How to improve creativity in your workplace

You must encourage creativity in the workplace in order to have improvements.Many companies talk about creativity, but not all of them understand how to encourage this creativity.As a manager you must foster an environment that supports and encourages all employees to be creative and forward those creative ideas.

First, you must develop a system that will capture those creative ideas.Many companies resort on a suggestion box.This method is over used and many people have become accustomed to the suggestion box not working.How many suggestions have you put into a suggestion box and never seen the results of them?Do you even believe somebody has a key to the suggestion box?

The suggestion collection system needs to be simple yet reach every employee in your area of management.You can do many creative ways to collect these ideas.Once a month you need to have these ideas reviewed.Have a panel or team composed of employees from each department, get together and go over all of the submitted ideas.Also, this meeting will review the progress of all of the past ideas that were submitted and forwarded for further research or implementation.

The panel or team need to have the power to reward those employees that develop creative ideas that make a positive impact for the company.You may give them a limited monetary reward system or other perks that could be awarded to the employees.A t-shirt or a ball cap costs very little but it can be worn as a badge of honor that will be talked about and sought after.The next good idea that people think of will be submitted instead of being swept under the carpet.

Next, you as the manager must develop an atmosphere that endorses creativity as a valuable commodity.The computer that you give the employees is a company asset.So is their mind while they are at work.You should consider your employee's brain an asset to the company and use it when possible to forward your goals.If needed allot time for the employee's to work on bettering the processes or improving production.This will show that you and management believe in them and care about their ideas.

Don't allow your employees to get complacent in their jobs.In many instances you can rotate them around and have them do other jobs in the company.This will allow them to see the big picture and keep them from believing that their part of the process is the only thing that matters.Additionally, this will lead to many opportunities for creative ideas.Now that employees see a larger picture, they understand why certain procedures are in place.Additionally, they will see why other procedures are now out dated and can be improved.
You will also want to put a reward system in place for your employees.Do not reward your employees for the quantity of creative ideas.Brainstorming has a place and that is where you want quantity.To encourage a creative environment, you want to reward those ideas that have a positive impact on the company.Some companies are willing to pay thousands of dollars for the right ideas.Others are willing to pay a percentage of the money saved or earned from an idea and that can be a lot.If your company does not have this in place, you may want to approach the right people to see if you can make it happen.This idea will go far to encourage the creative environment in your company.
In summary, you can do a lot as a manager to encourage creativity in your workplace.You should foster the right environment to encourage your employees to think outside of the box.Next you should gather these ideas and act on them.Last you should reward those employees who do have ideas that impact the company positively.