What do you do if your employees lack innovative and creative thinking skills? (2024)

Before you can design a training program or intervention to improve your employees' innovative and creative thinking skills, you need to assess their current level of performance and identify their strengths and weaknesses. You can use various tools and methods to measure their skills, such as self-assessments, surveys, interviews, observation, feedback, or tests. You can also use frameworks or models to evaluate their skills, such as the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking, the FourSight Thinking Profile, or the Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory. The goal is to understand how your employees approach problems, generate ideas, evaluate options, and implement solutions, and what factors influence their thinking.

Once you have assessed your employees' innovative and creative thinking skills, you can provide them with training and coaching to help them improve their skills and overcome their challenges. You can use various formats and methods to deliver training and coaching, such as workshops, webinars, online courses, mentoring, or peer learning. You can also use different techniques and activities to enhance their skills, such as brainstorming, mind mapping, lateral thinking, design thinking, or scenario planning. The goal is to expose your employees to different perspectives, tools, and processes that can stimulate their thinking and creativity.

Another important factor that affects your employees' innovative and creative thinking skills is the environment in which they work. You need to create a supportive and conducive environment that encourages your employees to think innovatively and creatively, and that rewards their efforts and achievements. You can do this by setting clear goals and expectations, providing feedback and recognition, fostering collaboration and diversity, promoting experimentation and learning, and removing barriers and constraints. The goal is to build a culture of innovation and creativity that values your employees' input and output.

One of the best ways to develop your employees' innovative and creative thinking skills is to challenge them with projects and tasks that require them to apply their skills and produce outcomes that benefit your organization. You can assign them projects and tasks that are aligned with your organizational goals and strategies, that involve solving real-world problems or creating new products or services, that have clear objectives and criteria, and that have reasonable deadlines and resources. You can also encourage them to take ownership of their projects and tasks, to seek feedback and guidance, and to share their results and learnings. The goal is to provide your employees with opportunities to practice their skills and demonstrate their value.

Finally, you need to encourage your employees to continuously improve their innovative and creative thinking skills and to keep up with the changing needs and demands of your organization and your customers. You can do this by providing them with ongoing support and resources, such as access to information, training, coaching, or tools, that can help them update and enhance their skills. You can also monitor and evaluate their progress and performance, and provide them with constructive feedback and suggestions for improvement. The goal is to motivate your employees to keep learning and growing, and to foster a mindset of innovation and creativity.

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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