Teams off people work together in different ways, depending on their goals and the objectives of their organisation. Teamwork should be fluid and malleable to adapt it for each different task. It recognises strengths and weaknesses, and makes it possible for the load to be shared. Teamwork is crucial. And if teamwork is crucial for productivity, creativity is crucial to teamwork.
Why creativity? Can’t we just get people to do as they’re told? To just take orders, get on with the job, and have less to say. Well, yeah, I guess we could. It would be easier because there’s no challenge, no-one would have to think for themselves. Well, no, obviously not. We want, we need people to be creative, to innovate and help each other develop. We need people to think freely, to find new ways forward, new ideas to help achieve those goals and reach those objectives. So, how do we do that? How do managers give their teams the room to innovate, to think freely, and to experiment with ideas?
Of course, it has to start from the top. For a culture of creativity to develop takes creative management. Innovation comes from innovators. So managers should be encouraging this atmosphere of experimentation and free thinking. That means promoting open discussion of ideas and supporting failure. If our experiments don’t work for whatever reason, we still benefit because we use the experience as a lesson. We should always be ready to take something away from these experiments, even if they don’t work. It’s still creativity.
