Definition of Creative and Innovative Ideas
In interpreting the meaning of “Creative Idea”, we need to understand the meaning of “idea” itself. An idea is a thought or idea a person has of an object, conditions and other things that it thinks about. The meaning of “creative” is an ability that exists within an individual or group that encourages them to make some updates or certain approaches to solve various problems in different ways. In other words, creative ideas are ideas, ideas or thoughts that individuals have in creating new things or new ways that are different from everything that already exists. In addition, innovative is the ability of individuals to maximize abilities,
In short, creative and innovative ideas that a person or group has such as a work team will bring them into a new world of cool and extraordinary innovative changes! In fact, encouraging creative and innovative ideas in work teams is important because everyone must have very different ideas and creativity. If all the ideas and creativity ideas are combined in one harmonious harmony, then the work team will achieve their success by developing amazing innovative things.
There are various examples of innovation and creativity that are all around us. An example of an innovative student idea can be to produce a new invention such as a robot that can clean a class for 20 minutes. Or, examples of creative and innovative ideas in entrepreneurship can be like producing a laptop that is resilient even if it falls from the 5th floor though, could it not? In the world of innovation, anything can happen. Innovative creative business ideas become an important and challenging task for product marketers. That means, creativity and innovation in entrepreneurship are needed and need to be built from now on, especially in the work team. Unfortunately, the process of creativity and innovation in business does not always run easily,
According to the Forbes dot com website, there are 15 ways we can apply in encouraging creative and innovative ideas in work teams. Here is an explanation of these powerful ways.
- Create the Right Working Environment.
The first way that needs to be done is to create the right work environment to encourage employees to feel that creative and innovative ideas are eagerly awaited to be herded into the workplace. For example, the leader plays his role to break down the wall of “rigidity” and appreciate each employee who provides creative ideas are also innovative. In addition, the leader can also divide employees into several teams and provide small projects to create papers on creativity and innovation in entrepreneurship. The team that provides the coolest paper content, they will get a prize. Exciting right? Noah Mithrush from Evisions said that “let employees test their ideas, see what works and what can be improved, they know they have the opportunity to do it”.
- Create an Innovation Zone.
According to Jennifer Best from ConnectYourCare, office space design should be made as comfortable and creative as possible. A very open office space will encourage an open mind as well. So that employees and members in the work team can freely provide creative and innovative new ideas for the development of the company. Don’t forget to provide a special place that all team members can use to brainstorm comfortably.
- Schedule a Confession and Opinion Session for the Work Team.
Employees who are having problems really need to have a “vent” session with their leaders. This is where the role of leaders to be “always there” for them. When the burden they feel is lost, employees will find it easier to think creatively and innovatively . As Janine Robertson of one of the Insect Exterminator Technology Companies said that allocating time and making schedules with work teams so that they can express their innovative opinions is what the company needs to do.
- Discuss by One by One.
Personal discussions or one by one with work team members is also a highly recommended way. We need to know what personal interests and talents each team member has and maybe we have never known before. Try to discuss with them one by one. According to John Steinert of techtarget dot com, this way will open new avenues for interesting content that is very creative and innovative.
- Give Work Team Opportunities to Learn What They Want.
According to Mandy Menaker from Shapr, leaders need to ask all members of their team, “are there other skills or fields that you want to learn? We are ready to provide the necessary facilities “. Creative and innovative ideas also require education, courses, training and new information that can support their great ideas. In addition, if they have determined what they want to learn, for example about “video content”, then the leader can develop a project related to video content. Allow them to learn it and practice it directly. This project will let them learn firsthand rather than just giving ideas.
- Make Mistakes a Part of the Creativity Process.
According to Fahima Anwar from the List of Profiles said that “mistakes are part of every creative process and provide space for them to think innovative”. Therefore, the leader must convince all team members that it’s okay to make mistakes because mistakes are part of learning to come up with creative and innovative ideas.
- Explain the Outline of Marketing Objectives.
This seventh method needs to be applied by leaders in the field of marketing. According to Serge Vartanov of AutoGravity, marketing leaders must be able to explain the outline of the objectives of product promotion or marketing objectives undertaken by the company. By knowing the outline, team members will find it easier to think and provide creative and innovative ideas.
- Be Transparent with Overall Business Targets.
Courtney Dale of ICM Consulting and Media Corporation believes that corporate leaders must be transparent especially with regard to overall business targets. If team members only provide their creative and innovative ideas without knowing clear goals, then this will be a big question for them. Unfortunately, some team members will begin to feel lazy because of the company’s attitude that is not open.
- Rotate Team Members to Face New Things.
According to Seamas Egan from j2 Global, giving the same task to each team member on an ongoing basis will only make them feel boring or bored. In short, creative and innovative ideas will be difficult to have if we only work on the same task, in the same place. Therefore, leaders need to adopt a rotating culture where team members can work at different work desks and do different tasks. Such an application will trigger new ideas from team members.
- Create Cross Functional or Cross Department Conversations.
Each department in the company may have bright ideas that they can convey to team members from other departments. In this case, the leader can create a relaxed discussion program that is attended by all departments and they give each other creative ideas to other departments. According to Judy Herbst of Worthy Inc., “An idea is just a seed, and this seed requires a cross-functional team to be able to grow it”.
- Give Opportunities for Team Members to Learn More.
According to Sean P Finelli of The Roman Guy, encouraging team members to think creatively and innovatively is not enough. Because leaders also need to “feed their brains”. Thus, the brains and thoughts possessed by team members can be runny and fluent in thinking, especially in generating creative and innovative ideas. This can be done by bringing them to a seminar, conference or inviting the team to listen to an audio branding book about the latest marketing tactics.
- Create a Centralized Joint Idea Bank.
Hannah Taylor of Ironistics gave a very brilliant idea that company leaders can create an idea bank filled with creative and innovative ideas from all team members in all departments. This makes it very easy for all team members when looking for ideas. They can type keywords or keywords about the desired idea and the whole list of ideas can be accessed easily because it is centralized.
- Democratization of Idea Creation.
Often team members who are not brave or don’t want to convey their ideas feel that the ideas they have are not as good as others’ ideas. Conditions like this if left unchecked will hamper the process of the emergence of creative and innovative ideas. Therefore, the leader must democratize the creation of ideas in which the leader assures all team members that there are no bad or sounding stupid ideas. All ideas are brilliant and everyone’s ideas are eagerly awaited by the company.
Anshu Agarwal from Cedexis commented that “Maybe introverted or timid team members can email their ideas to their coworkers or to the team leader directly. After that, they can discuss the idea anonymously in the meeting, so everyone can listen to it and choose the ideas they like “.
- Give Positive Strengthening and Spread Positive Words.
Team members may feel discouraged when their ideas or opinions are not accepted by other team members. Conditions like this can make them shy or reluctant to provide other ideas in the future. Therefore, Stephan Baldwin of the dot com Franchisegator said that leaders need to provide positive reinforcement and convey positive words to team members so that they continue to feel confident to provide creative and innovative ideas.
- Give them feedback.
Pawel Kijko from TimeCamp believes that all team members also need to get feedback from their leaders so they can measure the achievements they have made and the contributions they have made to the company. By knowing feedback, team members will be increasingly motivated to produce better creative and innovative ideas.
