Scott Duffy ENTREPRENEUR VIP
TV/Online Host,
Keynote Speaker, Business Growth Expert
May 30, 2019 6
min read
Opinions expressed
by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
How do you inspire people to open their minds
in a way that unlocks the creativity within your organization and achieves the
best results? Let me share a story about how a former colleague in the
advertising industry attained legendary status for his ability to unlock
creativity (and have a great time in the process).
His goal was to change the way products were
marketed in his client’s business. He wanted his team to think in entirely
fresh ways about their jobs and change the way their product was viewed. To
that end, he took the whole creative and account team to Las Vegas.
He told them almost nothing about the trip.
The team arrived in Vegas, and for three days, he told his team, there was
nothing on the agenda other than having fun. So they went out eating, drinking,
gambling, clubbing.
On day four, he gathered the group and told
them, “We need to change the way products are marketed in this industry. We
need to be creative, different, unique. We need to appeal to our client’s core
young male audience -- and they play lots of video games.”
While he was speaking, video game systems were
being installed in team members’ rooms. For the next three days, he instructed,
their job was to play video games. They were supposed to think about the whole
experience of playing a game, including the graphics, the sounds, and the
characters that appealed to the target audience. He wanted them to consider how
game designers presented content, how they manipulated the look and feel of the
product for the customer. He asked them to pay attention to the scoreboards,
sound effects, and every other little trick the game designers had devised. Most
of all, he wanted his team to think about how his client could build upon video
game innovations to make their real-life products win over a new generation of
customers.
After three glorious days in the sun, his team
wasted no time in unleashing their creativity and changing the way people used
their client’s products. In short, they came up with a unique look that
separated them from everyone else in the industry.
Could his team have accomplished the same
results playing games back in their New York offices? I doubt it. By taking his
team to Las Vegas, he shifted them from work mode to play mode.
He put people together who normally did not have much time to interact in a
social setting. The days of partying in Las Vegas brought them closer, building
camaraderie and a sense of teamwork. Two guys in a hotel room playing a video
game see their jobs differently than they would if seated in adjacent offices
at their computers.
I’m not saying you need to take your team to
Vegas (or anywhere else) for six days. But to foster creative teamwork, you
need to find a way to get them out of the office mindset and break down their
natural resistance. You need to tap the genius within each of them on a regular
basis. Being creative applies to all aspects of your business, from building
something cool to breaking down barriers when trying to sell your product.
You can tap your employees’ creativity by following
these recommendations:
Get groups together.
When you’re launching a new business or
product, team members are busy. All of them have their heads down, focused on
what they’re responsible for. Most of their time is spent working with other
people in their department. The creative and technical people don’t get much
time to interact. There are ways to change that.
At Xoom, we had pizza and beer at 3 p.m. every
Friday. People from different groups got to interact in a social environment.
As the company grew, those Friday afternoons offered an opportunity to meet new
team members, and together we evolved a shared vision of the company. Even if
people with different responsibilities looked at the company in different ways,
over beer and pizza, we came up with some of our most creative -- and
collaborative -- ideas.
Get out regularly.
Do something outside the office at least once
a quarter. The activity doesn’t have to be expensive or extravagant. You might
schedule a happy hour, miniature golf, or go-cart racing. Whatever it is,
getting people to engage in a new setting can build relationships and inspire
creativity. By getting your employees out of their comfort zones
and getting them to interact with one another can open their eyes to new
possibilities.
Encourage experimentation.
Declare that for a few hours every month, no
one’s allowed to use their computer or smartphone. In place of screens, issue
every employee a notebook and ask them to spend the time writing, sketching,
and diagramming their thoughts and ideas on how to improve and innovate the
business. The novelty of putting pen to paper will force them to think in a
different way. After the exercise, encourage them to tear pages out of their
notebooks and post them on a brainstorming wall.
Encourage risk.
You win some, you lose some. But people need
to be encouraged to take risks and be creative. They need to know that even if
something doesn’t work, these experiences are all a valuable part of growing a
business. One way to do this is to encourage your team to experiment with side
projects. Many of these will fail, but odds are one of them may turn into your
next big idea. And if they try something that doesn’t work, there’s no concern
that it will put the entire operation -- or the person’s job -- at risk.
If something doesn’t work, still celebrate that your team took a
shot.
People who are the most successful and
creative are the ones who take risks. They try, they fail, and they learn from
their mistakes. Create a culture where taking a shot at something new is
celebrated, as long as something is learned.
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