如何提高工作的创造性？

在新创企业掌舵过的人得知道，要想让公司免于沉没，就得保持创造力。在头几年，你要解决一个又一个难题。而难题的解决根本取决于你能有多强的创造力。公司又小又松散时，拥有独一无二的创意对所有人都特别重要。但公司的领导班子必须培养出突破束缚、独特而灵活的思考方式。否则，你将无法生存。

一旦有了支持你的坚强团队，请记住，每个人发挥创造力的方式是不同的，这很重要。事实上，了解别人如何“动脑子”主要在于知道每个人都有找到灵感的独有方式。例如，有些人在去了一趟现代艺术博物馆后受到了启发，其他人会在参加一次编程人员讨论会后灵机一动。

可是，创造性的人才需要时间沉心思考。作为管理者，你的工作是给他们提供这段时间。所以，如果你的设计师需要时间专攻某个项目，就给他们自由。如果希望靠创造力出成果你当然需要很大的耐心。

尽管对个人来说，自由对创造力最为重要，但你的组织也需要有对应的架构。支持创造力的架构听上去不太可能，但事实并非如此。我们的办公室就是以鼓励协作为目的设计的。我们的“休息室”配备了长沙发和到屋顶那么高的落地式白板，用于自发的头脑风暴会议。创造力能引发创造力，我们的办公空间就有利于此。在鼓励群策群力上，你在架构上所能最好的事情就是放开渠道。

但最重要的是，你对创造性思维的支持一定要是真心实意的。你可以把想有的激励海报都贴出来（相信我，我就是这么干），但如果不以身作则，你就不能说你鼓励协作和欢迎分享创意。你必须自下而下地实施这项工作。你要做出表率，为了最佳创意而表达感激之情，并给予积极的反馈。我们相信协作的愿景，因为实际上，PureWow的所有人都为创造产品发挥了一定作用。假如员工想好了该如何做，就放手让他们尝试。如果所有人的创意受到重视，那么他们都能轻松地说出来。在PureWow，每当沟通处于真正开诚布公的状态，我们团队的工作质量就最高。（财富中文网）

本文作者Ryan Harwood是PureWow公司首席执行官。

译者：天文

If you’ve ever been at the helm of a startup, you know that creativity is what keeps you afloat. Those first few years are about solving problem after problem. And problem solving at its core comes down to how creative you can get. When you’re small and scrappy, it’s especially important foreveryone to have unique ideas. But your leadership has to foster thinking that is outside-of-the-box, original, and resourceful. Otherwise, you won’t survive.

Once you have a solid team behind you, it’s important to remember that everyone’s creative process is different. In fact, much of knowing how people ‘tick’ is recognizing that each person finds inspiration in their own unique way. For example, some people may be inspired by a trip to theMuseum of Modern Art, others will get a spark from a hackathon.

However, creative brains need time to breath and mull things over. As a manager, it’s your job to provide them this time. So if one of your designers needs time to only work on a particular project, give them that freedom. Needless to say, if you want results from creativity, you’re going to need a great deal of patience.

While freedom is paramount to creativity on an individual level, there also should be some element of structure to your organization. Structure to encourage creativity may sound paradoxical, but it isn’t. Our offices were designed to encourage collaboration. Our ‘breakout’ rooms are outfitted with floor-to-ceiling whiteboards and couches forspontaneous brainstorms. Creativity begets creativity and our space supports that. When it comes to inspiring collaborative ideation, the best you can do structure-wise is open the channels.

But, most importantly, your support of creative thinking must be authentic. You can put up all of the inspirational posters you want (and trust me, I do), but you can’t say you encourage collaboration and open sharing of ideas if you don’t show it. That is something you have to implement from top-down. Lead by example by expressing gratitude for the best ideas and giving positive feedback. We believe in a collaborative vision, because it is true that everyone at PureWow plays a part in creating our product. If an employee has an idea about how to do something, they arefree to try it out. Because when everyone’s ideas matter, then everyone is comfortable speaking up. At PureWow,our teams produce the best work when there is a truly open level of communication.

Ryan Harwood is CEO of PureWow.