By Giovanni Masino
Every organization needs to find some way to be creative. And this is true for business in any industry, even the most traditional ones, and particularly relevant for startups. As creativity expert Cyriel Kortleven famously once said: “Out of the box or out of the business.”
So, what can organizations do to enhance their ability to think and act creatively? Are there some general guidelines to increase creative work? Organizational and behavioral research suggests there are principles we can rely on. However, they require thinking a bit unconventionally about management, about organizing, about work. After all, it’s not so strange that to become creative, businesses have to manage and organize creatively, is it?
I have put together 10 ways to improve creativity in an organization. These come from observing some of the most creative organizations in the world and from what the best scholars in the field tell us.
1. Have a tolerance for failure
The most creative organizations don’t see errors, mistakes, and failures as waste or inefficiencies; they see them as learning opportunities, and even more importantly, as investments. Mistakes are the natural, necessary cost of creativity and innovation. Indeed, some creative companies get worried if they don’t see enough mistakes being made because that may signal that they are not “daring” enough.
Of course having a healthy balance between good and bad ideas is necessary, as well as having mechanisms that allow you to learn from your mistakes. The goal is not to eliminate mistakes—the goal is to come up with something new and valuable. Bad ideas are a natural and necessary part of what being creative is all about.
2. Encourage diversity and collaboration
When you’re able to get people with different backgrounds, points of view, knowledge, and abilities to collaborate, there’s no limit to the level of creativity that can be achieved. Diversity and collaboration are the fuel of creativity. If you play it safe, if your focus is too narrow, or if you are too specialized, nothing really interesting and creative will ever happen. The most creative organizations join together diverse talents and let them work together.
3. Embrace conflict
Some people hate conflict and will try to avoid it, while some actively seek conflict with others because it gives them an adrenaline rush. Both approaches are not good for creativity.
However, conflict of ideas—not conflict of people—is a crucial ingredient for creativity. We are talking about critical thinking, discussion, debate, analysis. Creative organizations embrace conflict of ideas and consider it to be their best way of “thinking.”
4. Relax
Our best ideas are born when our brain is in its “alpha” state, which happens when we are relaxed. Some of the most creative organizations allow their employees to just relax during their working hours. These organizations are not crazy or wasteful; they are pragmatic. They know that for creative tasks and complex problem solving, relaxation is way more productive than focusing or trying too hard. Indeed, trying too hard will actually damage a person’s ability to think creatively.
5. Pay attention to physical environment
The physical environment of the workplace deeply affects the way we think and behave. Colors have a significant influence. (Hint: Red is not so good for creativity; try blue instead.) But even more, the “geography” of the workplace can vastly determine who talks to whom and how often, and how people perceive each other. Physical layout should facilitate unlikely encounters, chatting, and collaboration, as well as provide a safe, private space for everyone.
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6. Cultivate intrinsic motivation
Intrinsic motivation is the single, most powerful psychological “tool” that organizations use to increase people’s creativity, productivity, and happiness. It’s about what people do at work and why. There are four fundamental components to intrinsic motivation: passion, autonomy, personal growth, and purpose.
Creative organizations carefully design jobs and roles so that people have a passion about what they do, have a good amount of autonomy about their work, enjoy learning and personal development opportunities, have an understanding of the organization’s purpose, and find meaning in it. The more of these elements that are present, the better. There’s no creativity without intrinsic motivation.
7. Persistence and small wins
Creativity is not just about having a stroke of genius or a new insight—that’s just the beginning. It’s also about transforming insights and new ideas into viable products and services. It’s about taking these ideas and then adjusting them, adapting them, testing them. It’s about experimentation. It’s about persistence. It’s about constant improvement and small wins. It’s about continuous progress and hard work.
The most creative organizations are able to emphasize persistence and daily progress as a central part of their culture. This has a double advantage: It’s effective, because quite rarely new ideas are born already “finished” and ready to go to market; it’s also a strong motivational force. Teresa Amabile, a professor at Harvard Business School, calls it “the progress principle.”
8. Hire the best
Creative organizations pay a lot of attention (and dedicate significant amounts of resources) to hiring the best people. They look at the fundamental traits of the people they hire, not their curricula. They look for people who represent a good “match” with the company’s organizational culture—people who are willing and able to learn, people who will be intrinsically motivated in that particular organization.
9. Constantly look outside for new ideas
Over time, diversity within an organization will decrease. When people work together daily for years, accumulating the same experiences and being exposed to the same information over and over again, they end up being more and more like each other. Diversity must then be nurtured.
An excellent way to do this is by continuously bringing in new ideas from the outside world. Never assume that there’s nothing new to be learned from others. The most creative organizations maintain their creativity by constantly absorbing new ideas and knowledge from their environment—and not just when they have a specific problem to solve. It becomes systematic policy. They will continue to do this even when outside knowledge doesn’t seem to be relevant to any of their current problems. They know that new knowledge will eventually pay off through increased creativity.
10. Foster creativity through leadership
This final point is the most important one: The most creative organizations are not leaderless. Leadership is crucial for creativity; however, leadership that promotes creativity is defined in a very unconventional way.
A successful leader will not impose a predetermined vision on others. Inspiration, vision, and motivation come from purpose, passion, and the work itself. Leaders are not the protagonists; instead, they set the stage for others, establishing and maintaining the conditions that allow people to flourish and be as creative as they can possibly be.
In other words, leaders are responsible for making sure that the other nine points on this list are actually implemented, maintained, and strengthened. Leaders in creative organizations know that they cannot “plan” creativity, but must ensure the ideal conditions for creativity to emerge.
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