Thinking about being more creative? Why don’t you ask around?

Research suggests that proactive people, meaning those that take the initiative to change their job or their environment are more creative. Why is that? Because creativity is partly a social phenomenon. Interacting with diverse people, in or outside your working space may open up your mind and help you enrich your ideas.

Get more feedback on what you do!

Once you read it, it sounds reasonable, doesn’t it? People that ask directly for feedback from their supervisor or even from their peers about a messy idea they may have, get more input from others than those that just sit and wait to be asked. Eventually they become more creative.

Getting more feedback, leads to contesting your ideas, exploring alternative pathways, abandoning more quickly those that don’t seem to work and focusing on those that look more promising.

Not convinced yet? When an employee asks for feedback on his work, those around him get the message that he values what he does and that he shows genuine interest in improving and accomplishing his personal or team’s goal. Other than that, he seems eager to change and adjust, which makes him look more flexible and agile. Even more important, he gets the privilege on getting his feedback on the right time for him (if I need my feedback now, why wait for a week until the next meeting?) and keeps the steering wheel in his creative performance.

So, when you go at the office tomorrow, grab that chance over the coffee machine, skip the morning gossip and ask “What do you think about that?”

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Katerina S

Currently researching for my Phd in Organizational Creativity at the Athens University of Economics and Business.

Latest posts by Katerina S (see all)

• Thinking about being more creative? Why don’t you ask around? - January 8, 2018