How to Build a Workplace That’s an Engine for Creativity

Having worked in marketing for most of my career, I’ve learned the priceless strategic value of having a steady supply of good ideas.

I’ve also come across a lot of attitudes that hold good ideas back, chief among them is the belief that only certain people or departments are entitled to come up with them in the first place. I’ve found that an open workplace, where ideas can flow freely and are encouraged from everywhere, always results in the best outcomes.

Though there’s no one right way to foster creativity, here are four thoughts to build a strong framework for everyone on your team to be more creative.

1. Creativity is everybody’s job, including yours.

At the heart of every entrepreneurial workplace is the idea that if you come across an essential job that’s not getting done, and you don’t know whose job it is, assume it’s yours. This applies to creative work, too. Don’t assume that creativity is the sole responsibility of marketing, or new product development, or some other department that isn’t yours. If you see a chance to add value by virtue of your ideas, go for it. 

Sometimes I’ll tee up an idea with a caveat, saying “This is a seed of an idea” – meaning that it’s a thought starter, and asking “Can you do something with this?  Make it better?”

2. Permission granted.

You can have the most creative team in the world, but it won’t matter if people don’t feel like they have permission to share their ideas. That’s why I make it a point to let my teams know that if they’re waiting around for permission to get going on a solution or an improvement, they should assume “permission granted.” The pace of change that we have to keep up with demands nothing less. If you see a better way, you not only have permission to do it, but you have an obligation to! 

Sometimes the one standing in your way is you – give that permission to yourself.  Don’t listen to the annoying voice in your head saying “This isn’t good enough.” 

3. It’s about teamwork and tapping your network.

A lot of recent research has shown that both economic and cultural productivity are a byproduct of networks. According to physicist and urban theorist Geoffrey West, cities take every human activity and ramp it up by about 15%. That‘s because cities, according to West, are the physical embodiments of the human networks they contain. The bigger the human network, the faster it goes, and the more value and creativity it becomes capable of spinning off.

When you need to harness the creativity of your team, try to leverage the biggest network you can. Empower everybody to help solve the problem. Teamwork is hard to get right, but when it works it’s like magic. Everybody comes out of their own distinct niche and works together to build something that’s more than the sum of its parts.

4. Creativity is work. Make space for it.

Even though she didn’t publish anything until the age of 53 and she launched her writing career while raising a family, the great novelist Frances Trollope managed to pen 41 best-selling books in 30 years. 

Her secret was that she got up every day at 4 a.m. and wrote until breakfast. I’ve long suspected that the reason so many creative and high-functioning types get started early is because it’s the only time they can be sure is their own, free from the demands and interruptions (both good and bad) of others.

I too am an early morning person. I love the ritual of getting up extra early to write. My mind is clear and the day hasn’t yet started. If I can, I like to allow for a good 60-90-minute writing session. The other thing I love to do is to take long walks – no matter where I am – city, country, office. I find that new surroundings and activity are great to take my mind away, and then I return with fresh ideas. Sometimes I’ll stop at the airport newsstand to pick a magazine that I wouldn’t normally read to challenge my perspective and learn something new. 

Maintaining both solitary and collaborative creative output demand that we carve out time and space to do the hard, time-consuming thought work that’s required. 

Whenever I’ve got a big deadline looming that needs good ideas to complete, I build solitary thinking time into my schedule, as well as time to share my ideas with others, test them out, and make them stronger.

The hard part is when something comes up to bump creative time out of my calendar (and it always seems to come up). My response is to take a deep breath and say no. Sometimes, creativity has to come first. 

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