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Fostering Creativity at Work to Develop Your Entrepreneurial Mindset
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15.4.2024
Pamela Spokes

The Entrepreneurial Mindset is important to foster for all kinds of reasons. Whether you are planning to become and entrepreneur or not. That is because an Entrepreneurial Mindset is a set of definable, specific skills. In 2017, Finland’s Ministry of Education and Culture defined entrepreneurial education as “... a set of skills that enable people to identify and make the most of opportunities, overcome and learn from setbacks, and succeed in a variety of settings.” (1) This sets the foundation for defining the entrepreneurial mindset that they want to build from basic education to higher education. Through further research, we have broken this down into 9 learnable skills at Metropolia. Entrepreneurial Mindset at Metropolia University of Applied Sciences At Metropolia, we have defined these 9 skills as: Ability to innovate Creativity Proactiveness Teamwork Tolerance to risk-taking Tolerance of failure Plan & reach objectives Problem-centred Networking Each of these skills is important in their own right to build a well-rounded mindset for moving forward in the 21st century. This is part of lifelong learning and continual improvement. In this post, we are looking more deeply into is CREATIVITY. Creativity as a Practicable Skill Creativity is something that has propelled the human race forward for hundreds of thousands of years and it is essential to fostering an entrepreneurial mindset. When you search Google, you get the dictionary definition creativity is “...the use of imagination or original ideas to create something; inventiveness...” What can be surprising to many people is that there is nothing about art or drawing or even physical abilities of any kind. It only refers to your brain. It is about how you think about things, how you apply knowledge and insights, and how you make connections. As a concept, creativity is really made up of multiple skills in itself. Problem-solving Artistic expression Innovation Critical Thinking Imagination and Exploration Collaboration Adaptability Looking at this list, you can see that artistic expression is listed as one of the seven skills of creativity. It is there as one way to be creative but it is just one way. It is a very visual and sometimes visceral way of showing creativity and that is why it gets so much attention. It is easy to point out and to share but that does not mean that it is the only way; it is just the most obvious. When looking at how to use creativity and to practice creativity in the world of work, it requires something from the individual and something from the organisation where that person works. Open Minds and Being Wrong From the individual, exercising creativity require you at the very least to have an open mind (willing have and receive ideas from others) and a willingness to be wrong. Fundamentally understanding that you can and will sometimes be wrong can be difficult for many people. Being open and happy to be wrong is even a step further. This requires and acceptance of ambiguity or uncertainty. This is difficult for humans as a whole. Research shows that people would rather guarantee a bad experience than an uncertain one. Another way of saying that is that people would rather guarantee badness (2) than to have the uncertainty that the outcome may be good. Acceptance of Failure as Learning From an Organisation, being able to exercise creativity in their work, people must fee free to fail. Organisations need to cultivate a culture that accepts that failure as learning but also funds failure as a valid outcome. Daring greatly and creating a safe space for experimentation is not cheap either emotionally or financially for an organisation. But the rewards of success can be great. Having an engaged and interested workforce is not very common according to multiple Gallup polls over the past several years. But one great side effect of being able to use creativity on work is that it fosters engagement and a sense of worth. Creativity Can Be Practiced Many people say that if you are trying something new, then you are practicing creativity. That can be anything: playing an instrument, reading a book that is out of your normal genre, learning about a new topic, visiting places you have never been before, etc. But the first step is to really believe that creativity may look different than what you have allowed yourself to believe. So, change your mindset. It is also important to understand that creativity is a tool for mental well-being as much as innovation. According to research conducted in 2016, practicing creativity can improve your mood for up to 24 hours. When you orient yourself to focus on enjoyment not success, that is when you get the most benefits from using creativity. Which means it doesn’t matter how well your activity turns out, it is doing it and enjoying the process and not determining success from the outcome. It is time to start asking yourself how you can begin to practice creativity in your life to begin to reap the benefits. Also asking yourself what creative things have you been putting off until you could be more successful at them? Success in these endeavours is not the goal, enjoying the process is. Rest as a Necessity for Creativity One of the most important things that you can ever do for your creative muscles is to rest. Now this doesn’t mean sleep, although it could definitely include sleep. It means being in a state of non-distraction. No phones, tablets, TV, etc. Rest should also incorporate walking outside…or at least being outside. No podcast, no audiobook, just outside. Spending time with friends is also considered rest. So, your friend could join you for a walk or you could chat over tea. This offline connection is so important to humans that it is actually restorative. This rested state is a much better place in which to be creative. This blog post has been adapted from a presentation given during the Turbiini Lunch and Learn Series where they explored Creativity which is one of the 9 skills of the Entrepreneurial Mindset. Author Pamela Spokes works as a Service Designer in Metropolia’s RDI team. Originally from Canada, Pamela has years of experience in university admin focusing on international recruitment, marketing, and the international student/staff experience. She is interested in purposefully designed experiences that are centred around the user. References Potinkara H. (2018) Dare to be enthusiastic! Teacher´s guide to entrepreneurial skills. Published by the Finnish Federation of Finnish Enterprises. (PDF) Small, A., & Schmutte, K. (2022). Navigating ambiguity: creating opportunity in a world of unknowns. Ten Speed Press. Resources Guidelines for entrepreneurship education 2009 (valtioneuvosto.fi) Entrepreneurship for Education Guidelines 2017 (PDF) How To Encourage And Reward Creativity In The Workplace (personatalent.com) The Connection Between Creativity and Mental Well Being (swifttech.com) Creativity in the Workplace: How to bolster engagement and productivity at work (thedesicionlab.com) Conner, T. Everyday creative activity as a path to flourishing (The Journal of Positive Psychology) Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace: 2022 Report (gallup.com)  

