How to Develop Business Creativity!

Business creativity requires an understanding of the nature of creativity and what it takes to make it flourish within the individuals and teams in your business.

To survive and successfully grow a business in the long-term, creativity must form part of your business’s culture.

If you’re not constantly developing new and novel ideas that drive innovation and ongoing competitive advantage, you will be putting your income and wealth at risk.

In the context of growing a business, we’re referring to creativity in the technical sense, as opposed to the artistic.

Business creativity largely involves breaking away from the bounds of existing cognitive maps and exploring new alternatives.

It involves both logical and intuitive thinking processes to arrive at new ways of thinking.

While there are many tools that are available to promote creativity in individuals and team environments, significant focus needs to be placed on the underlying drivers of creativity to maximise the benefit they provide.

Business creativity is a human endeavour and in the right environment, is something that can be taught. Nurturing creativity begins with understanding what contributes to an individual’s degree of creativity.

An individual’s creativity is largely influenced by the individuals:

1. Cognitive factors, including their:
   1. Mental flexibility
   2. Ability to link remote associations
   3. Ability to suspend judgement
   4. Ability to develop multiple imaginative ideas
2. Personality traits, including their:
   1. Risk taking
   2. Self-confidence
   3. Tolerance of ambiguity
   4. Proactivity
   5. Need for achievement
   6. Autonomy and non-conformity
   7. Desire for learning and new knowledge
3. Knowledge, including their:
   1. Formal knowledge – knowledge that’s explicit or codified and capable of being transmitted in written or verbal form
   2. Tacit knowledge – knowledge rooted in practice and experience that’s often difficult to transfer in written or verbal form
4. Level of motivation, the impetus to apply cognitive skill, personality traits and knowledge to the development of creative ideas, including both:
   1. Extrinsic motivation – the external system of reward, such as the remuneration model
   2. Intrinsic motivation – the internal desire to engage in a task out of interest, enjoyment or personal challenge

To enhance business creativity and promote new and novel ideas, you must manage these factors and build an environment that promotes and fosters them.

The more successful you can do this, the greater the chances you have of developing the new ideas needed to grow your business’s revenue, net profit and market value.

With training and practice, all the relevant cognitive abilities can be developed. While IQ is an important factor, it’s far from being the holy grail of creativity.

By selecting the right people for the job and providing appropriate training, the right personality traits can be acquired and developed.

With appropriate focus on training, knowledge sharing and development, both formal and tacit knowledge can be developed and honed into competencies capable of creating significant value.

With the right reward system, leadership and culture, motivation can be maximised to encourage the ongoing business creativity needed to sustain and grow your income and wealth.

Ultimately, the:

• Creative resources you have at your disposal (the collective cognitive factors, personality traits and knowledge),
• The environment in which they are employed (systems, processes and culture), and
• The level of motivation in which you can encourage their application;
• Will determine how well your business performs in the long-run (how well you will be placed in the competitive race!)

Business creativity is the foundation upon which new value is created. It is the fuel that powers the innovation process that drives growth and sustainability!

It is essential for the development of the ideas needed to create new value and to solve the many impediments encountered along the journey of converting them into customer value, competitive advantage, profits and wealth.

This means you must understand how to:

1. Promote personal creativity
2. Tap into the creativity of those around you
3. Build creativity and innovation into the fabric of your business

Are you ready to maximise business creativity and take the innovation journey to greater profits and wealth?

If you would like to learn how your business can grow and thrive by promoting the creativity needed to fuel ongoing innovation – give the team at Fortitude Business Consulting a call on 1300 551 040.