The past year and a half have forced many of us to remain at home due to the pandemic. For some, the experience of working from home has prevented the creative juices from flowing freely. The current somewhat depressing atmosphere lacks the stimuli to trigger creativity and invention. Given that we have needed to put a priority on survival, how can we now kickstart our brainpower into generating new ideas?

There are some ways to restart and get the creative juices flowing. There are practical ways and there are techniques that require a more intensive assessment of oneself. You can take a good look and try the ones that you and the team are comfortable with.

1. Adopt an Innovative Mindset

Cultivating the right mindset will subsequently affect your behaviour and actions. Thus, adopting a mindset that consistently thinks of ways to improve things is a great step. Innovation is produced because of a necessity. It requires a continuous effort to bring change, transformation, and modernisation. Being naturally curious and intrinsically observant can help start the inspiration to innovate and create.

2. Innovate With Your Team

“Two heads are better than one”, the famous adage goes. More than two heads could be even better. Working with your team to start the ball rolling to create and innovate will pave the next steps. Brainstorming with the team about what has to be improved and then collectively coming up with the potential solutions may produce the most brilliant innovations. Different perspectives and varying approaches from each team member will help lead to great ideas.

3. Consult External Experts

Most successful companies around the globe consult corporate strategy experts. These professionals possess experience from across different global companies whose internal strategies and game plans they have reviewed and transformed. Sometimes, it is valuable to have someone with ‘fresh eyes’ or an ‘outsider looking in’ to assess what needs to be changed or revamped. These new viewpoints can offer various innovations that can complement and align with the company’s objectives.

4. Listen to the Voice of Your Customers

There’s no better way to create innovations for your business than listening to what your customers want. Conduct research with your customers and know what they actually need. You can do this by conducting surveys or data mining on their feedback posted in social media. You can get your team to ask family or friends for their feedback about your products or services. Analyse these data to extract customer insights and design the optimum innovations. Obsessing and providing for your customers’ needs will lead the way to innovate the solutions best fit for them.

As we tread through this pandemic and the ‘new normal, there are a lot of ways to get creative juices flowing.

Consistently encouraging a mindset of innovation is key to keeping those fresh ideas generated. Get in touch with MRS V to help you set off and nurture an innovative culture in your team.