Stimulating Creativity in Teams: Overcoming Common Barriers
In business, one of the biggest challenges is keeping creativity alive within a team. As leaders, it’s easy to fall into traps that can stifle innovation and prevent teams from reaching their full potential. After years of scaling Good Robot Brewing and encountering both success and failure, I’ve come to understand some of the most common barriers to creativity.
One of the biggest lessons I learned was through working with a psychologist named Dr. Conrad, who introduced me to what he called the three traps. These traps—confirming beliefs, avoiding pain, and seeking control—are actually necessary traits for survival. However, when we rely on them too often, they hinder our growth and the creativity of the people around us.
Let’s dive into these traps and see how leaders can remove them to foster creativity within their teams.
1. Confirming Beliefs
One of the most common traps leaders fall into is confirming their own beliefs. We tend to surround ourselves with people, information, and even social media influencers that validate what we already think. It’s comfortable, but it limits creativity. By constantly reinforcing our own ideas, we shut down the potential for new and innovative thinking.
In teams, this can lead to a culture where no one challenges the status quo, and the same old ideas get recycled again and again. Creativity thrives when diverse perspectives are introduced, so it’s critical to actively seek out different viewpoints—even if they challenge your own beliefs.
Related Reading: I’m Not Good Enough: Making Decisions Based on Values, Not Feelings
2. Avoiding Pain
It’s natural to want to avoid discomfort, but creativity often requires us to step outside our comfort zones. In a leadership context, avoiding pain might mean steering clear of difficult conversations or not taking risks that could lead to failure.
However, to foster a creative environment, you need to embrace discomfort. Allow your team to take risks, fail, and learn from those failures. When pain or failure is avoided at all costs, you eliminate the possibility of growth.
3. Seeking Control
Lastly, seeking control can be a huge creativity killer. When leaders try to control every aspect of their team’s work, they stifle autonomy, which is essential for creative thinking. Creativity requires a certain amount of freedom to experiment and try new things, but when leaders micromanage, they prevent that from happening.
The key is to find the balance between providing guidance and allowing autonomy. Trust your team to make decisions and take ownership of their creative processes, and you’ll be amazed at what they can accomplish.
Related Reading: Stimulating Creativity in Teams: Resources and Frameworks
Breaking Free from the Traps
The role of a leader in a creative team is to remove these barriers—confirming beliefs, avoiding pain, and seeking control. When you eliminate these traps, you create an environment where creativity can flourish.
By focusing on this approach, you not only encourage creativity but also foster a team that is willing to take risks, learn from failures, and ultimately drive innovation.
For more insights and resources on stimulating creativity within your team, check out my blog on Assessing and Stimulating Creativity in Teams: A Self-Determination Approach or visit my speaker page for keynote inquiries.
