Why creativity is important in decision making

If during verification, you realize the idea needs a few tweaks, you will naturally return to the incubation stage. You may spend months or years in the preparation stage and fail verification dozens of times before you generate an idea that you consider worthy! This is the creative process: a nebulous thing that also has its foundation in something remarkably akin to the scientific method.

According to neuroscientists John Kounious and Mark Beeman , insight is a product of a relaxed brain. The more we concentrate and strain for inspiration, the less likely we are to get it. This is why some of my best ideas come to me when I am on vacation; or for many people in the shower! For example, say your copy department provides you with five slogans for an upcoming pitch. Creative thinking can assist in identifying the strongest solution.

While your analytical mind considers things like market research, your creative mind will tap into key traits like:. Data is powerful and anyone can aggregate it. There are many reasons why leaders know that creativity is important to decision making. The following list includes scenarios that benefit from both creativity and analysis:.

With this in mind, it is easy to see how creativity can play a role in day-to-day decision making for a business. Knowing that there are endless ways to apply your unique creative abilities, consider all the ways to tap into them. As odd as it may seem, truly creative and innovative moments happen most often when the mind is relaxed and free. Being surrounded by nature helps renew motivation, a necessity for everyone, especially those in high-pressure leadership roles.

This scientific study proves that time spent outside, away from the tech-filled daily grind will up your creative flow. The key to this creative exercise is connecting with nature. The idea is to step away from the hustle and bustle.

One of our best newsletters was written about a hawk I saw hovering above a giant evergreen. Of course, I related it to being an influencer in the forest of business! The trick is to take the right kind of break. Think about something you routinely do that still requires thought, like preparing a snack. This kind of break forces you to think a bit, but ultimately frees your mind to wander creatively. Mentally reviewing experiences and determining what warrants retelling hones your ability to think critically about your daily actions.

In addition to requiring creativity, writing a journal is essentially an exercise in critical thinking. There is so much creativity required when it comes to writing. This is because writing is based on expression. It opens the mind and encourages free-flowing thought. Just write for your own enjoyment and see how it gets your creative juices flowing. Creativity in business is a way of thinking that inspires and challenges people to find new innovative solutions and create opportunities out of problems.

It is a crucial asset needed to shape a resilient individual because the business world is unpredictable and issues arise inevitably. That is why creative thinking is such a valued asset today. Creative thinking prepares one to manage the unpredictable events that can occur in business. It allows individuals to create value to their teams and customers by fostering an innovation culture within the organization.

When creativity and innovation go hand in hand together, they bring the company out of its comfort zone and into a world of new, amazing ideas that brands your WOW factor with customers. The business world is ever changing and the same method that works today might not work tomorrow.

You have to stay one step ahead of both competitors and customers. With business creativity and innovation, this becomes possible. It helps you discover unique solutions that will keep your customers engaged and interested while at the same time, it helps employees to turn problems into opportunities. Change is inevitable and managing this can be challenging. An unexpected event can either open possibilities or be disruptive. Effective management of unpredictable events reinforces stakeholder and customer confidence whilst bringing momentum to the teams involved.

So how do we negate the effects? The solution cannot be further from the simple truth, which is using the Pareto Principle. Combined with creativity, this will help the company to cross examine its processes at the same time, emerging with new innovative solutions and improved processes for better business turnover. Using creative thinking in solving problems helps you to overcome obstacles by using them as a springboard to find new opportunities and solutions.

Acting as a catalyst of innovation, creativity aids in reinventing and refreshing your business ideas through the lenses of a growth mindset, keeping you ahead of your competitors. As you practice creative decision making, continue to develop concepts for solutions and share them with team members and stakeholders. This can help you develop and maintain a reputation as a creative helper. Here are some example scenarios of how creative decision-making can help in business:. A storm damages the dining area of a well-known neighborhood restaurant, and customers aren't able to enjoy a dine-in experience, though the kitchen remains fully operational.

The restaurant owner encourages the staff to brainstorm creative solutions that can keep revenue coming in and allow employees to continue working during repairs. The employees develop several solutions, including:. This application of creative decision-making strengthens the commitment of employees, allowing them to feel invested in the outcome and motivated to find thoughtful solutions. Additionally, some of these ideas might later prove to be good business practices to continue using even after the restaurant's repairs and renovations are complete.

An airline wants to increase profits without raising the cost of airfare or investing in more airplanes to operate. Leaders across multiple departments ask teams to collaborate, run organizational efficiency studies and find areas of improvement that can affect cost savings or increase revenue. Teams explore a variety of creative ways to save money, increase revenue and improve efficiencies, including:. With this interdepartmental research and creative decision-making, the airline is able to increase revenue while saving on costs.

Related: Decision-Making Methods for the Workplace. A small proprietorship has several employees who work in different time zones, often working on the same project or tasks.

The team expresses an overlap in production, with difficulty knowing who is working on what task and at which time others are working on similar tasks. The business owner wants to find a solution that is accessible across time zones and allows for productive collaboration.

The business owner researches affordable software and invests in one that safely and securely allows teams to:. The solution applies creative decision-making, improves efficiencies, promotes collaboration and improves employee moral. Here are some tips to help encourage creative decision-making at work:.

You can foster a creative mindset through doing creative activities. These findings suggest that most of us have creative potential if we can learn to unleash it. Uncertainty: A condition in which managers do not have full knowledge of the problem they face and cannot determine even a reasonable probability of alternative outcomes.

Given that most people have the capacity to be at least moderately creative, what can individuals and organizations do to stimulate employee creativity?

The best answer to this question lies in the three component model of creativity based on an extensive body of research. This model proposes that individual creativity essentially requires expertise creative thinking skills, and intrinsic task motivation. Studies confirm that the higher the level of the each of these three components the higher the creativity. Expertise is the foundation of all creative work.