Your Best Ideas Are Often Your Last Ideas

Most people do not realize that being persistent is a virtue in a creative process.

A person’s first ideas are rarely their most creative ones, as one generally goes through a lengthy brainstorming process, and has to list out and shaft through a large number of nominations.

This is a fallacy where one assumes that their creativity is diminishing with each output.

As the modern workforce faces never-before-seen challenges, it is crucial to harness the creativity of the employees by setting the right expectations of the creative process and to empower them to generate more ingenious ideas.

A manager should educate their subordinates/team members that their reservoir of ideas will keep flowing and they should not believe that they are now running out of ideas.

They should be encouraged to push their cognitive boundaries and look for innovative connections.

There are several ways to give creativity a boost:

1. Set aside ample time for free, divergent thinking.
2. Ask for more ideas on a regular basis, keeping the engine running.
3. Build a tracker which documents the ideas and the time taken to generate them.
4. Compare results among teams to calibrate your process and to capture the teams full creative potential.