How simplicity of thinking can improve your team's creative thinking

Fostering an innovative culture inside their organisation has been at the top of the list for every single creative director, CEO and founder for the past years. The importance of an innovative mindset has shown itself clearly in these uncertain times. High-performing teams now find themselves trying to figure out how to maintain their productivity while in their home office, trying to utilize that very same innovative spirit but not having the structures or remote work tools to apply it. Being innovative and being able to roll with the punches is a goal we all want to achieve - we find ourselves desperately looking into different methodologies, processes and tools to find the answer.

When it comes to the remote workplace, a lot of companies merely translate what they have previously been doing inhouse to a remote model. Meetings, plans and interactions remain static without taking into account the difference of remote work practices. There are plenty of advantages to remote work, but without taking them into account it is easy to foster a negative company culture where the only thing that counts is the amount of hours spent in meetings. Team productivity needs the remote workplace to be designed to mirror the innovative culture that the company culture represents.

During our years of consulting teams, we have witnessed several approaches to this. Here are three of the most common ones that we have observed managers trying to implement to stimulate divergent thinking in their team:

1. Building a complex personalised system: A common mistake is to make something very complex and detailed in order to make it seem more professional and well-thought out. A lot of organisations spend more time on designing a methodology for their team than questioning if it is easy to understand and follow. The result is that it ends up being way too challenging to understand, even for their teams. This approach is typically identified by a big list of criteria, steps and rules that makes work rigid and slow. An example would be a remote working environment where everyone is attending hour-long meetings that are not necessarily useful to them, in their interest or fits into their work load.

2. Creating a rules-free system: The opposite of the case would be to adopt a "do whatever you want" philosophy. In this case, organisations think they can be more creative and innovative because they don't impose any rules on their teams. This could fall into a misconception, as total freedom doesn't always translate to creativity. Teams adopting this kind of methodology can feel lost and confused. For example when employees are working from home and lack enough structure or guidance to keep their focus, team connections or manage their own deadlines. A home environment on its own can be distracting enough. When the team members feel disconnected from each other, can’t find guidance or how to best make use of their remote working tools it does not create a healthy performance or team culture.

3. Adopting an all-ready-made system: Finally, some other organisations prefer to take in a well-known methodology and follow it religiously step by step. We have seen these cases in companies that are adopting agile methods, design thinking approaches or design sprint workshops without stopping to reflect if that's the right thing for them. The problem here could be to end up following a guide that might not work for your team. The same goes when you move from an office to a home environment - there are different systems and platforms that help to make remote work easier, but are they really the right tool for your company? It is important to take the company culture into the equation when choosing an already designed remote working method.

At Triggers, we think everyone should embed creativity in the way their team works, and you should treat it as something simple, enjoyable and natural. Adopting this mindset means several small but significant changes that will dramatically increase your team's creativity and innovative mindset.

When you think of creativity as something simple, you take out the pressure from your team. Innovation sessions, workshops and brainstorming meetings shouldn't be a stress factor. If your team enters the room or video call with the feeling they are about to face something complicated and complex, they won't have the space of mind needed to contribute to the innovative culture. Instead, they will use a significant percentage of their energy worrying about being good enough, smart enough or proving themselves. A simple solution is to create a calm and relaxed (physical and mental) environment for your team to generate ideas and avoid putting massive pressure on getting the concepts right on the first try.

Having your team enjoying the creative process means allowing them to make it theirs. By definition, you can't fully appreciate something that has been imposed on you, because that means you will always be afraid of getting it wrong or not satisfying the owner's needs. A team that doesn't consider a methodology as theirs is a team that will feel insecure and doubt often. Instead, try discussing your methods with your team, let them contribute and adapt things to their design methodologies of doing. Add space for them to voice which methods they prefer for communication, interaction and sharing work spaces. It doesn’t mean that everytime someone voices something the structure or method will change, but it opens up for discussion, reflection and understanding. Let the team have fun while innovating together. To let people feel safe and heard is to provide them with the framework to be innovative and creative - people are complicated, the creative process should not be.

Finally, if you consider innovation as something natural, you'll be creating a culture where it happens every day and in every aspect of your teamwork. Your organisation shouldn't differentiate between creative tasks and tedious tasks. Innovation can occur in every project in every job. It's not a special day, and it's not playtime. When creativity feels natural for your team, they will feel free to contribute to making your organisation better in every aspect. That means being open to feedback and creating a safe space for everyone.

In our book Creative Process Design: A Methodology For Team Ideation And Co-Creation, we summarised a way of developing all the previous values into your team and organisation. 

It's a methodology we designed to create more fluid and effective processes that will make your teams work smarter, faster and more creative.

Next time you feel your organisation is lacking in creative thinking, take a minute to ask yourself if your company culture is making your teams feel creativity as something simple, enjoyable and natural.

Check our tools for facilitating your team's creative thinking.