“You combine hard work, creativity, and self-determination, and things start to happen.”

-       Sophia Amoruso

Do you feel like your creativity tank is running on low? Do you want to know how to fuel it up?

Here is Part 1 of our blog on tips on how to enhance your creativity in the workplace.

1.   Enhance the Atmosphere

Employees need to feel inspired by their surroundings to be creative, and the layout of an office can go a long way in enhancing creativity in the workplace. If you can make changes, do it! Consider paying attention to color, light, temperature, and noise level.

·      Color- Color can play a large part on an individuals’ emotions.

Warm colors such as yellow, orange, and red can evoke feelings of warmth and comfort. They can also induce feelings of anger and hostility, depending on the mood and mindset of their observer.

Cool colors such as blue, green, and purple, which relate to calmness, but can also bring on feelings of sadness or indifference depending on their brightness and shade.  Different tones of colors play a large role in the viewers’ emotional response to its presence.

If your office space is white, beige, tan, or grey this can be stifling to creativity. If you can opt for pastel shades for a relaxing yet innovative mindset because a creative mind is relaxed so that ideas can freely come to the surface.

·      Light- How is the lighting in your workspace? According to the Harvard BusinessReview, natural light is the #1 office perk people seek out.

“In a research poll of 1,614 North American employees, we found that access to natural light and views of the outdoors is the number one attribute of the workplace environment, outranking stalwarts like onsite cafeterias, fitness centers, and premium perks including on-site childcare.”

There is a big difference between daylight and artificial light. Maximize the natural light in your office area by moving desks near windows, tossing away the blinds, and opening a window if the weather allows you to ventilate the office space and get some fresh air!

 If you can’t open a window, get outside whenever you can!

Conveniently Nova Places’ campus has a large outdoor grassy area with comfortable chairs for enjoying the fresh air, eating lunch, or meeting with coworkers.

In any office, adding natural elements to the space allows for high levels of wellbeing, creativity, and productivity. For example, consider adding plant life to your work area or even a living green wall!

On days with overcast, no need to fret, you can still muster your creative juices! In fact, according to science direct.com, the dimness of natural light can also promote creativity due to people not feeling like they are out in the open. This results in feeling more open to risk and therefore creative suggestions and solutions.

·      Temperature

Is your office hot or cold? Research shows that colder temperatures keep people on higher alert and focused, while warmer temperatures can lead to more creative thinking and higher productivity. As warmth creates relaxation, the creativity wheel in the mind begins to turn. However, the colder it is, the more likely people are to make mistakes. CornellUniversity found that when it’s less than 68 degrees people make 44% more mistakes than when it was 77 degrees or more within the office.

·      Noise-consider the volume levels

People feel more creative in open spaces, and it may be partly due to how sound travels. Ambient noise as well as certain kinds of music can help with creativity, to promote focus, or even relaxation if that’s what you’re after. The tone, speed, and type of music, along with your personal opinion, of course, can help you get more in touch with your workflow.

It has been shown that music with less than85db induces productivity, creativity, and focus. Binaural beats can help create proper brainwave function to be able to think clearly.

2.   Step into a Beginner’s Mind Mindset 

When you are a beginner at something there are no perceived limitations. Nothing is holding you back to think outside of the box or setting restrictions and/ or rules on what is a good idea and what is to be done.

Once you get started you tend to learn “the rules” and the way that things are supposed to be. You become “an expert.” When you step into an expert mindset you no longer readily seek out new ways of doing things because you believe that you already know the best way to do it. You think you know what is, or what is not a “good idea,” which is why workplaces should encourage out-of-the-box thinking.

Consider having an incentive once per year rewarding and putting into action the best creative idea for your place of work.

As it turns out creativity is like a muscle, the more you use it the stronger it is!

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Read Part 2 of this blog HERE!