As an employer and leader, keeping your team motivated can be difficult. And, when your workers lack inspiration, productivity can decline. So, how can you inspire your team to help boost productivity and innovation?
5 Ways to boost productivity
Use these five ideas to help boost productivity and inspire creativity in the workplace.
1. Reduce work-related stress
According to one source, 57% of employees who said they were very stressed at work felt less productive. Does your team fall into this statistic?
Stress and creativity do not go together. When a worker struggles to come up with creative ideas, it can impact their level of productivity. To help improve productivity and motivate employees, encourage your team to relieve their workplace stress.
Consider promoting small breaks throughout the day to cut down on stress. For example, you might recommend your team takes a five-minute break every few hours. Short breaks can help clear employees’ minds and reduce pressure from stress during the day. And, taking scheduled breaks can help improve concentration.
Keep in mind that not every employee takes a substantial break throughout the workday. Encourage mental breaks during the day and week to help get creative juices flowing.
You can also offer fun work activities once per week or month to decrease stress levels in the office and build company culture (e.g., company picnics). Activities not only help to relieve stress, but also let employees clear their thoughts.
2. Take your team outside
To boost productivity and encourage innovative thinking, consider a change of scenery.
If possible, switch up your team’s environment. To foster creativity, get away from your usual spots. Instead of holding meetings in a meeting room, take discussions outside to a picnic table or nearby park. Having a different environment can spark new ideas and increase productivity.
Set a schedule for outdoor discussions. For example, your team might meet outside every Friday (weather permitting, of course).
Scheduling meetings in a different environment is a unique activity team members can look forward to. And, having an innovative meeting location will likely inspire creativity.
3. Promote brainstorming
It is up to an employer and leader to set the tone for their team. You must lead by example.
Consider encouraging your team to take time to brainstorm. Some workers may think it’s unimportant. But, if they see you making time in your schedule to brainstorm, they may rethink their opinion.
Brainstorming allows employees to set aside time to specifically think about new ideas and be creative on their own terms. Consider having regular brainstorm sessions. For example, you may hold a monthly session.
You could also encourage mini sessions where small groups brainstorm together, which can improve employee engagement. Or, you may let workers have solo sessions where they can brainstorm on their own.
Depending on the worker, they may be more productive either in a team or individual setting. Either way, brainstorming gives your team time to creatively think without being under pressure. And, it helps to improve productivity by setting aside time to actively think.
4. Encourage sharing ideas and collaboration
To inspire innovation, encourage idea sharing and collaboration in the workplace. You never know if a silly idea may trigger a good idea.
Let employees know that no idea is a bad idea. Encourage your team to bounce ideas off one another and share random thoughts. Idea sharing lets workers think outside of the box. And, different ideas may stimulate creative thinking for other workers.
Each time you host a meeting, give employees time to share their ideas with the team. Start by sharing one of your ideas first to help inspire and encourage others in the group.
The more people who share ideas, the better. Employees are likely to be more creative when they have others to discuss ideas with. And, workers might be able to use ideas to be more productive in other aspects of their work, too (e.g., projects).
Be open to collaboration. You can significantly improve workplace productivity by having different teams collaborate on ideas, projects, and tasks.
Consider grouping team members from different departments together. This can inspire them to share creativity, utilize each of their strengths, and be more productive in their separate departments.
5. Hold stand-up meetings
According to one source, stand-up meetings can reduce meeting times by 34%. To increase the time your team has to be productive, consider stand-up meetings.
Holding stand-up meetings may sound a little odd, but they can be effective. Stand-up meetings should last around five to 15 minutes. Some teams might benefit from daily stand-ups, while others may only need one per week. Set aside time during the day or week with your team for a quick stand-up.
Use stand-ups as a time to share ideas, motivate workers for the day, and discuss statuses of projects. Also, be sure to talk about any problems and brainstorm ways you can resolve issues.
