Creativity & Innovation in the Workplace

hayley33

Hi!
Apologies if I am posting this in the wrong place. I need to put together a 'Creativity and Innovation Corner / Room' at work as Innovation is key to our Business this year. This corner or room is to stimulate all employees to think outside the box.

I am at a loss. Has anyone got any idea's as to how I could promote this and secondly how I can set this room up?

Thanks!

CatFromHue

Sounds like you need to go to the Creativity and Innovation room to think outside the boxs on this one! :pac::pac:

What's your business in? and how big is it?

I don't know if you could create a whole room as I'm not sure if people would go into it. You could create a corner in the canteen where it would be more accessible to the employees.

You could try and create a binder/folder full of simple ideas/products that are extremely useful e.g. putting wheels on a suitcase.

The Irish Times do a monthly magazine on Innovation that might give you a few good ideas.

http://irishtimes.newspaperdirect.com/epaper/viewer.aspx

Depending in your product you could have an area where the employees actually use it as the customer would. In alot of places the employees just concentrate on their section without seeing the product as the customer does.

You could also have a section on how your competitors product works

Selfheal

Hi

I would Feng Shui the room and divide it up into the different corners with each one focussing on a different area - eg abundance/prosperity, fame/reputation, health, education, friendship etc. Get a book and find out which corner corresponds to which point of the compass so that you do it properly.

Three of us share a room in my office and it was great fun, very creative and innovative. All of us got involved in thinking of ideas for things for each corner and it really helped our morale and motivation.

By the way, Feng Shui is not nonsense - it is widely used in Japan and the east in the design of homes and business premises. And just to prove it - the very day we got started on our abundance corner I went home to find that I had won €75 in the Prize Bonds!

Irish_Elect_Eng

hayley33 wrote: »

Hi!
Apologies if I am posting this in the wrong place. I need to put together a 'Creativity and Innovation Corner / Room' at work as Innovation is key to our Business this year. This corner or room is to stimulate all employees to think outside the box.

I am at a loss. Has anyone got any idea's as to how I could promote this and secondly how I can set this room up?

Thanks!

Sounds like an interesting little project.

Please give some more background and I will see if I can help.

• Industry?
• Type of business?
• Average type of employee that the corner is to be used by?

A few basic Ideas to start with:

• A PC running a presentation on Innovation.
• A Message from CEO, stressing his/her future vision for the company.
• A Poster Presentation on Innovations that have already made a difference in your company/industry.
• A small library of books on innovation, Innovators, and cutting edge technology in your industry that people can borrow to read or just browse.
• A suggestions system if one is not already available.
• A weekly blog with contributions from department heads on what innovation means and examples from their function.

A key to an innovativ e culture is the removal of barriers to innovation, it needs to be fostered and is easily stifled, remember also that some of the most effective innovation are small changes in common practice that yield major changes in efficiency by opening up peoples ability to do what they are good at.

Good Luck with this task, if you execute this well , it will be a career booster.