George Washington Carver said, “Since new developments are the products of a creative mind, we must therefore stimulate and encourage that type of mind in every way possible.” With change all around us in all we contact each day, it is imperative that we create a workplace, a home life, and a personal life that produces such a mind. Easy to say, yes, but are we doing what needs to be done to make it happen?
We have to look at how one stimulates and encourages the creative mind. This is almost easier to instruct one how not to do this than to explain how to do it because we have all seen plenty of examples how not to stimulate and encourage creativity. Whether you are working with employees, children, or your own aspirations and goals, there are similarities in ways to fuel someone’s imagination.
In the workplace, one of the best ways to encourage creativity is through eliminating micromanagement. Micromanagement says to an employee, “I realize you do this job every day, have special training and education, but you really don’t know as much as I do when it comes to doing your job.” As a manager, if you are hiring responsible, educated people, you should not be untrusting of their capabilities unless you have not properly trained them or given them appropriate expectations. Micromanagement in a family can have a hugely detrimental effect on relationships and development of healthy, well-adjusted children. I had read the other day that it is much easier to build a strong child than it is to repair a broken adult. You can eliminate micromanagement in the home by allowing children to fail, being realistic on their actual capabilities, and encouraging true accomplishment, no matter how small. Micromanaged children have tough times once they are away from home because they have never been allowed to be responsible and given the tools to properly take care of themselves and adult situations. Micromanagement of yourself is an odd concept, but this occurs when you allow others to make mistakes, but you hamper your own development and production by expecting yourself to be perfect. If you are waiting to produce a project, write a policy, even dictate a letter until it is “perfect”, that project, policy or letter may never materialize. Your perfection will eliminate any ability to be innovative.
You can also foster creativity in the workplace as a manager by listening to the employees and soliciting input into impending change. Change does have to happen, but remember when you’re changing things around the office, you usually have been reading about the changes, formulating a plan, and focusing on it for months. You can’t expect everyone to be on board and at the same level of education and experience since you have had a head start. When implementing the change, get a loose framework of how you think it should go throughout the office, and then listen to your employees who have to deal with the change, and get their input into how the change should be handled. Realize that even if a plan is not perfect, it will work much better if all are on board. Listening and soliciting input in the home from your family is also essential to proper development and having a creative atmosphere. The autocratic family leader is often “large and in-charge”, but they surely are not fostering growth, harmony, or creativity by being that way. Realize what is a battle and what really doesn’t matter. Some years back many booklets were written about not sweating the small stuff. The conclusion to most of the things that we get so worked up over is that most of it is small stuff. Let your family speak and have an opinion. Being in charge and making all the decisions isn’t too fun of a position to have to fulfill all of the time! How do we listen to ourselves and soliciting input from ourselves? Our conscience, our bodies, our thoughts speak to us daily, and usually counsel us in proper ways. Unfortunately, we take the easy way out most times and go against what we are trying to tell ourselves. Find some quiet time to unplug from your electronics, phones, noise, and just listen. Let your mind wander, sort things out, listen to nature, listen to quietness. Sometimes you will hear some of the most creative ideas and motivating thoughts when you can shut out everything else with a little quiet time.
Finally, the third way to get your workplace, home and self to be more of a creative place is to allow some fun to happen and happen often. Find a way to lighten up your place of employment. Find ways to have fun in what you do. Laughter is extremely contagious and customers can tell if a workplace is stuffy, or if it is a place one can enjoy. Post funny stories, quotes, and cartoons around the workplace. (Make sure they are appropriate!) Give time for your employees to discuss funny things that they have seen, done, or experienced. Realize that even though they might spend five or ten minutes doing this, the resulting productivity and creative atmosphere that will be produced will overcome any lost time having a little fun. Fun in the home can be something that can really make a difference in a relationship and the development of your children. Life is tough at times (well, most of the time), and fun times can make it much more bearable. Find good clean comedians that your family can watch together, find games you all can play, and find places where you can go and all be children for a little while. You’ll find it will foster growth in all sorts of ways because again, you will be getting away and getting off concentrating on the stressors of life. When it comes to yourself, you can become more creative by just not taking yourself too seriously. I laugh often, and I laugh loud. And usually, my best subject is myself. I have realized not to take myself too seriously, and it makes for an easier life. When I keep myself in the proper perspective, it leads to a definite environment of creativity.
Instilling, encouraging, and allowing creativity is essential to proper human development, proper life balance, and workplace success. Knowing how to do it can be tricky, but as with many things, we usually know what we need to do to make them happen, we just fail to do those things. Seek to make those around you and yourself more creative. It can change your world.