Does your business nurture creativity? If we didn’t have ideas, we would still be living in caves. Companies simply wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for ideas. If this was true, why do companies do everything in their power to suppress their employee’s ideas to the point of not announcing those ideas for fear of the repercussions? Ultimately, companies are filled with brilliant employees. These brilliant people are not just the people running the business but also the one’s who answer the phone, and those who replace the lightbulbs. In case you weren’t already aware, there are hundreds of brilliant ideas brewing in your employees right now. But the question is, what does your company do to help nurture their ideas?

If you’re slapping policies to bog your employees down or installing a pecking order so someone else takes credit for those ideas, you’re actually doing your business a disservice. Additionally, when was the last time you met with one of your team members and genuinely listened to their ideas? This isn’t just sitting and thinking of telling them that they’re wrong, but just listening. Employers have become too accustomed to seeing the brilliant ideas of others as threats to our own ideas. Rather than combining the two separate ideas and creating a great innovation together.

When creativity blooms

Ultimately, ideas are like flowers, if you give them the right environment, nurture them correctly and nourish them enough, they will bloom into beautiful things. But, if you step on them and fail to water or feed them, they will wither and die. Similarly, if you deny them light, they’ll fade. The same goes for people and their ideas.

The three main barriers that people face to allow their ideas to blossom in the workplace are:

  • People
  • Policies
  • Practices

Many people will often say that the main reason that they fail or succeed at what they do is ‘because of the people at work’. If your business is full of insult, disrespect and closed-mindedness, ideas cannot bloom. But, if your business culture is respectful, encouraging and open-minded, ideas will inevitably be abundant. It’s also critical that the boss is also encouraging because one could have all the encouragement in the world from their employees, but if the boss is unreceptive, they’ll never help their employees reach their full potential.

If your business has policies in place that are restricting your staff, even though policies do have a purpose, they shouldn’t be used as a weapon for management or an idea-eliminator. Ultimately, management weapons kill creative ideas. The impact of change is all about how you frame it with those affected.

If your business needs guidance on nurturing ideas, you should feed the idea generation process and support it in a way that your employees will always understand. If an idea will make your business better, you should explain how it will better the jobs of others and help them become more productive. 

If you’re looking for help with your business, contact ActionCOACH today.