Improve your creativity and innovation skills with these tips!
- Remember that there are more than one solution every time you receive a task, and that there will always be a different and better way of doing the task. When approaching a challenge, you should always do it with an attitude that the current method you’re using, only is a temporary method. It’s up to you to come up with a better alternative
- Make sure that you know what the task really demands from you before you get started with drafting up your ideas. Ask customers or authorities to give further explanations if something is unclear, in order to prevent yourself from delivering a result based on a misunderstanding. The communication between clients, employers and employees is a tricky game, and it’s not uncommon that some messages in between are being either formulated, sent, received or interpreted wrongly, which in many cases ends with consequences
- Ask for new ideas when you feel stuck without inspiration and therefore are afraid of doing the task once again the same way as many times before. This does not necessarily mean that you have to go through with their answers, but more importantly you will have more alternatives to consider, and perhaps you can mix different ideas together, or develop an idea in the exact direction you want. Brainstorming is not only effective for enriching our creativity, but also boosts the cooperation within a team and between co-workers
- Be open to knowledge you can take from impulses also outside your organization or company, even though they might seem far away both depending on field and geography. Maybe an association in another part of the world has another solution to a similar challenge to the one you’re facing at the moment, and somehow this solution might be helpful to you. Adapting a method to your own needs can turn out to be quite creative
- Ask for feedback on your work during the process, to have a better idea of what aspects of the solution that should be adapted for improvements, and in order to be certain that what you’ve come up with so far is actually relevant for solving the task
- Keep an open attitude towards failure. Being innovative and creative isn’t always synonym with success, and sometimes you have to accept the fact that you failed. Instead of letting this make you fall back to your old, safe routines, take wisdom from your mistakes, and try to look for improvements. There’s a good chance that some aspects of your method can be tested again, with adjustment, or for another challenge