Fostering a culture of creativity in the workplace is one of the best things you can do to improve your employee’s productivity, energy, and happiness. When you create a space that not only allows for individual creativity and expression, but encourages it, you’ll be fostering a community of employees that are driven, invested in their work, and committed to producing the best content they possibly can.

Creativity is more important than ever, and if you want your employees and the workplace they occupy to truly thrive, then find a way to implement some of the following ideas into your office culture and environment.

Encourage Questions

There are few things that will kill creativity faster than an environment that prohibits someone from asking questions. If you want your employees to problem-solve and brainstorm solutions on their own, you need to start by empowering them to ask questions.

The more curious you allow you and your team to be, the more inventive you’ll be in your problem-solving. And the more creative your solutions to problems are, the more you’ll attract an audience of equally curious people.

Encouraging questions means encouraging creativity. A workplace that allows each employee to ask questions and receive answers is a workplace that’s prepared to uncover a whole new world of success and growth. Even if the question doesn’t end up producing a groundbreaking development, you want to foster a culture of trust and creativity that allows those rare and vital flashes of brilliance to really shine.

Let Employees be Flexible

In an article by Forbes, Karima Mariama-Arthur, Esq. of WordSmithRapport says that “When teams are micromanaged, they become stifled. They lose the desire to create, innovate and move freely within their areas of expertise.”

What this means, then, is that you want to allow your employees to be flexible and creative in ways that are meaningful to them. No two employees will work the same way or thrive in an identical environment, so try and create a company culture that allows for the individual to have some semblance of flexibility in their workplace.

Even in the walls of a singular office, there are a number of ways to encourage employee flexibility. Whether that means you have moving desks, multiple workplaces or even a designated quiet space for solo or smaller groups of workers, the more flexible your workplace is to the needs of your employees, the more creatively successful and productive they’ll be.

Decorate the Office

Decorating your workplace is an easy, effective, and fun way to promote creativity and productivity. Your office decor can look however you want it to, but hanging artwork or even introducing some greenery and plant life into the office will often promote productivity, increase creativity, and generally lead to higher levels of well-being.

You can even take advantage of decorative window films, which can be custom made and designed to fit any aesthetic and add a valuable splash of creative energy into a workspace. Window films can boost creativity, but if you’re not sure where to start, then don’t hesitate to request a LINTEC Digital Window Graphics swatch book to add to your material library.

How you decorate your office should ultimately depend on the preferences and personalities of your workforce. Pay attention to what your employees' values and then create a workplace aesthetic that will help them feel happy and energized.

Create a Creative Place

Creating a workplace that encourages and inspires creativity is one of the very best things you can do for you and your company. While a designated “nap-room” or a company pool table can be fun additions to an office, they’re not the key to promoting a culture of creativity.

The key lies in creating a culture that supports the individual employee, provides them with the scaffolding they need to thrive, and then letting them succeed in ways that are unique and meaningful to them and productive for your business. There’s no easy, universal solution, but the better in-touch you are with your employees the better equipped you’ll be to create a workplace that promotes creativity in every department and every employee.