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7 Reasons Why Creativity at Work is Essential
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15.8.2023
Pamela Spokes

Research has shown that European employees are less engaged at work than in other parts of the world. Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace: 2022 Report (1) puts European employees’ engagement levels at only 14%. This is 7% lower than the global average (21%) and 19% lower than the US and Canada (33%). It has been noted that Europe can be a great place to live but not a great place to work. Gallup notes three big areas that affect employee engagement: Having clear expectations Feeling connected and supported by your team Finding purpose in your work Jari Hakanen, Research Professor at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health (TTL), stresses that “[F]or work engagement, some of the most important work resources are people being able to use their skills in diverse ways, learn new things, and develop.” (2) All three of these can be practiced and experienced through more creativity at work. Changes mindsets from failure to learning It is really important that people can internalise the difference between failure and learning. At some point, fairly early on, we go from learning to failure. Where things that don’t work out are determined to be failures. In reality, we must fail to succeed in most things. Things do not come out fully formed in any process. Using creativity at work allows people to see failure as learning. Work can be a highly competitive environment but while some competition is good, it is never good to have a workforce that is happy when another part of the company isn’t successful. Ideally, you would want these antagonistic relationships to become collaborative. And to do that, there needs to be a mindset of ‘failing forward’. This is a mindset shift that can be unsettling for both the employees and the management. Trusting that failing is a part of success means that failure needs to be shrunk both in real costs and mental costs. Allows for adaptability When you exercise creativity, you are able to look at things from different angles. You are able to can see customers’ needs from different angles. You are open to new ideas and comments from others to improve the idea. When you are coming from a point of creativity, you want your solution/idea/product to be the best it can be and will be consciously and subconsciously searching for connections and things to improve it. Creativity will also have people looking in unusual directions for possibilities. It will also have people interested in collaborating with people that they normally would not. Encourages innovation and learning Innovation is made up of trial and error (or trial and learning). Innovation is never instant. No service or product has ever sprung from someone’s brain fully mature and ready to be delivered. Thinking creatively and collaboratively will help ideas get better and turn into testable concepts. Those concepts will be influenced by those who can wield creativity more effectively. Creativity is also good when you have constraints because it gives you boundaries. Sometimes those boundaries are what spark innovation. Sometimes open possibilities are too free and can overwhelm. These boundaries allow you to test and try things that you might not otherwise. Fosters growth - because it is about solving problems Humans love a mystery. They are hard-wired to find patterns and solve problems. By solving problems in an organisation, it will inevitably become more efficient and more focused. Growth happens when you do a few things really well. You can see organisations that grow too wide often split up into smaller entities in order to focus better and to foster growth. Using creativity and creative thinking in your organisation will allow individuals to challenge their current way of thinking. This can be seen by more efficient processes, new ideas to be explored, or even completely new niches to dominate in. Improved work satisfaction Allowing more creativity gives people permission to get excited about their work. It also allows people the time to recharge from the day-to-day tasks that they might be taking on. These tasks, while important, may take a lot of energy but do not replenish that energy. Improving work satisfaction is one of the biggest ways to improve engagement at work. A lack of engagement leads to many negative outcomes; most significantly for the organisation is high staff turnover. Boosts productivity and performance When people are excited about their work, they naturally boost their productivity and performance. It is human nature to be curious and curiosity allows for new ideas and new connections to spring forth. Creative thinking uses different parts of the brain than most jobs and these activities can stimulate people’s minds and provide possibilities for serendipity and inspiration. Having permission to think creatively gets people to be more open to possibilities of collaboration and breaking internal (and external) silos that may have formed in an organisation. Creates lasting value When you take all the previous points into account: new mindset around failure, increased adaptability, innovation, solving real problems, improved work satisfaction, better productivity and performance, you give people multiple opportunities for creating lasting value. The process of being creative and being open to new ideas encourages us to solve real problems. By solving real problems, staff are more inspired in their work and take ownership of outcomes. Encouraging an open mind and receptiveness to new ideas also helps to improve diversity in who you serve and in how you serve them, and who gets to create in the organisation. Author Pamela Spokes works as a Service Designer in Metropolia’s RDI team. Originally from Canada, Pamela has years of experience in university admin focusing on international recruitment, marketing, and the international student/staff experience. With a Bachelor’s from Canada, a Master’s degree from Sweden, an MBA in Service Innovation & Design from Laurea, and her AmO from Haaga-Helia, she is interested in purposefully designed experiences that are centred around the user. Don’t be surprised if she knocks on your door to talk about learning co-creation methods through intensive learning experiences. Resources Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace: 2022 Report TTL.fi press release

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