Creativity is essential to Project Team success. Good problem-solving skills are almost always underpinned by an ability to look at issues in new ways, and successfully leading a high-performing team requires someone who can appreciate the value of unconventional thinking. But what if you feel like you’ve been vaccinated against the creative bug? We’ve put together some ways to spot and overcome common creativity killers.
Doubt. People who constantly tell themselves that they aren’t creative are stuck in a no-win cycle—self-doubt extinguishes any spark of creativity. Stop expecting to be an Einstein or a Michelangelo, and appreciate the more subtle garden-variety ingenuity that drives everyday progress.
Complacence. It can be challenging to look at an old problem with new eyes, but those are the kinds of innovations that will improve your Project Team’s performance in the long run. Rather than brushing aside inefficient methods with the “that’s how we’ve been doing it for years” excuse, move those issues to the front of the line. Wiping away even a few long-standing inefficiencies will reap great rewards.
Distractions. Your creative juices deserve a bit of uninterrupted time to flow, and if you’re not finding small opportunities for that then you’re doing yourself a disservice. Just 10 minutes of quiet time each day will give you the chance to consider unconventional solutions to your project’s thorniest problems.
Busyness. While a hectic workload seems like a creativity killer, the busiest project managers are usually the most creative. Why? Because high achievers have learned that creativity causes success. The trick is to focus your creative thinking on the right things—instead of looking for time to solve a problem on your own, shift gears and come up with a new way to unite a group of creative people in an effort to tackle the problem together.
PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services
