Increase Creativity in the Workplace and Employee Innovation

increase creativity in the workplace - GoodFocus Games

Increase Creativity in the Workplace and Employee Innovation

Increasing creativity in the workplace and employee Innovation as many organizational leaders already know, is crucial to remain competitive in the marketplace. A recent global survey conducted by McKinsey emphasized this fact by stating that “innovation is critical to growth, particularly as the speed of business cycles continues to increase”.

Additionally, the survey showed that 84% of organizational leaders agree on the importance of innovation, however, only 6% are content with the level of innovation and creativity within their organization. So how can leaders and executives solve this problem? The key lies in the creation of a workplace environment that encourages creativity and innovation. 

3 Ways to Increase Creativity in the Workplace and Employee Innovation

1. Provide employees with freedom and flexibility

Employee flexibility

The first on the list that can help increase creativity in the workplace and encourage employee innovation is by providing employees with freedom and flexibility throughout their workday and in the process of task completion.

This can be done in many different ways, including a change in work environment. Sometimes a change in scenery is all you need to spark new ideas! Allowing employees to work remotely, having occasional offsite meetings, and encouraging outdoor brainstorming sessions can break normal routines and allow for new creative and innovative thinking.

This can also be done through a change of work structure, allocating more freedom in employee job design. For example, Google, introduced the 20 Percent Project in 2004, which encourages employees to dedicate 20% of their work time to relevant ‘passion projects’.

This initiative has led to the invention of some pretty cool things including Gmail, AdSense, and Google Chat

2. Create space for open dialogue and candid feedback

Candid Feedback

Creating a work environment that encourages open dialogue and candid feedback can not only help employees to feel safe freely expressing their thoughts and ideas but can also free up mental space for creative and innovative thinking. This improves the overall emotional and psychological well-being of workers while simultaneously increasing creativity in the workplace and innovation.

Not sure how to do this? GoodGames offers several experiences that are specifically designed for this purpose. One of the more popular game-like experiences is RANT.

In RANT, participants get 90 seconds to type out (in ALL CAPS) their rants or grievances. Using anywhere from three words to a full sentence, employees are encouraged to provide anonymous and candid feedback on a topic or theme. Participants can see other rants in real-time creating a feedback loop that leaves no stone unturned. Everyone is then challenged to read through the rants choosing ones where they feel they might offer a more productive perspective.

Inspired participants can then change a word or two or completely rewrite a rant in an effort to take it from negative in nature and turn it into a positive statement. This takes the candid nature of the comments, changes the perspective and approach to the issue, and encourages people to reframe negative words into a positive solution.

3. Incorporate creativity enhancing activities into meetings and brainstorming sessions

creativity enhancing activities

The routine and often mundane nature of work meetings can leave team members feeling disengaged and bored, which are not synonymous with innovation and creativity.

Utilizing tools and activities like GoodGames’ game-like experiences can alleviate Zoom fatigue and ignite creativity amongst team members. For example, FaceIt, one of GoodGames’ experiences, has been specifically designed for this purpose.

FaceIt plays on the phenomena, known as pareidolia, by inviting individuals to explore images and find hidden figures within. Participants create an image from their discovery and are then encouraged to add a caption to their creation to give it a voice.

The process of finding latent shapes within images can be used as a springboard to deepen the conversation or exploration of the topic at hand. This game-like experience makes it easy to engage participants, encourage creative thinking and inspire innovative problem-solving.

Increasing creativity in the workplace and innovation is not always an easy task, however, there are several small changes that can be made by organizational leaders to enhance creativity and innovation amongst team members.

Changes to workplace structure and job design to allow for more freedom and flexibility, encouraging open dialogue and candid feedback, and incorporating creativity-enhancing activities into meetings and brainstorming sessions are just some of the ways to do this.

If you would like to learn more about the GoodGames’ game-like experiences, please contact us.