“Creativity gives the possibility of some sort of achievement to everyone. Creativity makes life more fun and more interesting.”
But when does creativity become motivational?
There are lots of articles about how to motivate teams. From deep psychological exploration through to trivial pieces of team building exercises.
But, for the purposes of this piece, I am going to come at this from a different perspective and talk about fun.
Relaxation boosts productivity
As a marketer I am passionate about creativity and feel that this can be best stimulated through a fun working environment.
And, in my opinion at least, such a culture should not just be limited to a marketing department.
Generally speaking, staff are more productive when their mind is relaxed rather than full of stress and anxiety.
If you have regular team meetings, this is a great opportunity to break down a few boundaries and incorporate a bit of fun within them.
Find common ground which puts everyone within the meeting at ease and allows them to open-up in their own time without any pressure to do so.
Give people power
Different people will embrace different roles within this so let this happen naturally but involve everyone where possible.
The most enjoyable meetings are usually generated from the team themselves rather than from one focal point, so let them have the platform from which this can evolve.
Your team will then look forward to these meetings, become more inspired for future ones and the whole business will benefit.
Your working environment is also a key factor in creating a good atmosphere.
- Make it visually appealing
- Fill it with creativity and interaction
- Create a buzz
- Put up some inspirational quotes – serious and humorous
- Or posters of great adverts or favourite films – anything that inspires you or might resonate with others
- Why not listen to your music while working. If you are not disturbing anyone else, why not?
It’s all about creating a culture where your team feels comfortable, inspired and able to enjoy themselves in a productive environment.
Being in a humorous state of mind enhances creativity.
It may not yield ideas directly, but it will put people in a more conductive mood to be creative because:
- Humour stretches thinking as it shows patterns for thinking something different.
- Humour will also force people to combine ideas that are usually not associated with one another.
- Humour allows others to take things less seriously and see things from a different perspective.
Constructive challenging
The culture of your business should allow some form of constructive challenging.
This is not a prerequisite for whining and griping, but an openness that allows marketers to challenge current thinking with sensible ideas and thoughts.
Constructive challenging is both healthy and positive as it encourages individuals to find ways to do things better because other perspectives add value and richness to our own.
You should also encourage curiosity. Children are often asking “why” and as adults we should continue to ask such a simple question continuously – combined with how, when, what, what if, where and who.
Let curiosity challenge conventional thinking, assumptions and enhance your creativity – this helps firms to move away from the “we’ve always done it that way” approach.
I hope this article has been a fun and useful read. Of course, generating business, making profit and being a success is a serious task, but why not have some fun along the way? It might even help the process.
