Have you ever been in a creative meeting when a new idea was introduced and someone across the room shouts out the classic phrase, “But we’ve always done it this way!”? This might be the time to shake things up at the office with some innovative thinking! What are some simple tools and process that you can introduce in your next creative team meeting to create a favorable environment for free flowing ideas? When you think you are in a creative or innovative rut and you need to disrupt the status quo, then try these easy and economical recommendations.
1) Set The Stage: For your next meeting, introduce a new approach by setting the stage for the participants. One way to do this is by posting ground rules for the meeting on a flip chart. Some suggested ground rules include: all members participate actively, turn off cell phones or put them on silent mode, no interruptions or side conversations, build on each others ideas, stay focused on topic, calling time is an option for the meeting facilitator, and challenge each other respectfully.
2) Attitude: Make sure everyone leaves their egos at the door and comes to the meeting with an open mind. Present everyone with an attitude reminder when they enter the room. For example, give each participant a trinket to make them feel welcome and that you respect their input today. Emphasize that this is a suggestion of bringing fresh ideas and new perspectives to the meeting and to leave their stress of the day and old ways of thinking on the other side of the door. Innovation is best done when team members come together excited to create something new out of their collective human capital. Make sure your team is committed to making a positive change on behalf of the consumer.
3) Clear Goals and Deadlines: This is a business and the goals and deadlines need to be at the forefront of business strategy to ensure job security for all. Everyone in the meeting needs to be clear on the goals of the day and stay constantly aware of the timeline to accomplish it. Achieve this by posting the goals and deadlines on the top of the agenda handout or hanging a poster in the meeting room with the information. Keeping this in constant view not only allows you to manage your time but it also gives the meeting participants that feeling of self fulfillment when they accomplish their goal.
4) Value in Numbers: When a meeting objective is to supply creative and innovative ideas, there is value in numbers. Make sure the meeting has the necessary tools to make this happen. First, set a number of ideas that needs to be generated. Next, make sure the meeting is supplied with writing utensils and flip chart paper, wipe-off boards, or sticky notes to post the ideas around the meeting room. Promote playful idea generation. Once this goal is reached, organize the ideas into similar categories. At that time the meeting can focus on strategies to nurture the best ideas from the different categories making sure they will work for the goals and deadlines already communicated on the meeting agendas.
5) Embrace Failure: Communicate and live by the mantra that failure is expected. Innovation is all about risks and failure is part of risk taking. Without team members taking risks, no innovation will take place. Embrace failure and have a process in place to learn from that opportunity. Create a time within your meeting to discuss an example of how to learn from failure. The earlier an organization can recognize failure, the faster they can learn from it. Once team members get comfortable with the concept of failure, you might see them being more willing to generate wild ideas.
A creative and innovative rut can be a serious problem for an organization. Stop the cycle and promote a fresh perspective. The recommendations above are small ways to give insight into something old and familiar. When an organization standardizes the process of innovation, it becomes part of the culture that in turn adds value to the products and services for the consumer.
About the Author
Cheryl Zipay Kirby is a coach, trainer, and speaker focused on leadership development, business ethics, group dynamics, and planned change. She is the founder of IGNITE where she specializes in creativity and innovation. Ms. Kirby may be reached at: 850-602-1854 or Cheryl@GetIgnitedNow.com
I agree its super frustrating to hear “but we’ve always done it this way” especially when the one who says it is one who is too busy giving their attention to something else to notice that indeed you do change it up a bit. Setting the stage gets everyones attention and makes them realize that you mean business and require everyones input. Ideas can flow when everyone works together but without a deadline peoples ideas never get anywhere and its a waste of time. Above all like mentioned above communication is key.