You don’t need to paint outside of the lines to have a creative office. Creativity can be as simple as encouraging open communication during a team brainstorm or thinking of new ways to be more productive.
Creative offices tend to be more innovative, productive and have a higher employee retention rate. Check out these three tips to get the creative juices flowing in your office.
Hire for creativity
Look for team members with diverse skills, talents and backgrounds who all are working toward a shared vision. Diverse teams enhance creativity; it allows for different ideas and perspectives to work together to solve a problem. Two heads are better than one when it comes to a creative office.
Chamber tip: Cultivate a creative work culture. Make creativity one of your requirements when looking for an employee and ingrain it into your day-to-day culture.
Embrace failure
You can foster creativity through open communication. Employees may be unwilling to take risks if they don’t know their organization supports creativity. Having a safe environment for employees to come up with new approaches allows for employees to try out ideas. If you don’t encourage some risk your team may be too scared to try new things.
Chamber tip: Make creativity a part of your management style. Find out how you can develop your style at the Denver Metro Small Business Development Center’s Mastering Management information session.
Prioritize fun
Create a positive work environment and have fun during your work day. You know what they say about all work and no play; having fun allows employees to be relaxed and be passionate about what they are doing. Give your team a chance to enjoy themselves, it’ll create a friendly, happier and more productive office.
Chamber tip: Creativity enhances productivity. Check out these four tips to make your workday more productive.
Laura James is the marketing and communications coordinator for the Denver Metro Chamber.