Your team has the answers.
They know what’s slowing productivity down.
They see the inefficiencies you don’t.
But if you’re not creating space for creative thinking, those insights stay locked away. Your business keeps running the same patterns. And you stay stuck as the bottleneck.
Creativity isn’t about bean bags and brainstorming sessions. It’s about building a culture where people feel safe to question how things work, suggest better ways, and solve problems without waiting for you to fix everything.
Think about the last time someone on your team suggested a different approach. Did you listen? Or did you explain why the current way works?
That response determines whether your team brings you solutions or just more problems.
Why Creativity Matters for Your Work Performance
Without creative problem-solving, you end up with:
- Teams that wait for you to solve every issue
- Processes that worked five years ago but cost you time and money today
- Margin pressure because nobody’s questioning inefficiencies
- Talented people who disengage because their ideas don’t matter
The cost isn’t just innovation. It’s productivity, performance, and the margins you’re working so hard to protect.
7 Ways to Unlock Creative Problem-Solving in Your Team
Challenge the Status Quo
Ask a simple question: “Why are we doing it this way?”
The most common answer? “That’s how it’s always been done.”
That answer is costing you money.
In 1999, Heinz received countless complaints about their ketchup bottles. Customers couldn’t squeeze out the last bit without mess and effort. After three years of design work, they launched the upside-down bottle in 2002. One question changed everything: “Why are we doing it this way if it upsets our customers?”
Go to the shop floor. Ask people why they do things a certain way. Listen to what they tell you. You’ll uncover inefficiencies that have been invisible to you but obvious to them for months.
When you question the status quo, you give permission for others to do the same. That’s when creativity becomes practical.
Ask Questions Like a Five-Year-Old
Children don’t believe in wrong questions.
They ask what pops into their heads.
Adults have learned to filter. We dismiss ideas before they’re fully formed. We hold back because we’re worried about looking silly.
That filtering kills creativity.
The Super Bowl got its name from a child’s toy. Lamar Hunt, founder of the Kansas City Chiefs, heard his children playing with a Wham-O Superball. During a 1966 meeting to name the championship game, he jokingly suggested “Super Bowl.” The media ran with it. Fifty years later, the game generates up to £1 billion annually.
Children don’t believe in limits. To a child, a simple stick becomes a wizard’s wand, a baseball bat, a galloping pony. Innovation comes from using your resources in new ways.
Specific questions that unlock creative answers:
• Ask “How would a child solve this?” when you’re stuck
• Use “What’s the real problem?” to cut through symptoms and reach the core issue
• Try “How would you do it?” with everyone familiar with the problem
• Ask “How can we speed this up?” to force new thinking about existing processes
• Be curious instead of rigid – curious people are always learning new skills
The more people you consult, the better your odds of discovering an effective solution. Diversity in perspective matters more than expertise in your specific problem.
The right question unlocks solutions you couldn’t see before.
Create Judgment-Free Zones
People don’t share ideas when they fear judgment.
They hold back.
They wait to see what others think first.
We all carry biases. We reach conclusions before we have all the information. These filters make teamwork ineffective at best, impossible at worst.
Your team’s power lies in its diversity. But diversity only helps when different viewpoints can actually be heard.
When you run brainstorming sessions, set clear ground rules:
• No idea is wrong during the generation phase
• Write without editing for 10 minutes
• Use silent brainstorming with post-it notes to prevent loud voices dominating
• Group ideas into themes before discussion
• Make sure everyone speaks, even if the first suggestion seems perfect
• Equalise all opinions – no voice carries more weight than another
Someone might improve the first good idea, or offer an alternative that’s equally valid. You won’t know unless you create space for every voice.
Acknowledge contributions properly. When someone raises an issue, stop and listen. Ask for evidence of how often it happens, then either take it forward or explain clearly why no action is needed.
Without follow-through, you squash enthusiasm. With it, you build a culture where people want to solve problems.
Change Your Viewpoint
In 1853, David M Smith invented the modern clothespin. It worked better than the old design.
But people resisted.
One marketer talked to women doing laundry.
He heard the same complaint repeatedly: the old, round clothespins rolled off tables. Women constantly bent down to pick them up.
He added three words to his marketing: “They don’t roll!”
Sales exploded.
The same product with a different perspective and a completely different outcome.
Try role-playing. Become your customer. Become your competitor. Become someone from a different department. New perspectives reveal solutions that were invisible before.
Just because something hasn’t been done before doesn’t mean it won’t work.
Embrace Playfulness
Play isn’t childish.
It’s essential.
Stress strangles creativity. When your body perceives threat, it shuts down any thought process seen as unnecessary, like creative thinking.
Play releases endorphins and reduces stress. It opens your mind to different viewpoints. And every game requires problem-solving.
The benefits are measurable:
• Less stress and anxiety
• Stronger social connections
• Enhanced problem-solving skills
• Better mental and physical health
• Creativity blossoms
Social play exposes you to opinions outside your usual frame of reference. You become a more creative problem-solver when you accept that others have unique viewpoints.
When you’re healthy in mind and body, you have the capacity for creative thinking. Play creates creativity through better health and wellness
Remove Mental Blocks
Mental blocks keep you from solving problems.
