How to Boost your Business Team’s Creativity at the Office

This is a guest article by Amy J. Silver; a creative and outstanding writer. I am glad having her offer you some business tips that will help increase productivity in your workplace. Please read on.

Do you know that a creative work setting can help employees and business owners alike? It's believed that offices that encourage creative expression amongst their business team members have a higher level of productivity and can produce more profits.

If the promise of increased productivity and profits has got you to consider implementing an environment where creative thinking is encouraged, here are eight tips you can use to start harnessing your business team's creativity in an office setting.

How to Boost your Business Team's Creativity at the Office in eight easy steps

1. Provide Creative Outlets

Providing creative outlets for your fellow team members is a great way to get the creative juices flowing. Creative outlets can range from dry erase boards, chalkboards or even plain sheets of paper for drawing, doodling and writing. When a creative outlet is provided you can reap the benefits because your team's creativity can carry over from those outlets and into the workplace.

2. Group Meetings

Group meetings are a great place to harness your team's creative power. Your team will be most creative when everyone gets together and starts playing off each other's ideas. Regular group meetings are a great way to keep the creativity flowing throughout your office. Group meetings can also result in creative brainstorming sessions.

3. Encourage Creative Thought

As an office manager or business owner, you will want to encourage your workers to voice creative thoughts. If your team feels you aren't receptive to their creativity, it can often shut down any creative thoughts even if it's related to the job. Keep an open door policy for creativity and you will notice your team thrive.

4. Develop a Non-Judgmental Office Attitude

In a team setting, not only is your opinion important but so are the opinions of others. Develop a non-judgmental office attitude so creativity can be encouraged. When team members know they aren't being judged by their co-workers, it can encourage them to be more creative.

5. Other Creative Work Environments

Some work environments don't offer enough room for creativity. However, you can encourage creativity by developing other ways to be creative. For example, if you work in the data entry department; the operations can be the same day-to-day. But creativity can be encouraged by having employees come up with creative ways to enter the data. You can also participate in co-working environments to take breaks from the normal office day.

6. Give Employees an Anonymous Voice

Employees can be very creative when they know that what they say does not have their name attached to it. To encourage creativity and get your team's creative juices flowing, provide a way for team members to suggest or write down creative ideas in an anonymous way. You might be surprised with what they come up with.

7. Reward Creative Ideas

Everyone loves to get a reward. If you want to encourage creativity, reward others who think outside the box and you will notice others following suit.

8. Listen to the Employees

Your employees know the office better than you do, so ask them what you can do to help foster creative ideas. Just remember to try to implement these ideas when they offer them. Using these tips will build a creative environment in your workplace.