Sparking Creativity in your Team

What is your team doing to spark creativity in addressing the critical problems and opportunities it sees? Set aside time for creative problem solving. Pick problems about which people feel passionately. Be specific with the problem; it really will release more creative juices than leaving it wide open. Make it safe to make a suggestion. Get familiar with the creative problem-solving process, using your creativity to improve upon it and make it your own!

Are there tools and techniques that your team should become familiar with and use on a regular basis? Get each person to bring one creativity toy to the next problem-solving session. Try out the mind-mapping tool if you are left-brain oriented, or let the right-brainers give the brain-writing technique a chance. Use the impact/effort grid to aid your next decision; it is an easy and inventive way to ensure the entire team’s collaboration on solving a specific problem. Employ a decision matrix for those tougher, more complex choices.

When was the last time your team got out of the office for a creative excursion? Ask each person to bring one suggestion for an expedition to your next meeting. Go with an open mind, and come back with new ideas. Debrief what you learned and how you can apply it. Make it fun, and you’ll make it happen.

Which department, division, or business unit does your team have the greatest conflict with? And what kind of impact does this conflict have on your business results and theirs? Bring the leaders of the two groups together so that you begin on the same page. Find out what they are held accountable for and how your team can proactively help them to achieve their goals and vice versa. You both might be surprised by what you discover. Then make sure you both make good on your commitments.

Do you see the spark of creativity going on around you, perhaps that others aren’t seeing… yet? Be on the lookout for good things going on around you. Sometimes, you find what you look for. Maybe there are synchronous fireflies in your backyard waiting to be discovered by you. Call them best practices if you prefer; but look for them, share them with your team, adapt them to help all of you to excel.

Do you like being the changer better than changing? Think about how many change initiatives you currently have underway. Be sure that the purpose of each, as well as how it supports the larger organizational strategy, is clear. Communicate your compelling change message over and over, using a variety of vehicles. Use the optimal flow to create it.

Answering the above questions will help to light a fire under yourself and your team, and help you become the light you want to see in the world. Take the first step on the path to change, and simply start where you are. Your life and the life of your team can be different because of the actions you take. On a sheet of paper, write one thing from the list above that you really want to do. Put your creativity to work to figure out how to get it done. Put a due date on it. Share it with one other person that you trust. Hold yourself accountable for achieving it. If you are the leader of a team, be the role model of someone you would want to follow. When you feel the positive reinforcement that one action causes, you will want to do it again.

Start a movement—make it happen! Pay it forward, and you can recapture a lost dream and make a difference in the world. Wondrous things occur when one unselfishly gives to another without thought of how or when repayment will be made. When you give to others, you receive so much more in return. When you find something worthy of remembering, and pass it on to another, it is like the spark of the firefly which magically illuminates a dark night.

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