Does Creativity Equal Productivity?

We look at how creativity affects staff motivation and productivity.

A study by Sony Ericsson revealed that 81% of people have their most creative moments outside of the office – so how can we encourage this kind of creativity in our offices, and why would we want to?

In today’s working environment, creativity lives in the shadow of productivity, however a recent study by Professor Babis Mainemelis at London Business School proposes that “play” at work may be the key to motivated and productive employees.

Professor Mainemelis suggests that creativity can actually increase productivity by increasing the flexibility with which a company can respond to new client requests.  Creativity can also be the key to successful problem solving and innovation.

Mainemelis points out that companies like Google encourage their staff to freely dedicate part of their time at work to coming up with new ideas, which could potentially result in new products.

So what can you do to make your office a more creative place?

• Get people away from their desks. Sony Ericsson found that although 65% of people felt creative at their desks, 80% found interacting with others helped.
• Allowing employees time for creative thinking.
• Encourage people to question assumptions.
• Make it clear that it is “safe” to suggest unusual ideas.
• Encourage sensible risk-taking and allow mistakes.
• Be curious.

A number of the ViewSuite360 tools include competencies measuring creativity. If you would like to find out more about our 360 feedback tools, click here.