Boosting Creativity and Innovation: Tips for Individuals and Teams (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: BOSTERING CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION Hi, I'm Geoff Watts, and this short video is aimed at giving you a few tips to help if you are looking to encourage greater innovation and creativity, either for yourself or your team. Firstly, create a sense of safety. A lot of the issues around innovation and creativity come from our concerns about judgement. Will our half-baked ideas be viewed as silly? Will we be viewed as silly for having these ideas? Starting off with the goal of creating as many options as possible in 10 minutes can take this pressure off a bit, because even silly ideas get you a point then. Or, have a separate flip chart sheet for crazy ideas, so we're already reducing expectations on them. What we don't want to do is lose these ideas though, because you never know when they might be useful, or might not be quite so crazy anymore. Take the pressure off. Have you ever noticed how many good ideas you've had while you're in the shower, or you're just nodding off to sleep, or when you're on holiday? Basically, in your downtime. When you free your mind from its busy focus, you allow it to wander and begin to start joining the dots. Practice a little mindfulness now and again, or break your routine to allow your mind space to just wander. Another way to take the pressure off, and to create a sense of safety, is to try multiple ideas in parallel. See which one works the best, rather than put all of your eggs in one basket. Conversely, you can put the pressure on. Have you ever heard the phrase, necessity is the mother of invention? Well, there's some truth to it. By creating a deadline for something new, we can force ourselves to innovate. The key here is to not worry about perfection. Instead, it's the best I can do in the time box. Then try it, and have another go at innovating later. You could also try changing the media. Instead of sitting at a laptop, try engaging different thought processes. Perhaps drawing, painting, or using modelling clay or Lego to stimulate creativity. Or try indulging in metaphor. If this problem were a movie, what would the movie be? If the solution would be a brand, what brand would it be? You could try taking the Hannibal Lecter approach. If finding a solution is proving tricky, you could try the psychopath approach. Think of all the ways you could make the situation worse, or break the process. This might be easier, and fun, while also it may open a path to something positive. I hope these tips for fostering creativity and innovation were useful. I'd like to hear what you've been inspired to try as a result.