Q: I must work among the most noncreative people on the planet. At brainstorming meetings, everyone just sits and looks at each other. How can we get participants to be more active?
–Looking for Some Action

A: Don’t give up! You can actively encourage creative thinking and innovation. Try these techniques:

1. Make it safe to have new ideas. New to unfamiliar ideas are often “wrong” initially. An immediate negative evaluation of the idea (however warranted) will kill it.

2. Cross-pollinate groups. Idea generation works best when you have difference in perspective, knowledge, and background. A creativity team should consist of experts, as well as newbie’s. Newbie’s are great because they don’t know what doesn’t work!

3. Use and outside facilitator to conduct creativity sessions. A good facilitator keeps the process moving and protects the ideas and the people offering them – two of your greatest assets.

4. Support employees for engaging in the process. Recognize the efforts of generating ideas, even if you don’t produce an applicable concept or solution. Properly encouraged, individuals will engage in the creative process again, perhaps coming up with the next big breakthrough!

5. Evaluate and develop new ides. Unless you explore some ideas with follow-up assignments and timetables, what’s the point in encouraging creativity in the first place? Creative thinking is fun, but it gets old quickly if ideas don’t go anywhere.

Try these ideas and experience the power of imagination!
– Dr. Mimi