Innovation and creativity are the key to any businesses growth and overall success, yet many workplaces don’t put enough focus on the two. Here at Agent99 we recognise how an innovative thought or creative idea can take a PR campaign from zero to hero and so have implemented many strategies and processes around creativity and innovation along the way.

Here we share the key ways you can inspire your team to be both:

Have regular team brainstorms: The Agent99 team often schedule office brainstorms to come up with great ideas for a new campaign, event suggestions or to give an existing campaign a creative boost. We also host monthly innovation brainstorms to discuss PR ideas for each of our clients to really take their business to the next level. By having these scheduled in, each team member is always thinking about new and fresh ideas, coming prepared to each session.  This often results in some amazing and innovative plans, not to mention the feeling of inspiration and excitement about what we can achieve as a team.

Create an innovative office: It’s important to have an open and inviting office environment to allow team members to share ideas outside of meetings or brainstorms. Having an open-plan office where team members are always sharing thoughts will most certainly lead to innovation. It’s also a great idea to have a separate area for team brainstorms. Here staff can get together in a comfortable space to bounce ideas around, away from all screens and distractions.

Design an open environment: Staff members need to feel comfortable to share their ideas, or they just won’t do it. Make sure that your office environment is welcoming, and that all staff feel comfortable to share ideas without being knocked back. It’s super important for a creative environment for staff to feel managers are open to their ideas and are listening to what they have to say.

Implement ideas: Encouraging creativity and innovation within your team isn’t enough on its own. There’s simply no point in having all these great ideas if they aren’t ever put into action, so make sure that the ideas you like are implemented to encourage further creativity amongst staff.

Switch things up: It may seem to make sense to use the same team for similar projects, for people to sit at the same desks or for projects to go to those with the most interest in a subject.  However, switching things up can create new and interesting ideas and suggestions. Try desk-hopping, rotating teams or pushing staff out of their comfort zone to see what creativity this can produce.

Agent Rach