Diversity is vital for creativity, not just diversity among your employees, but also in your personal life, the teams you create, and the managers you hire and promote.
One of the essential ingredients for creative thinking is diversity. It is well known that diverse teams give more creative results than teams whose members are all from a similar background.
Organizations can use personal diversity techniques to get more creative ideas. Also, team leaders and managers putting together teams should look for diversification. For example, bring in women and men from different departments, with various educations, and with different cultural backgrounds. Such employees will provide a wider range of experience and knowledge from which you can extract information and create ideas.
A poor work environment can hurt creativity and cause its employees to think a certain way. In terms of branding, this can be good. But for creativity, it is not. Hence, taking your team to new locations to come up with and develop ideas also adds diversity to group thinking.
What is Creative Diversity and Why is it Important for Organizations?
Creative diversity is a crucial dimension of employee diversity that goes beyond traditional HR metrics, focusing on bringing together individuals with varied intellectual, physical, and even unconventional traits to foster innovation. While most HR departments aim for a diverse range of employees, they often overlook the importance of creative diversity, frequently hiring individuals with similar backgrounds, beliefs, and appearances. This homogeneity hinders creativity, whereas a company with exceptional, eclectic people who may dress differently, have unique styles, or even seem 'obnoxious' can lead to groundbreaking ideas. Such individuals, including those with functional 'craziness,' possess the self-confidence and unique perspectives necessary to push revolutionary ideas forward, despite initial skepticism.
Eclecticism is an undervalued aspect of today’s job market. Don’t let your organization dismiss employees who dress differently, dye their hair an unnatural color, or wear unusual jewelry.
Minor quirkiness in the style department is a benefit. Every company needs intellectual and physical diversity because such employees tend to be creative. Aside from those with unconventional looks, you should also consider people who may even seem “obnoxious.”
Sometimes, their arrogance is well-founded because they can be, indeed, the smartest one in the room and accurate about their perceived value to your organization. Is it obnoxious if they tell you this? Yes, it is. But when you have a serious problem that needs a hard-headed individual, you want them to do the job. Maybe everyone has creative potential, but only the arrogant ones have the self-confidence to push their ideas on others.
As for the crazy ones, there’s a fine line between craziness and creativity. And, no, we don’t mean clinical insanity, but a kind of functional craziness that you should have in your offices,
coming from persons who come up with quirky ideas. The problem most organizations have is that the crazier the ideas their employees present, the less likely they are to follow up and promote them. Yet, when they first came up, some of the most revolutionary ideas made people say, “That’s totally crazy!”
Discover the best way to find the most creative and confident people, consistently connect with your leadership team, and predictably turn them into highly engaged employees. Call me for some complimentary advice. Book an appointment at https://go.oncehub.com/GregNichvalodoff or call me at +1 (604) 943-0800.
