Sparking Creativity at the Workplace

Most office professionals admit that the confines of corporate rules and aesthetics force them to curtail their personalities, styles and opinions. We do this in order to conform to what is considered professional behavior: always obeying the rules, never speaking out of turn or offending anyone’s sensibilities. Keep your head down, and keep your job.

This prevailing environment may convey that sense of order and discipline vital to teamwork and collaboration, but it does little to inspire employees to push themselves. In fact, it is easier to compel people to be industrious than it is to compel them to be creative. However, invention and innovation are the cornerstones to survival in this competitive global economy, and those companies that don’t encourage creativity will slowly lose control of everything.

This article explains, “Too many people still work in organizations that resemble the IBM of their grandfather's (or great-grandfather's) day -- organizations designed to exert tight control at the expense of autonomy, to maximize compliance over individual expression and discretion… Yet if we want originality and invention, we need to fill our organizations with people who ignore the rules, flout convention, question constantly, and experiment fearlessly. We need the rebels and the troublemakers because, as Apple's Think Different campaign put it, "they change things. They push the human race forward."

Are you just going through the motions at work? Or does your workplace emphasize creativity? If so, or if not, how? Let us know in the comment section.

Photo courtesy of jiggafly.