Fostering Team Creativity

“There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns.”

— Edward de Bono

Creativity has become the need of the hour with almost every organisation considering it as an important leadership competency. It can be understood as the ability to harness intellectual and social capital — and then convert it into something novel and useful. For these reasons and more, it is a key driver of workplace performance and success. Given the uncertainties of today as well as the future, it might be even more important for leaders to amp up their creativity.

Although initially creativity was considered to be a natural trait that people are blessed with, more recent research in academia and data from practitioners suggest that it is also a product of social interactions and the organisational environment, and therefore, can be nurtured in various ways. Fortunately, there is a role for management when fostering creativity or in the words of Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, “not to manage it, but to manage for it”.

For leaders looking to enhance creativity amongst their team members or even themselves, below are some of Lead Mojo’s tips that you can take a look at. These easy tips and strategies are grounded in science and research and have proved to be useful in enhancing overall team creativity. Most of them can also be implemented in remote ways of working — have a look!

1. Break the pattern

While brainstorming ideas for creative solutions, it is natural to begin with assumptions or a set of preconceived notions. These generally comprise of ideas, beliefs or truths that we consider as self-evident, and are often deeply ingrained in the processes of the organisation or the workings of the entire industry itself. Unfortunately, research shows that falling prey to such assumptions leads to faulty conclusions and restricts the free flow of thoughts — essential for generating creative ideas. As a result, the subsequent ideas or solutions may not be creative, progressive or innovative.

As a leader, one should be conscious and aware of the assumptions and notions you or your team bring to the table and to challenge or question the underlying logic behind them. While this can be tricky, it is definitely a useful tactic to help break out of a pattern that doesn’t really work, and in fact inhibits creativity After all, questioning assumptions or the so-called “status-quo” is how ideas for most of today’s successful entrepreneurial ventures have been crystallised!

Lead Mojo Tips -

• A good place to start is to precisely identify the assumptions that underlie conventional thinking in you, your team, the company or the industry itself. Keep asking the team “What Assumptions Are We Making?”. Listing down these assumptions is a good way to help shed light on the thinking patterns that you consciously and unconsciously fall into, which may be doing more harm than good. Re-examining and re-defining each part of the problem and looking for any alternative meanings to it, can help your team spot and remove the filters that may restrain and stifle creative thinking.
• Another way you can challenge and break fixed assumptions is by rearranging an aspect of your work routine and thereby change up the structure. For instance — If every team meeting follows a particular process, try changing up the order of tasks to see if it helps spark new discussions and debates?
• Look and re-analyse answers that don’t work and ask yourself and the team — “Why Don’t They Work?” Once you can see why the ideas and answers aren’t solving your problem, you may start to identify a new set of problems. However, don’t let your team be discouraged! These new problems will typically aid in exposing the filters that restrict your free flow of thoughts, thereby giving you a fresh path of thinking differently.

2. Shift your Perspective

Shifting perspective and seeing things from a completely different standpoint is often viewed as particularly important when leaders and their teams are blocked or stuck in their thinking. In fact, perception is key and science has found it to be naturally linked to creativity.

It has been a well-known problem solving technique to find the solution to a problem in one domain by finding another domain in which a similar problem has already been solved. A research-based study on network science found that our creative and divergent thinking skills grow, when we increase our interaction with our network. Exercising this skill comes down to having an open mindset and uncovering new opportunities through a fresh set of eyes. There is evidence for this being especially effective when we reach out to people beyond our close circles; it provides a more diverse viewpoint.

Lead Mojo Tips -

• When executives scanned their networks, overcame their resistance and reached out to old connections, they reported receiving useful and novel solutions to their problem. Encourage yourself and your team to leverage their network, and connect with an outsider from another industry. This could be anyone from a former colleague or client or even an ex-boss. Explain to them the problem you are looking to solve and see how they would approach it.
• If you feel less motivated to discuss ideas with outsiders, start within your company instead. It can be valuable to talk to employees outside your team or department — it can increase your creative potential when combining ideas in novel ways.

3. Wipe the Wet Floor

Research suggests that employees can only be encouraged to express creatively if they do not anticipate or fear being criticised or punished for their mistakes. Negative and critical remarks from a team leader or a competitive colleague is processed almost like a threat which can make team members defensive, anxious and stressed. Such an environment is not conducive to inspire creativity from the team.

Team leaders must strive to create an environment of psychological safety — a situation where people feel included and comfortable expressing their authentic selves and ideas without the fear of being judged negatively. We feel more persistent and motivated to give our creative input when we feel safe to do so. This also encourages behaviours such as risk-taking, being bold and speaking up. Studying teams of some of the most creative and innovative companies revealed that what differentiated them from their less creative and innovative counterparts was that they actively practiced psychological safety.

It is important for leaders to wipe the wet floor or else their team may feel afraid to slip while walking. Creating an environment of psychological safety gives your team a message that they are welcome to share and contribute to ideas without the fear of slipping into disastrous outcomes such as being judged, ridiculed or punished.

Lead Mojo Tips -

• Set a “no-judgements” tone within your team. Criticising a team member’s idea will lead to defensiveness and conflict. Instead, try stating the problematic behaviour as more of an observation. For instance, saying something along the lines of — “ I have noticed less participation from you during our brainstorming meetings” or “Is there anything I can do to support you?”. As a leader, try adopting a long-term view by encouraging team members to voice their ideas, take risks and treat failures as learning opportunities.
• Ask your team how safe they feel and hand out psychological safety surveys to understand how you could cater to their needs.
• It has been found that good working relationships make individuals connect better with one another which helps create a safe space that allows for more openness in discussions. Encourage team activities which elicit humour or bonding exercises to create a more united team where everyone feels included. This would help them feel more confident to voice their ideas and opinions, in turn promoting team creativity.
• Establish a Quantity over Quality outlook — When it comes to creativity, more is better! This is partly because you never know when you are going to discover something great and partly because, by going for volume, you force yourself to think without restrictions.

4. Give your Ideas some Legs

Multiple studies have shown that the simple act of walking — whether outdoors or on a treadmill — improves creative output. While previous research suggested that 30-minute runs foster creativity, a more current and practical take on this has proved that even taking a short walk at our natural pace is as effective a strategy. A study recorded that the generation of novel and creative ideas increased by 60% on average after walking as compared to sitting. In fact — the positive effect of walking extends even after we sit down for brainstorming sessions.

Lead Mojo Tip -

• Adopt this (healthy) approach to enhance your team’s overall creative energy. Schedule 10 minutes prior to an important brainstorming meeting as walk time for your team. This can be easily adopted in remote working styles today — the effect of walking indoors or at home is just as functional as being outdoors. You may notice that this simple exercise creates more space for creative thoughts to flow.

Creativity is an essential ingredient for every organisation and industry to be able to stay ahead of the curve. As a leader, inculcating practices that enhance your and your team’s creativity is a powerful way to continually grow. Adding these tips into your daily work and team responsibilities can definitely give you that edge and help you lead with your mojo on!