It is rather common among employees and executives to be weary and demotivated by the office routine. The corporate environment and work repetition for several hours a day tend to create behavioral and thinking patterns which are not in favor of creativity and out-of-the-box thinking. This happens because we tend to repeat what everyone else uses as a method in order to feel safe and within the limits of our corporate role, in the expense of offering on the table alternative perspectives.

On the other hand, it is commonly perceived that out-of-the-box thinking or a creative way of working means spending hours on brainstorming meetings or tossing-out ideas. However, this is proven counter-productive and pointless in terms of actual results, since creativity, in terms of efficiency, can only be translated to effectiveness with given means, time and resources.

There are certain elements required for a creative, efficient and effective corporate environment, which allows employees and executives to thrive:

1. “Freedom to work my own way”

Individuals have their own way of performing tasks. If it is not a matter of corporate policy, production or safety, personnel should be allowed to handle their given tasks their own way. This increases productivity and creates a notion of achievement. By enhancing the emotional benefit of “freedom to work my own way”, the corporate environment becomes more open to ideas and can potentially evolve.

2. Bet on versatility

In most cases, the “team building” process is misunderstood as the effort of unifying personnel to coherent groups of people which can work together smoothly or in a similar manner. Such groups possess a very solid way of thinking, but lack the fundamentals that allow creativity to flourish. Differentiation in personalities within a group provides flexibility and versatility in the thought process, traits that eventually seed creativity and effectiveness. The principle is really simple; all you need as a means of working effectively with others within a team is a basic understanding of the personality of team members, common ethics and mutual respect. Once you have these ingredients and a specific common goal, the team is set. Versatility is the parameter that will bring creativity and solutions at the end of the road.

3. Allow personal interests to blend in

Our life is not only our work; personal life and interests are the most important part of it and strongly affect us in every aspect of it. Allowing personal interests to blend-in might be a catalyst to a working group, as under certain circumstances interests and related knowledge may provide new market insights, new product development ideas or solutions to trivial stuff that may bother effectiveness and performance. By getting to know different aspects of people’s characters and by getting familiar with their interests, you have the opportunity to upgrade a team’s knowledge-base into fields that would require cumulative effort to achieve.

4. Lead the inspiration

Every thought, every aspect, every stimulus is a contribution to creativity. So, be the first to ignite the conversation, search info and data to provide a new aspect or give examples and stimuli to open the minds and the conversation. Once the seed is planted, ideas shall grow.

“Creativity is the intelligence of having fun” Albert Einstein once said; by setting the framework and the goal, everything else is a matter of people’s interaction. By providing the freedom to team members to be themselves, effective results will come through collective ingenuity.

Dimitris Karagiannis

Group Brand Manager

Zeritis Group

12/1/2018