Q: I own a small
advertising agency. Needless to say, creativity is critical to our
success. How can I motivate my employees to be more creative?
A: In a university
class I teach on creativity, I tell the participants that the most
important thing they'll learn in the class is that creativity
is behavior. It's not a brain thing. It's not a mysterious
process. It's not something that only some people have. And
being weird and eccentric doesn't necessarily mean you possess
it. Creativity as an output of human behavior follows the same laws
of behavior as all other accomplishments. If you understand this,
you'll be able to increase the creativity of those in your
organization who are responsible for creative products and
services, and you'll also be able to increase the number of
employees who contribute to the creativity level in your
company.
Here are a few things you can do to increase creativity and
motivate people who need to be innovative on the job:
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1. Positively reinforce all
ideas. This doesn't mean you'll accept every
idea, but you should make sure you reinforce the activity of coming
up with ideas. You can be excited about the number of ideas
presented even if all of them aren't acceptable or "on
target."
2. Make it easy for employees to get
new ideas into the system. The more requirements you
have about submitting ideas, the less people will participate and
the less ideas you'll receive. Even asking people to write
ideas on a form can reduce the number of ideas generated. The best
way to stimulate creativity is to simply allow people to verbally
share their ideas with you, which should be easy since your company
is small. Examine your processes and administrative procedures, and
eliminate as many as you can.
3. React to ideas as soon as
possible. How quickly you respond to ideas has the most
influence on the number of ideas people will produce. If an idea or
other creative work sits on your desk for a week before you respond
to it, you'll have deflated creative energy.
4. Look to unlikely people as a source
of fresh ideas. Many revolutionary inventions came from
people outside the typical field of expertise. Invite ideas from
the widest range of experience, education, social status and age.
If you expect you'll find creativity there, chances are you
will.
5. Give employees experiences that are
far removed from their usual activities. Variation is
the mother of creativity. The more varied the experiences you can
give people, the more creative they'll be. If one of your
employees works primarily on banking accounts, give him or her a
manufacturing one. Send the employee to a manufacturing plant. The
further afield the experience, the more likely the person is to get
some creative benefit.
6. Don't discount
chance. Chance favors those prepared for it. When you
create an environment using techniques that favor creativity and
innovation, you'll find things "just happen" to come
along at the right time.
If you remember that creativity is behavior and that you can
increase it by positive reinforcement, like any other behavior in
your business, you'll be surprised at how creative your people
can be.
Aubrey C. Daniels, Ph.D., founder and CEO of management
consulting firm Aubrey Daniels & Associates (ADA), is an
internationally recognized author, speaker and expert on management
and human performance issues. For more about ADA's seminars and
consulting services or to order Aubrey's book Bringing Out the Best in People: How To Apply The
Astonishing Power of Positive Reinforcement, visit www.aubreydaniels.com, or contact Laura Lee Glass at
(800) 223-6191 or lglass@aubreydaniels.com.
The opinions expressed in this column are
those of the author, not of Entrepreneur.com. All answers are
intended to be general in nature, without regard to specific
geographical areas or circumstances, and should only be relied upon
after consulting an appropriate expert, such as an attorney or
accountant.