Creativity is Critically Important for a Successful IT Team

Innovation is something that you want the people working with your technology to have a highly-developed sense of. Creativity isn’t often associated with business IT, but it is something that should be considered a true benefit if it can be brought into your operations.

Let’s explore exactly why creativity is an asset (even with your in-house IT team) and how you can nurture it in your employees.

Why Creative Thinking is a Business Benefit

Employing and nurturing a creative team in your business—in IT or not—presents many benefits. Having said that, it should be clear how your IT department would particularly benefit from a creative mindset after we consider some of the impacts that one imparts:

Improved Efficiency

If someone is a creative thinker, putting a challenge in front of them and telling them, “Go,” is a great motivator… and their thought process will immediately bypass those ideas that they can see won’t work. This makes it possible for better results to be accomplished faster… a key goal for any department, but particularly for IT.

Focus on Results and Problem Solving

Speaking of, creative people are largely results-oriented. Not only are they motivated to complete their objectives, they are also empowered to focus on the process instead of how the process itself will ultimately play out.

But, you may be asking, what if the process doesn’t work out? With a creative team, this is still a problem, sure, but one that you have a much better chance of resolving faster and more effectively. 

Better Ideas and Thought Processes

As it happens, this is often related to our next benefit: more productive thoughts in general. When a creative mind is applied to an issue, new and innovative ideas can result, with improved thought processes to match. The benefits are derived from having a team that is able to consider a problem from different angles, not just the ones presented to them initially.

Leadership Skills

Finally, creative people often have the ability to take leadership—whether that’s over their own work and its challenges, or over a team and its combined struggles. Giving some of your creative team members this kind of leadership—even on a small scale—can result in improved internal processes.

How to Cultivate a Creative Team

Naturally, having creative individuals on your IT team is a good thing, so let’s explore some ways you can help them embrace their creativity and put it to use at work.

Encourage Collaboration

Here’s the unspoken truth that a lot of collaboration-promoting businesses like us don’t want you to know… IT, as a general rule, isn’t a very collaborative role in an organization. However, you can fix that. Try breaking your IT team up into groups every once in a while and challenge them to solve a problem. Not only can your team members blow off some steam by focusing on a low-stakes challenge, they are naturally driven to balance their own expertise with that which their teammates hold.

Focus on Customer Challenges

Here’s another idea—ask your IT team members to brainstorm ideas for the most impactful projects… with the constraint that they can only address issues that your customers and clients have. Not only will this limitation help them to focus their efforts and think more creatively, you have the opportunity to discover the solution to a considerable business problem your team can then focus on solving.

Encourage All Ideas

We all know that all the ideas your IT department comes up with aren’t going to be winners. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t encourage these ideas to be developed and shared. On top of being good creative exercise for your team members, some part of one person’s idea may help to inspire another to come closer to solving the problem at hand.

We’re Here to Free Your Team Up for Their Creative Efforts

The biggest obstacle most teams face that prevents them from developing creative ideas and plans is time. If your team’s schedule is packed with improvement line items and support requests/demands from the rest of your team, there’s not much time left for creativity.

That’s where we come in. We can take on some of the responsibilities that bog down your IT team’s time, freeing them up to have good—no, great—ideas that directly benefit your business. Reach out to learn more about our services at 301-571-5040.