How To Not Suck The Creative Life Out Of Your Employees

September 14, 2011
I had a GM once who reminded me every time we hired someone new that I needed to encourage them to come in with new ideas. And more importantly, I had to try to implement at least one of their ideas within the first month. He would ask: “Is it going to hurt us to do it?”  And if it wasn’t going to hurt us, then I was to do whatever I could to make it happen.

New employees often see the company through fresh eyes and notice things that can be improved that long-term employees have accepted or given up on trying to implement or fix.   Doing so will send the message that you support fresh ideas and that you are willing to adapt and grow as a show, a department, a company.
 
If someone brings you three ideas and you shut them down, it won’t be long before that creative person stops bringing ideas at all.  Not all of them will be great ideas; that’s not the point. The first rule of brainstorming is to look for a way to make ideas work and refrain from grading/judging ideas as they are suggested. The goal is to get many ideas from people. Often, a great idea comes after an outlandish one or even a foolish one – a small price to pay for creativity.

-written by Angela Perelli

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