If you work with technology, then you are likely to have a good idea of what innovation is and isn’t. Innovation is born from creativity, and while it’s not often associated with business IT, there is something to be said for how technology professionals solve problems in a creative fashion, solving problems with solutions available either in-house or on the market. Today, we are focusing on how this creativity can be an asset and how you can foster creative thought in your office.
Whether it’s in IT or elsewhere, you can expect a creative team to bring many benefits to the table. All that said, your IT team in particular can benefit from this creative mindset. Let’s examine some of the benefits they can expect from this new way of thinking.
If someone is creative, they might start to think outside the box more often, meaning they will be more apt to consider ways to solve problems, thus leading to greater efficiency in the workplace. If you want to accomplish goals faster, a creative thinker will help you get there.
Creative thought lends itself well to results-driven problem solving. Your creative team will be more apt to complete their objectives, and they will be more empowered to focus on not just the payout, but the process as well. Even if their processes don’t work, a creative team will be sure to find alternative ways to solve their problems.
People will have more productive thought processes if you encourage them to be creative. Creativity breeds innovation, and these improved thought processes will allow your team to think about problems from different perspectives.
Creative people tend to take leadership and own their work, as well as its challenges and struggles. If you give your team time to develop these leadership skills, even in a smaller or less-complex context, you might find that your internal processes can be significantly improved.
Next, let’s take a look at some questions you might consider when trying to create this creative team for your business.
Despite the way it might seem, IT is by default not a very collaborative part of your business. That doesn’t mean you can’t do anything about this, though. You can try to break your team up into groups with the goal of finding the solution to a specific problem. This gives your team the ability to focus down on various challenges in a low-stakes environment while also giving them opportunities to learn from each other.
Another opportunity to foster creative thought is to challenge your team members to think about how they have made a difference for your customers and clients. By limiting it to your customers and clients, you’re forcing them to think in a more creative way, as well as in a context that they might not necessarily have considered in the past.
Not all ideas can be successfully implemented, but this doesn’t mean to discredit ideas that you don’t deem feasible. It can sometimes be a good thing to encourage thinking or dreaming big about the future, and who knows? Maybe some of these ideas can be implemented in the near future, even if they cannot be pulled off at the moment.
The greatest barrier to your team’s creative endeavors is time. If your schedules are full of tasks that get in the way of innovation, like management, maintenance, and supporting the rest of your employees, then naturally they will find themselves with less time to focus on other creative tasks.
Atech MSP can give you back this time by taking over some of the more menial tasks your IT department might traditionally have handled. To learn more about how we can help your business be more innovative, reach out to us at (888) 814-4843.
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