Think Differently and Spark Creativity

"We need to think differently!"
"This needs some fresh ideas!"
"We have got to be more creative around here!"

Are messages like these popping up more and more in your workplace?

Faced with complex, open-ended, ever-changing challenges, organizations realize that constant, ongoing innovation is critical to stay ahead of the competition.

This is why we need to be on the lookout for new ideas that can drive innovation, and it's why the ability to think differently, generate new ideas, and spark creativity within a team becomes an important skill. You need to work actively on building and cultivating this skill, and it can be done!

Often, though, we make the mistake of assuming that good ideas just happen. Or worse still, we get caught in the mind trap that creativity is an aptitude; some people have it, others don't. Then there is the other self-defeating belief – "I am not intelligent enough to come up with good ideas."

These assumptions are rarely true. Everyone can come up with fresh, radical ideas – you just need to learn to open your mind and think differently. This article shows you how to do so.

How to Generate New Ideas

Standard idea-generation techniques concentrate on combining or adapting existing ideas. This can certainly generate results. But here, our focus is on equipping you with tools that help you leap onto a totally different plane. These approaches push your mind to forge new connections, think differently and consider new perspectives.

A word of caution – while these techniques are extremely effective, they will only succeed if they are backed by rich knowledge of the area you're working on. This means that if you are not prepared with adequate information about the issue, you are unlikely to come up with a great idea even by using the techniques listed here.

Incidentally, these techniques can be applied to spark creativity in group settings and brainstorming sessions as well.

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Olympic torch taken on first spacewalk.

An Olympic torch took a spacewalk for the first time Saturday, carefully held by two Russian cosmonauts outside the International Space Station as it orbited some 260 miles above Earth.

Light's Up.

There is a need of change to Everything.

Five Tactics To Win The Talent War.

1. Remove Rigid Job Descriptions: The days of drawing up rigid job descriptions are over. People want variety, flexibility and a sense of self-determination in their work. Instead, give your staff a constantly evolving set of projects (tasks that have an end) and prototypes (tasks that are ongoing). Those who produce the best outputs gain more responsibility and can literally be promoted monthly. And conversely you can quickly trim back the projects or prototype responsibilities of those who aren't delivering.

2. Internal Promotions: Gain a reputation for backing people who already work within your organisation. Over 90% of Blueprint’s management team originated from entry-level positions within the company. This built a loyal and committed staff culture, which ensured people hit the ground running when promoted rather than taking time to find their feet. And there peers in seeing them recognised put in more effort to ensure they would be next.

3. Keep Score: People want to be involved in the success of the company, yet profit or share price is often demotivating or out of the control of the average employee. Instead, develop a magic metric – the one figure that dictates ultimate success (e.g. % of time in the opposition half for a soccer team, or number of property listings for a real estate firm). This narrow focus ensures you celebrate success and sets milestones that will help your people play the game of business to win.

4. Openly Communicate: As leaders we often assume people know what is going on because an email was sent, or we assume they don’t need to or want to know some of the big picture strategies we are working on. To engage and inspire your workforce you need to communicate with them regularly across different media. Every Friday afternoon we held a ‘fire-down’ where departments shared their wins, humorous happenings and changes if they could. Every quarter we would hold a ‘director’s launch’ for everyone on staff to communicate the focus for the upcoming 90 days.

5. Empowerment: Let go of your 1980’s inspired micro-management techniques and instead start to trust your people to make better decisions than you. This includes giving them progressive financial approval limits and implementing a decision-making methodology allowing people to make good decisions with confidence.

ICity.