5 Proven Ways to Get Creative in the Workplace

One of employee types you should hire is creative employees. They themselves are often full of energy, and they may help pay the way for innovations, and set your business apart. While it’s important to consider creative trait when it comes to effective manpower staffing, it’s equally important to encourage creativity in the workplace. When it comes to fostering creativity, the workplace is often a place lacking in color. Are you sure your employees rarely feel tired by the end of the day? There are many ways to stimulate your workforce’s creativity. Given below are proven ways that can help your employees get creative in the workplace.

1. Develop creative work spaces

Such companies as Facebook, Twitter, Google have offered workers with office spaces, and unlimited other outlets intended for creating inspiration at work. You should add some color to the working environment because even if you spend just a limited budget for it, its effects are substantial.

When it comes to pumping up creativity, revamping the workplace is a good step to start with. There are certain limitations to this though, the subtlest added can even positively affect your people. Just add a bit of color to the dull parts at workplace, and you will have your employees feeling creative.

• Storage lockers and any other things necessary but lackluster can be bought in various different colors and decorated by you and your workers.
• Encourage your workers to bring artwork and other stylishness from home for personalizing their working space and make workplace brighter and more vivid.
• If there are lots of blank walls at workplace, hang up art and your company posters to let your workers be motivated throughout the day.
• According to the research by InformeDesign, light blue color is recommended to boost up metal clarity and spark the mind. Meanwhile, red color can trigger anxiety and aggression, and worsen negative feelings among employees. Red color also can make workers care more about tiny details rather than the bigger picture. As shown in studies, the balance of both can induce higher levels of creativity
• As shown in research, a messy work space can more lead to creativity than a tidy one.

Mess is for free thinkers

• As found in a study by University of Chicago, moderate sound is the best for creativity while extremely quiet sound would sharpen the focus, making it difficult to think creatively.
• Keep your workplace warm. As per research by Cornel University, workers made more mistakes at low room temperature than at optimal temperature. Evidently, in cold temperatures, your employees not just feel uncomfortable but distracted. When feeling cold, people often use a considerable amount of energy just to keep warm. That’s why there is less energy toward focus on creative work. Also, make sure not to make the office too warm because like being cold, being hot would reduce productivity.
• Don’t over-light the workplace. While excessively bright light makes it difficult for employees to read clearly on the computer screen, poor lighting would hurt their productivity and induce fatigue and eyestrain. A workplace with certain natural light exposure can help improve employees’ mood.
• If possible, limit cubic wall for more interaction among your employees. Like at Google, everything is on wheels for more flexible and creative workspace.

Flexible workspace at Google motivates creative collaboration. Here everything is on wheels for funnier and more innovative workspace.

2. Move

Often, changing seating arrangement, lay-out or whole vibe of where you and your people work will help ignite creativity. Change up the seating arrangement each couple months to avoid stagnation of work environment and for your workers to have chances to know everyone they work with and exchange ideas.

Also, always encourage your workers to take breaks and walk around, get outside. Doing so will help better their morale and combat their mid-afternoon sleepiness.

3. Allow your employees to play

Whilst allowing your employees to play seems not productive, as revealed by studies, alleviated stress thanks to playing can be conductive to more ideas, creativity and innovation. Such companies as Facebook, Google, Zynga, Lego, to name a few are developing their workplace environments with such things as interior gardens, slides, pool tables, writeable walls and other game-like things.

Inside Facebook headquarters, California, employees are playing ping pong in front of Shaun Logan’s mural.

Playtime may mean give workers private time and quiet space to scribble absentmindedly on the blank notepad, or anything helping them relax. Giving employees time to play not only helps lighten the mood at workplace but also motivates them to interact with their fellow workers, which can improve problem solving and creative thinking.

4. Brainstorm

"Two heads are better than one"

Creativity would flow seamlessly when your employees put their heads together. Just ask your workers to give some feedback about impending problem. That will help develop a level playing field that everyone at workplace can involve, with ideas that flow together.

• You may be in charge of making decision at work though, never forget that your workers are an amazing resource for feedback. Make sure that they can lend their voice.
• Hold monthly or weekly meetings that managers and workers can discuss points and how to make work efforts of everyone more effective. Whilst brainstorming has, for long, been considered an essential part of generating ideas, lots of organizations hold brainstorming sessions in ways that indeed reduce creative output. Often, brainstorming meetings repress original things and could end up with make individuals less creative. Why? Many believe that ideas will flow more freely without criticism of ideas of group members. Still, it is pointed out that brainstorming this way doesn’t work out because criticisms cum debate are needed to create new ideas. Without a sincere discussion of mistakes, workers are less likely to initiate other innovative alternatives since every single idea is deemed good. Proper criticism would help motivate creativity because members feel want to enhance upon others’ idea. Without criticism, every single idea is right, and hereby there doesn’t need to push up creativity and discover hidden possibilities.
• Wherever you work, always ensure there is an open avenue for discussion and dialogue between employers and employees

5. Mix workers of different experience and backgrounds

Multi-generational Workforce play important role in creating a positive and productive working environment

The role of workplace diversity can’t be underplayed. An environment with people from various cultures and experiences will help improve creativity since diversity of beliefs and knowledge in a group is associated with diversity of ideas and creative solutions. When putting same people of same function, background, culture together, those people are likely to end up with generating the same ideas since they think just about the same. Though naturally, people desire to work with their friend, that situation can mean impeding creativity as friends with same perspectives and preferences can come up with the same actions to the same problems.

All in all, physical workplace, changes in seating arrangement, encouragement of physical activities, and diversity at workplace would help boost up your employees’ creativity. A workplace with people that pull off creative vibes would operate more smoothly and productively.