Encouraging innovative ideas

Ross Woods, rev. Oct. '13

 

Put together teams that can be effective. Teams should be heterogeneous rather than homogenous; people do better when they are with others who think quite differently from them. Help teams to become mutually supportive, where people can feel exited and work together. Get them to collaborate and to share information. Discourage cliques, political plays, and power jostling. As they become a team, they will develop a culture where they lose their inhibitions and increasingly free to create and share ideas.

Motivation is obviously essential to gain and sustain their enthusiasm, and here are the basics. First, motivate people through their personal interest and curiosity. Do not use money or extrinsic rewards to motivate them. Second, show them why their work is important. Third, focus their attention by defining the task as a problem to be solved. (You might find, however, that they reframe the question to become something totally different and much better.) Fourth, it is essential that they feel that you are supportive of their efforts. Don't discourage them if some ideas look crazy at first; some of them might turn out to be the best ones.

Match people with tasks that suit their area of expertise. You will need to know your people well enough to do so.

Get your team to try to think outside the box and learn some skills in creative thinking. As your team progresses, let them gather a range of different ideas and perspectives, and let them crash into each other.

Learn to ask the best kinds of questions. Socrates was the master, so look up "Socratic questioning."

Your team will need to work hard and commit the time, but don't let it be a grind. They need to keep themselves fresh; some parts of the day usually work better for creativity than others.

Don't give people too much money but give them enough for what they need. They can't "buy" ideas but have to think of how to achieve the goal with resources at hand.

Stretch people, not so little that they get bored, but not so much they feel overwhelmed. Set deadlines carefully. Tight deadlines help some people but not everybody; they can overwhelm them, make them feel over-controlled, or cause burnout.

Give people freedom. You can define the goals but give them some autonomy in how to achieve them. Good goals can help people to know what kind of things they might need to achieve.

 

References

Amabile, Teresa. The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work.
Barker, Eric. 6 Ways To Inspire Creative Thinking At Work http://www.businessinsider.com Barker, Eric. What are the four principles that will lead you to breakthrough creativity? http://www.bakadesuyo.com. Sep. 18, 2013.
Johnson, Steven. The Innovator's Cookbook: Essentials for Inventing What Is Next.