ought to recognize the “dreamers” and creative people within the workplace and, rather than boycott them, celebrate the unique ways that they come up with ideas and solutions.
These days, innovation and creativity at work have become more important than ever in ensuring that a workplace runs smoothly and produces results. It is no joke that both employees and managers should be using creativity to come up with new, brilliant ways to view projects and problems.
Whether staff or boss, once you learn to embrace the fear of failure and the joy of stepping out of your tried-and-true methods, you will find that a whole avenue of creative ideas and solutions will become open to you.
So open up your diaries and schedule a little more time for innovation and creativity at work for yourself and your teams, and ask yourself what is it you truly want, peace or pace?
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