How creative is your environment?

I’ve worked with numerous design and development teams over the years and one noticeable characteristic of these teams was their creativity. They spent lots of productive time creating games, matching themes to content, brainstorming interactions and developing suspenseful scenarios.

Yet among some learner groups, online learning has a reputation for being boring and dull. Where’s the disconnect?

Some design/development teams aren’t encouraged to be creative in the workplace. This can happen for a variety of reasons. Perhaps they don’t have the budget or time to explore new ideas. Some clients and SMEs get nervous at the thought of doing anything novel; they won’t approve of a creative treatment because of organizational policies or fear of how it will be perceived. Other times a team may lack creative insight simply because they are inexperienced.

This got me thinking once again about how creativity is often stifled in our educational system. And I remembered a humorous presentation about this by Sir Ken Robinson. See the video below.

The obvious extrapolation here is to consider how we can make the workplace more conducive to creativity, even in tough economic times. Some ways your workplace can facilitate creative thinking are to implement a few ideas from this list:

• Train a few staff members in the art of facilitating brainstorming sessions
• Hold productive brainstorming meetings
• Encourage people from different disciplines to converse and share
• Implement a social media technology that facilitates informal learning
• Value learning from disciplines outside of one’s expertise
• Provide ways for staff to decompress and play
• Promote visual thinking and problem-solving
• Place less emphasis on organizational hierarchies so employees feel free to innovate and take risks
• Provide opportunities for employees to see what’s going on outside of their universe, by bringing in speakers, participating in webinars and attending conferences (particularly ones in different fields)
• Withhold judging new ideas before they are thought through
• Let the magic shine through

If this interests you, then watch this next video of Tim Brown, from the design firm IDEO, as he talks about how the process of play can enhance creativity.

Online learning is at an exciting moment of convergence. This is the time for exploration, imagination and open minds.

How can creativity can be enhanced at work? As always, your comments are welcome and encouraged.

Somewhat related articles:
10 Book Recommendations From Varied Fields (reading books from other fields can enhance creativity)
Review: The Back of the Napkin (visual thinking helps creativity)