In an increasingly digital age and with more companies embracing the range, benefits, and advances of AI tools, it’s more important than ever for EAs, PAs, VAs and Office Managers, to feel that their personal contributions and creative skills are valued, celebrated, and rewarded. Dakota Murphey looks at what creative personalities bring to workplaces in today’s digital age…
Being credited for outstanding achievements, and feeling fully appreciated for your contributions is motivational and can lead to change, collaboration, and new forward-thinking models within any setting. This article explores the value that can be sparked from tapping into someone’s creativity coupled with the merits of feeling as if your individual and collective creativity in the modern workplace is recognised.
Let’s celebrate what creative personalities bring to workplaces
Developing your creative spark is definitely an additional skill that your team and company will hold in high regard. Indeed, a recent LinkedIn Study agreed that 73% of companies rate creative thinking as a top priority, with experts predicting it will be the most in-demand attribute by 2030. Therefore, celebrating creativity and working in a culture where it is valued can foster innovation and fresh ways of thinking.
Having the freedom to explore creative opportunities enables people to face challenges from a fresh perspective, generating original ideas and actively solving problems in unique situations. Your roles also mean you are well placed to offer inspiration and encouragement to your wider team to explore their creative mindsets, fuel idea processes, and expand the capabilities within the business.
Channelling your inner artist
To truly harness your power of creativity, don’t be shy about proactively demonstrating your artistic and creative skills at work. Be confident in your role to use any tools and resources that can help to show these off. Remember, your artistic contributions might already be part of your current role.
Alternatively, these could extend to anything creative that you’ve done outside of work, such as an inventive case of troubleshooting, an emotive photo promoting mental health that you took for charity, or a powerful opinion piece that went viral on social media. Such statement activities can also translate into innovative ideas and enrich the cultural fabric of your whole organisation.
Fuelling your amazing ideas
In an evolving and far more digital world of work, creative thinking EAs, PAs, VAs and Office Managers are well-positioned to make significant impacts. To spark your creativity, try incorporating these idea-generation techniques into your routine:
- Mind mapping: Helps you to organise thoughts and see the bigger picture, by change starting with a central concept and branching out connected related ideas.
- “Six Thinking Hats” method: Allows problems to be approached from different perspectives (facts, emotions, caution, benefits, creativity, and process), to generate comprehensive solutions.
- Reverse brainstorming: Involves reviewing a problem from a different way round, looking at how to cause it rather than solve it, with often innovative solutions being discovered.
Creative thinking is known to improve problem-solving capabilities by allowing you as an individual or in a team to adapt and approach challenges from diverse perspectives. The value of thinking creatively is being able to reach the right result even when the situation may be ambiguous or complex. For example a PA facing a complex scheduling conflict might step away from the traditional fixed format and creatively develop a rotating meeting structure to accommodate all parties.
Managing creative barriers
To overcome common barriers to creativity in the office environment, make sure that you allocate specific time for creative thinking in your working week. Create an ‘idea bank’ to capture your thoughts as they evolve, and don’t be afraid of failing. All unsuccessful ideas should be as seen as learning opportunities and present another chance to try with more confidence next time.
Remember creativity can drive forward change and unlock new opportunities. By harnessing your ability to think creatively, you’re not only improving your personal and professional skills but also positioning yourself as an innovative, problem-solver. Celebrate creative ‘wins’ within your role as this can significantly boost confidence and acceptance of progressive change.
Augmenting AI with your artistic skills
Since the emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and generative tools, industries have been quick to adopt AI technology and implement it in some way which might already be the case in your current role. In fact, reports suggest that 24% of UK businesses are currently using AI tools with 84% having augmented it in some capacity.
While AI offers many opportunities to streamline many routine processes, it also carries the opportunity to empower personal creativity. Research suggests that the majority of people do recognise its potential value, whether they work in a creative role or industry with 86.6% assured that AI can support them. Therefore, arguably the application of AI in creative spaces is a forward-thinking stance to adopt. The creative application of AI tools and digital resources might involve anything from merging music, creating images, and experimenting with tools to spark innovation and discover new opportunities.
While digital technologies continuously evolve, be inspired by change, share, and celebrate what you learn and the inherent value of your combined creative and digital skills. There really is the potential to reshape roles, inspire new opportunities, and boost productivity.
At every opportunity, recognise the benefits of creativity, be empowered to lead a little by example and don’t be afraid to help establish a working culture that actively encourages it. Celebrating individual achievements and breakthroughs will accelerate knowledge sharing and allow everyone to reach their full creative potential.
