Some ideas are brilliant and complex, while others are good and simple. Creativity may be a haughty term, but businesses need it to stay innovative and competitive. You can also approach brainstorming in a practical way. Here are some tips on how to get your creative juices flowing.

A new study reveals the height of a room can actually change the way people’s minds work. University of Minnesota researchers studying the effect of ceiling height have found higher ones stimulate creativity, while lower ceilings promote a subject’s attention to detail.

Twice a year, Bill Gates steps away from his responsibilities in a little ritual he calls Think Week. During each seven-day stretch of seclusion, he reads white papers from associates, ponders the future of technology and then propagates those thoughts. Most important, he thinks in an uncluttered environment.

Competitiveness and innovation are closely linked, of course, and innovation enables a firm to stay ahead of its competitors — yet surely we cannot be expected to knock down the office ceiling to make room for a higher one, or go into total seclusion two weeks a year, in order to think creatively.

There are other ways to foster creative thinking, of course, both on a personal level and organization-wide.

At the individual level, firms need to teach their employees to become creative thinkers. John Adair‘s book “Effective Innovation” encourages workers to develop the following seven habits of creative thinking (paraphrased):

Challenge assumptions
Do not take assumptions for granted, as they may be based on false opinions and impede new ideas. Widen the span of relevance and avoid a narrow focus.

Welcome serendipity
Be aware of everything taking place — a fortunate accident, unexpected, combined with sagacity — as this permits taking advantage of lucky chance occurrences. This means being able to see something of value in the unexpected.

Listen to the voices
Do the voices talk to you? It may sound like one of those misanthropic T-shirts or bumper stickers that are intended to be funny, poignant or clever (they’re not) — but creative thinkers develop a habit of hearing their subconscious mind.

Suspend judgment
To encourage new ideas, you cannot evaluate too early. Relax your guard and let the ideas flow. Be open to constructive criticism.

Analogy as stepping stone
Look for likeness in relations or attributes rather than appearance. There are other models to be found in existing products and organizations without having to “reinvent the wheel.”

Tolerate ambiguity
Creative thinking requires a higher threshold of tolerance to uncertainty, complexity, apparent disorder and even risk. This helps develop courage, perseverance and patience.

Idea banking
This involves developing the habits of curiosity, observation, listening, reading and recording. Seek new information, new knowledge and new ways to do things — constantly. Reading is critical because it invites you to think for yourself.

How do firms develop an entrepreneurial culture that will foster creativity and innovation? The key to increasing creativity in any organization is to make it start acting like a creative organization.

There are actions that a firm can put in place to cultivate corporate creativity toward innovation. Consider some of leading creativity expert Michael Michalko‘s practical “Bright Ideas”** for ways to jump-start your company’s creativity:

One-a-Day
Ask each person to try to improve one aspect of his or her job each day, focusing on the areas within that employee’s control.

Brainstorming Board
In a central area, put up a bulletin board for a particular departmental/organizational problem and provide a place on the board for people to post their ideas. Encourage people to use the board to brainstorm solutions.

Idea Lottery
Consider holding a monthly “idea lottery.” Give an employee a “lottery” ticket each time he or she comes up with a creative idea. At month’s end, share the ideas with the staff and then draw a number from a bowl. If the number on anyone’s ticket corresponds to the number drawn, he or she gets a prize.

Brainstorm with Burritos
Encourage weekly lunchtime meetings of a small group of employees to engage in creative thinking and share ideas for applying it to the organization. Invite creative business people from the community to join the lunch group for informal discussion on their creative process and experience.

Recording Bright Ideas
Present each employee with a notebook, and ask everyone to write in the notebook a specified number of ideas, every day for a month, on how to improve the business. At the end of the month, collect all the notebooks and categorize the ideas for further discussion.

Stupid Idea Week
Generating ideas should be fun. To this end, have a “Stupid Idea Week” and stage a contest for the dumbest ideas; then conduct an awards ceremony with a prize. You’ll enjoy the camaraderie, and you may even find that the stupid ideas stimulate good ones.

Three Ways
Ask employees to think of three job-related goals, targets or tasks they think can’t be accomplished, then ask them to figure out three ways to accomplish each one. Then do the same thing yourself.

Left Brain, Right Brain
When brainstorming in a group, try dividing the group into left-brain (rational) thinkers and right-brain (intuitive) thinkers. Ask the left-brainers to come up with conventional, logical and practical ideas; ask the right-brainers to come up with unconventional, non-logical and far-out ideas. Then combine the groups and merge ideas.

Fresh Eyes
Provide opportunities for employees who do not normally interact with one another to meet. Invite people from other departments to your brainstorming sessions, and ask them how they would solve your problems.

All of this having been said, it should be noted that thought without action does little to improve business processes. So here is a final recommendation, from Ron Knaus, a psychiatrist and sports medicine physician who works within both the medical profession and corporate world (via ME Today):

Allow Your Mind to Reboot
The human brain uses more energy than any other part of the body and so needs constant replenishment. Rest is one of the key components to increasing personal energy, productivity and creative thinking. Many people do not take advantage of their breaks (lunch or other) during the day and, as such, are not giving their mind a true break from the stresses of the day. Use break time to walk around the building, sit outside or simply close your eyes and meditate. Do whatever you like during this short span of time to clear your head. If you really can’t afford a 15-minute break in your day, then turn off your mind as you walk to the water cooler, kitchen or restroom. To function at peak levels and optimize creative thinking on a consistent basis, regular breaks are essential.

Creativity and innovation are vital ingredients to the success of any organization today. But being creative is less a matter of knowing than it is a matter of being able to think.

Feel free to offer your own tips below for thinking creatively.

Earlier:

Cultivate Corporate Creativity

I’m Not with Stupid

Think You’re Smarter Than Donald Trump?

Resources

Effective Innovation
by John Adair
John Adair Company, Pan Books March 8, 1996

Bright Ideas
by Michael Michalko
** Click “Techniques, Exercises, Articles & Interviews”; Michael Michalko’s Bright Ideas appears under the “Articles” category.

Ceiling Height Alters How You Think
by Ben Mauk
Live Science, May 7, 2007

The Influence of Ceiling Height: The Effect of Priming on the Type of Processing People Use
by Joan Meyers-Levy and Rui (Juliet) Zhu
University of Minnesota

In Secret Hideaway, Bill Gates Ponders Microsoft’s Future
by Robert A. Guth
The Wall Street Journal, March 28, 2005

Secrets of Multitasking: Slow Down to Speed Up
by Ron Knaus
ME Today (American Society of Mechanical Engineers), February 2007