Creativity is one of the rarest yet an all  important ability in the workplace. Many managers want to stimulate their employees’ creativity, yet have no clue how to get the creative juices flowing.  Improving communication skills may be one of the best ways to enhance your workforce’s imagination.

Here are some ways to enhance communication skills in the workplace to stimulate employee creativity:

1.  Hold free-flowing brainstorming sessions – If you need to come up with a novel idea, a way to solve a problem or even possibilities for how to handle a project, then holding a free-flowing brainstorming session may be one way to do it. Not only will it exercise your employees’ imagination, you will also be able to encourage them to participate and join in the conversation.

Holding an effective brainstorming session is quite simple. To start, every participant should clearly know why the brainstorming session is being held. Everyone should be standing on common ground and understand the situation.  Such deep understanding would enable maximum participation and ensure that everyone will have a chance to talk.   Your team will learn how others think, and how to effectively interact with each other.  Improved communication is the outcome. 

Another important point to consider is to set a specific timeframe for the brainstorming session. Making people think under time pressure can also bring out the best in some people, and the most out-of-the-box ideas may come when the clock is ticking. Ideally, a brainstorming session should not last more than an hour.

2.  Practice playing with ideas during break time –  Encourage team members to continue conversations even after the meeting has ended, assuming no decisions were already made.  A great opportunity to continue to brainstorm, in a less formal environment than a meeting is over breaks.  When not intimidated employees begin to open up to their superiors, conversations will start becoming more insightful, and this can lead to the development of the workforce’s creativity.

By practicing regular conversations in which you play with novel ideas, you can unlock a wave of new thoughts that will enable you to develop plans faster.

3.  Be more open to employees’ opinions and suggestions – To truly foster an atmosphere that nurtures better communication, don’t just ask for help or ideas when you need them – also make them feel that you are open for unsolicited suggestions and opinions. This will keep the creative juices flowing, and it will help top management gather sincere good-natured feedback.  

Stimulating your employees’ imagination is quite simple. All you need is a touch of sincerity, and the determination to improve communication.   After all, novel ideas start pouring out when employees begin talking.

Great teams don’t simply appear.  You have to develop them and one way is to learn how to build consensus.  Download our guide to Functioning Together:   

Consensus and Team Building