How to cultivate a creative mindset in your corporate job
What’s the common denominator between Kodak and General Motors? Both were top American companies throughout the twentieth century. But as decades went by they failed to innovate in an increasingly competitive landscape — and soon disappeared. In fact, 88% of the Fortune 500 firms that existed in 1955 are now gone.
While for a long time creatives were restrained to a limited number of industries (think advertising agencies or TV productions), the rise of technologies has forced all industries to rethink their business models in order to stay in the game. The truth is, creativity has become a highly valued skill in various environments, including corporate America.
The creative is a forward-thinker, an innovator, curious about the future and with high problem-solving capabilities.
While all workplaces do not offer the ideal conditions for someone to think and act creatively, you can practice it regardless of your environment if you follow my five pieces of advice.
1. Secure a supportive environment (people + tools)
You’ve been assigned a work project with a creative component to it? Don’t take it as granted that your manager will support your mind wandering from one idea to another. They may not even assume that you will need to think creatively to reach the goals they set if “creativity” is not part of your company/industry lingo. It’s important that you talk about the process that you intend to follow right from the start.
And if your corporation is not equipped to support your creative instinct, don’t lose hope. In fact there are many — often free — online tools that you can use to achieve your end-results. When I took over my company’s newsletter about technology and innovation, I wasn't satisfied with the basic Office template. I designed a whole new product fitting my vision with Canva, that I use for my side projects. For pictures, I like the royalty-free high-resolution selection of Unsplash, where you can donate to photographers as you please.
2. Rely on an inclusive process to get your ideas out
Be aware of the overall innovation vs. risk-taking culture within your company, so you can adapt your ideas and make them relevant. What better way to shape your understanding than interviewing some key employees? As a big proponent of humans before tech, I always advocate to involve the stakeholders in your process instead of removing them. Chances are your project involves creating a new product or service — in which case you have to focus on the ultimate beneficiaries of your creativity (customers, employees, name them).
Whenever you start feeling unfocused or stuck, don’t feel bad about switching gears and going back to a different, more traditional project or task. You will allow your brain to “get distracted” and take some steps back from your project. Also, calling your friends who work in different firms/industries than you is an excellent way to broaden your perspective and collect objective feedback. You will get outside your comfort zone and may end up with bolder ideas.
3. Cherish your physical space
One day I read somewhere that Einstein, Twain and Zuckerberg have messy desks in common. Sure, these are some of the most creative minds in history. Yet in your day-to-day office job, expectations on productivity are high. Researchers agree that a cluttered desk contributes to limited brain processing capabilities. A pile of reports or printed pitches laying on your desk may simply decrease your ability to focus. So keep the volume of papers low and go all-digital. The more you create a comfortable workspace for yourself, the more quality time you’re willing to spend there — corporations now get it.
If you’re working on getting ideas out of the box and your office is too cramped or noisy (or both), try alternative spaces that will help you get a fresh perspective. It can be as simple as creating a daily routine of a 30 minutes “creative walk” during which you formulate the one problem statement to prioritize — or the three ideas to brainstorm with your team once you’re back at your desk. For projects that require to dig deeper such as strategic plans, take advantage of your flexible office plan to work from home or from your local coffee shop.
4. Try and…try again if that’s what it takes, as long as you plan and track progress
You can’t rush the creative process, yet you may find yourself lost somewhere between your needs for experimentation and your managers expectation of fast delivery. In the corporate world, the final product matter much, much more than the process to get there. In that case, planning is everything: like for any project, detail the tasks that require to be completed by project phase, including several iterations of prototypes, and define deadlines for each of them. Of course, now that you have a timeframe, you must stick to it. Anytime a delay happens (and yes, they will happen), re-assess your initial planning to make sure you adjust the next steps and the overall project timeframe. And don’t forget to include impacts on budget and resources.
Are you tracking any KPI, OKR, 4DX, SMART or EFQM? If not, Google these acronyms and define the ones that work for your project. They will be key not only to help you target where to focus your efforts, but also to communicate to stakeholders. Let’s make clear that creative work does have constraints and requires discipline.
5. Communicate throughout the whole creative process
Communication play a huge role on the successful execution of projects. It’s actually the number one criteria behind project failure according to some surveys. For all stages of your creative project, set-up several channels of communications with the different stakeholders. From status meetings with your manager, to regular progress updates with your operational team, up to the kick-off and closing meeting with the top management, make sure to integrate those in your project planning. You will determine the level of communication to share (detailed vs. big picture) and the most appropriate means (spreadsheet reports, status emails, powerpoint presentations, etc.) depending on the stakeholder. Don’t hesitate to align the design of your communication with the creative nature of your project.
Making adjustments to the existing processes and finding new ways of working will enable you to cultivate a creative mindset in your corporate role. With those in place, you will have the tools to empower your pairs and ultimately, to contribute to shifting your corporate culture towards a human-centered organization.
