Are You Ready For Change? Fostering The Creative Process

The creative process allows for breakthroughs and permanent change. It’s constant, vibrant and active, and it combines thought, rational, fact-based knowledge, behaviour and emotional feelings to bring about a desired change. Creativity uses the entire brain, both the right and left hemispheres. When we’re being creative, it’s really an all-encompassing process.

The creative process can be identified through cognitive, behavioural, and affective aspects:

• Cognitive – styles of thinking, perceiving, and knowing. These are skills that are learned and developed through teachings.
• Behavioural – the core essence of an employee’s temperament and how that temperament aligns with specific job duties.
• Affective – emotional intelligence in regards to mental processes.

So how do you pinpoint each of these areas in a candidate or an employee?

One way is by assessing the employee and matching their creative style to job requirements. Using assessment tools can provide valuable information about the candidate and their true temperament, and some tools compare these results against a job profile for more informed decision making and employee development. The right tools will assess all three aspects of the creative process, offering information that can be used to develop employees’ skills by harnessing the strengths of their natural temperament.

Training can also assist in fostering a creative environment. The more that management and staff understand creative style preferences or problem-solving styles for their employees, the more likely it is that those desired results will be fulfilled. Some assessment tools will provide training and development recommendations as part of their report offerings, which can be helpful for managers who are often too busy to create development plans from scratch.

Employees are more likely to be creative when they feel comfortable in the way they work, and much of that comfort comes from feeling understood and supported. By being more receptive to the unique creative processes of each of their employees, managers can help foster this environment of understanding and support. So when you’re ready to bring out the best in your employees, then it’s time to tap into their creative process!