Ten Talking Points to Get your Team’s Creative Juices Flowing

Some think creativity belongs to artists and musicians — that it can’t be found in an office. How wrong they are.

Creativity doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Just like artists, work teams need input, time to process and room to create as a group. Given space and encouragement, their creativity can be unleashed.

Creativity Questions

Here are ten discussion questions that can help you get your team thinking more like and artist than an accountant. Use them to help build your team, or reinforce their group cohesiveness. 

1. Name creative people you’ve known or heard of (they don’t need to be famous). What did they do you considered creative?

2. What are creative things you’ve seen children do? Do you feel more creative around them?

3. What’s the last creative thing you did?  When did you do it?  If it’s been a long time, why?

4. Mary Kay Ash, founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics, said, "We fail forward to success."  What does she mean? Have you ever "failed forward"?

5. According to Pablo Picasso, "Every act of creation is first of all an act of destruction." Can this creative philosophy be applied to your workplace?

6. Your manager says, "We need an answer to our problem of overstocked inventory. See if you can think of a good solution."  Does this approach stimulate or inhibit your creative juices?  Why?

7. Creativity can often lead to conflict and instability. Why? If so, why might you want more creativity in your life or organization?

8. If you would receive $500 for coming up with the best solution to an organizational problem, do you think you’d be more or less creative? Why?

9. Think of several things you do as part of your regular "routine" (e.g. what you eat, when you wake, the people you socialize with at work).  Which would be the hardest to change?  What habits would you change first, if you thought it would be easy?

10. In a group, what types of behaviors help stimulate your creativity? What type of behaviors or comments diminish it?

Experience more creativity in your workforce 

If your team is looking to access its group creativity, consider Everyday Creativity. This video teaches a surprising truth about creativity; that it's not a magical, mysterious occurrence, but a ready tool that enables you to look at the ordinary and see the extraordinary. Great for team building training, it includes practical strategies to encourage a culture where everyone contributes great ideas, improving trust and teamwork. After all, a unified team works best when it works together.

Unleash your team’s creativity today!

"Creativity is piercing the mundane to fine the marvelous." - Bill Moyers


Diane Mettler has been a manager for nearly 20 years. She's also a freelance writer and editor--with hundreds of her articles published in a variety of magazines—and teaches writing at the University of Washington.