They show up as:
• Fatigue and burnout that make simple problems feel impossible
• Perfectionism that stops you from sharing good-enough solutions
• Fear of failure that keeps you frozen
• Belief that you must solve everything yourself
Here’s what works:
• Take breaks at the same time daily. Your mind will start looking forward to this predictable downtime.
• Consult creative minds when yours is blocked. Form a group you can turn to regularly.
• Accept good enough. Perfect is the enemy of done.
• Stop catastrophising. Your inner critic rarely predicts actual outcomes.
Does it matter who solves the problem? Or just that it gets solved?
Look Outside Your Frame of Reference
Henry Ford didn’t invent the assembly line. He borrowed it from meatpacking houses.
He watched conveyor belts move meat from worker to worker. Each person performed one task. The belt kept moving. He saw grain mills using the same approach.
Ford adapted this process for automobile manufacturing. He broke assembly of the Model T into 84 separate steps. In 1914, production time dropped from 12 hours to 93 minutes. Ford Motors sold more cars than all other manufacturers combined.
The creativity wasn’t the idea itself. It was seeing how an idea from one industry could transform another.
How to apply this:
• Study how other industries solve similar problems
• Get input from people outside your sector
• Ask people from different age groups what they think
• Experiment with approaches from completely different contexts
• Embrace new ways of thinking, even when they require new tools
Fresh eyes provide fresh solutions.
Three Practical Techniques to Start Using Today
Beyond creating the right culture, you need practical tools. Here are three approaches that work:
Mind Mapping
Mind mapping organises information according to relationships. It’s brilliant for visual learners.
Start with your problem in the centre of a blank page. Draw a circle around it. Write every word or idea that comes to mind around that central circle. Draw lines connecting related concepts. Then do the same with each of those new ideas.
You end up with a visual display of relationships between concepts. Patterns emerge that weren’t visible when the information was linear.
Online tools like Mindmeister make this even easier for remote teams.
Freewriting
This technique bypasses your conscious mind.
It goes straight to your subconscious.
Set a timer for two or three minutes. Think about your problem. When the timer starts, write without stopping. Don’t edit and don’t worry about spelling. Just keep going.
When time’s up, read what you wrote without judgment. Look at it objectively. Consider all content as equally important.
You’ll find solutions you didn’t know were there.
Structured Brainstorming
Traditional brainstorming often gets hijacked by the loudest voices.
Here’s a better approach:
• Share the problem with your team beforehand
• Give everyone 10 minutes to write ideas on post-it notes silently
• Collect all notes and group them into themes on a flip chart
• Discuss each theme as a group
• Make sure everyone contributes, even after the first good idea emerges
Silent brainstorming prevents negative comments killing ideas before they’re fully formed. “That won’t work” has no place in the generation phase.
What Creative Problem-Solving Looks Like in Practice
You don’t need to implement everything at once.
Start with one change this week:
• Next time you walk the floor, ask “Why do we do it this way?” and actually wait for the answer
• Run one silent brainstorming session using post-it notes instead of open discussion
• When someone suggests an idea, count to three before you respond
• Try mind mapping for your next problem instead of a linear list
• Give yourself permission to experiment with one approach from a completely different industry
Small changes create permission for bigger ones.
When you question one process, your team notices. And when you listen to one suggestion properly, people start bringing you more. Then when you implement one small change based on someone’s idea, you signal that creativity matters here.
The ideas are already there. You just need to create space for them.
The Real Cost of Not Doing Creative Problem-Solving
Every day you don’t encourage creativity, you lose:
• Time on inefficient processes nobody’s questioning
• Money on problems that could be solved by your team
• Talented people who disengage when their ideas don’t matter
• Your capacity to lead instead of firefight
• Competitive advantage as others embrace creative problem-solving
The pattern compounds. When people’s ideas get ignored, they stop sharing them. When they stop sharing, you become the sole source of solutions. And when you’re the sole source, you become the bottleneck. Then when you’re the bottleneck, performance suffers.
Creativity isn’t a nice-to-have.
It’s how you protect margins, improve productivity, and build a culture where people solve problems without you.
It’s how you shift from being stuck in every decision to leading a team that thinks for itself.
Where to Start Right Now With Creative Problem-Solving
Pick one of the seven approaches. Just one.
If you’re drowning in decision-making, start with number six: remove mental blocks. Give yourself permission to bring others in.
If your team waits for you to fix everything, start with number three: create judgment-free zones. Run one silent brainstorming session.
If you’re running the same processes year after year, start with number one: challenge the status quo. Ask why three times this week.
Don’t overcomplicate it.
One question asked differently creates permission for ten more. Properly acknowledging an idea signals that contribution matters. One small change implemented demonstrates that creativity leads somewhere.
Which approach will you try first?
Struggling to Make This Happen?
You know your team has untapped potential.
You know the current way isn’t working.
But knowing what needs to change and actually changing it are two different things.
The Managers Academy gives you the practical tools to build a culture where creativity drives performance. You’ll learn how to have the conversations that unlock your team’s problem-solving ability. How to remove yourself as the bottleneck. How to build confidence in your managers so they step up rather than step back.
This isn’t theory.
It’s practical, actionable guidance designed specifically for UK founders and leaders managing teams of 10-200 people.
Find out more about the Managers Academy and how it can help you build the culture your business needs.
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