4 ways to use creativity to solve your small business challenges

The average person likely uses only a fraction of their creative abilities at work, often due to workplace structures, routines and expectations that prioritize efficiency over innovation. Studies suggest that although everyone has creative potential, many business owners and employees operate within constraints that limit creative expression.

According to creativity expert Carla Johnson, “Creativity isn’t just about dreaming up wild ideas. It’s about tackling problems by looking at them in different ways.”

For example, let’s take an age-old problem in the airline industry. One of the challenges and stressors facing airline travelers is the boarding system used by most airline companies in the U.S. Here’s how it works for one of the major carriers, Delta Airlines.

“Creativity isn’t just about dreaming up wild ideas. It’s about tackling problems by looking at them in different ways.”

Carla Johnson, innovation architect

First priority for boarding goes to those who need extra time to board the plane and active-duty U.S. military members with identification. This also includes Delta’s elite 360 members.

In addition to that group, there are eight more boarding categories, ranging from first class down to basic economy passengers. Naturally, the more you pay, the higher the category you are assigned. While this benefits the airline’s bottom line, it also delays the boarding process by several minutes, inconveniencing travelers and extending flight times.

Jason Steffen, an astrophysicist at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, developed a better way. After hundreds of iterations, he revealed that the most efficient boarding method was a version of back-to-front — with a few key twists. Rather than filling in each row sequentially, passengers should board from the window seats first, skipping every other row along the way. This method literally cut boarding time in half.

Some U.S. air carriers considered this method but opted to stick with their outdated approach.

Don’t be like the U.S. airline carriers and ignore creative ways to solve your problems. Here are four strategies to help you and your green industry and lighting team be more creative and take action in solving your business challenges.

1. Cultivate a Creative Company Culture

Let’s face it: It starts with you, the business owner or leader. You must model the creative thinking you want to see. Encourage open-minded thinking, idea-sharing, and follow-through.

At your next company or department meeting, discuss the concept of creativity and the value it brings to problem-solving. Pick a problem that needs to be resolved and, with the help of your team, brainstorm creative ideas to solve it.

To make this happen successfully, set up ground rules for your creative thinking session, including:

• Create a psychologically safe environment for risk-taking.
• Don’t criticize ideas or suggestions as they are being generated.
• Reward and recognize innovative ideas.
• Don’t be the smartest person in the room — let your team generate ideas first. Add yours only after everyone has had a chance to contribute.

2. Embrace Cross-Disciplinary Thinking

Rather than thinking inside the box, get rid of the box and consider all possible alternatives:

• As a business owner, stop thinking you have all the answers.
• Research other industries, learn from them and apply their best practices.
• Foster collaboration between different departments in your company.
• Stop saying, “We tried that before, and it didn’t work.”
• Be willing to test new ideas through rapid prototyping.

A tool I teach all my clients is the TMET3 formula. Here’s how it works:

• T – Try the idea out.
• M – Measure the results.
• E – Evaluate the results.
• T3 – Do one of the following:
  • Take and use it if the idea works.
  • Tweak the idea so it works better.
  • Toss the idea if it doesn’t work.

Learn from failure and use setbacks as stepping stones to move forward.

3. Seek and Gather External Perspectives

One of the best ways to come up with a creative solution to your challenge is to step outside your green industry and lighting company’s inner circle. Here are some ways to do this:

• Collaborate with external consultants, mentors and advisers.
• Engage with customers to co-create solutions.
• Crowdsource ideas from online communities, masterminds, peer groups or industry networks.
• Use AI to research possible solutions.
• Ask your children how they would solve the problem. Don’t laugh! Children are not bound by rigid thinking patterns and challenge assumptions rather than accepting things as they are.

4. Build a Creative Problem-Solving Framework

One of the best ways to tackle business challenges is to use a systematic approach to problem-solving. The formula below is one that I teach all my clients.

On a whiteboard, have your team participate in solving the problem using the following process. Write out and answer these five questions:

1. What is the problem?
2. What are all the possible causes?
3. What are all the possible solutions?
4. What is the best solution, and what action will we take?
5. Who will be responsible for taking the appropriate action, and by when?

Feel free to contact me with any questions on how to use these tools. Remember, when you rethink how you approach problem-solving in your company, you open a whole new world of solutions.

Tom Borg is the founder and president of Tom Borg Consulting, LLC. Since 1996, he has worked with CEOs, presidents, and leadership teams in over 450 companies and organizations. He helps his green industry clients at the intersection of leadership, communication, and culture through consulting, mentoring, coaching, workshops, and assessment instruments. Feel free to contact him with your questions at 734.404.5909, email him at tom@tomborg.com or visit his website at tomborgconsulting.com.