Gate One was delighted to host Adam Kingl for an evening focussing on creativity, including the launch of his new book, ‘Sparking Success: Why every leader needs to develop a creative mindset’.
Creativity is seen as a top three priority in the workplace, but with almost 94% of companies failing to spend time exploring it there has never been a greater opportunity for leaders to make change.
Adam explained the science behind everyone being creative and the behavioural changes needed for creativity to be fostered in organisations, including how the brain has different states of focus (gamma, beta, alpha and theta; from highest to lowest focus) and needs to be in gamma state for creativity to happen. With practice, the brain can actually stay in gamma for longer periods; much like training your brain for exercise.
Following Adam’s thoughts, Anthony Gaffney, Partner at Gate One, was joined by Neil Mullarkey, Wilsey Mockett and Caro Ruttledge, for an engaging and thought-provoking panel discussion sharing their own real-life examples and the creative qualities of leaders, leaving the audience with tangible changes they can make to encourage creativity and innovation within their teams.
Micro-behaviours to encourage creativity in your team
Provide the big picture for your team.
Stop yanking on the door if it won’t open; if the idea isn’t there, then leave it. Go for a walk, take a break or listen to music.
Consider role model vulnerability; as managers, show that you don’t always get it right, that you make bad suggestions, and that there is room for error.
Explore the obvious; not every idea is going to be out of this world, and it doesn’t have to be. Start from the basics.
Have three steps of ‘ideate, evaluate, select’ and make sure everyone knows which phase you’re in. In the ideate phase, it is critical not to shut any ideas down, only respond with “yes, and…"
Encourage variability. The more ideas that are appreciated, the more they are generated.
If you’d like to find out more about how Gate One can support your organisation transform and foster creativity, please get in touch.
