- Challenge current approaches to work. Consider whether you and your direct reports might work together in new, previously unimaginable ways.
- Challenge existing beliefs and assumptions. Ask yourself, your peers, and your direct reports whether your current views on how things work in your unit or company are accurate.
- Become educated. Take a course on a subject such as creative thinking, creative writing, or improvisational acting—disciplines that can help you flex your creative-thinking muscles.
- Use mind maps. On blank sheets of paper, draw pictures representing your thoughts and the ways in which they can be connected. You may generate more connections than if you merely listed ideas on a lined sheet of paper.
- Be positive. View problems as challenges and opportunities. Open your mind to new ideas—even if they seem preposterous at first.
- Call on creative types. Identify the creative people in your company. Call on them to get involved in brainstorming sessions and other such activities if you need help stimulating participants’ creative juices.
- Change your routines. Make small changes in your daily routines and physical environment to help yourself see that things can be done in different ways.
- Listen for change resistance. As soon as you hear someone say anything along the lines of “We’ve always done it this way,” be willing to challenge their assumptions.