Most of the conversations to-date regarding enterprise social networks discuss how companies can enhance business outcomes such as reducing costs, easing communication, and increasing product quality. While your enterprise collaboration platform certainly offers these benefits, it also helps foster the creative process, which ultimately supports business outcomes as well. Here are some of the ways it helps bring life to your employees’ creativity:
It allows you to listen to people in a variety of ways. People communicate effectively in many different ways. Some do well with verbal conversation, others express themselves best through writing, while still others may do so best through photos or videos. Fortunately, enterprise social media allows employees to communicate through every one of those methods. Creativity will be enhanced as decision makers learn to listen to those under their supervision, even those they may not know well, in all the different ways they choose to communicate.
Communication is facilitated with ease. In addition to allowing diverse forms of communication, an enterprise collaboration platform that effectively fosters the creative process also makes communication, however short it may be, incredibly simple. Who knows? One of your telecommuting team members may hold the key to a creative and effective solution.
Both similar and diverse groups can be organized. You can always organize just about any type of group you want. Sometimes, a group with like-minded thinkers works best for the goals you are trying to achieve. Other times, and especially when creativity is necessary, it makes more sense to put several diverse minds together. When different perspectives collaborate while still remaining able to maintain a sharp focus on the overall goal of developing a single creative solution, unique and highly creative solutions often result.
Find new contacts who may hold the key to the next creative solution. You could ask internal experts to see if they know anyone who could help you develop a solution to the challenge your team is facing. Or, perhaps your organization doesn’t have an internal expert who can help in a certain situation, and maybe someone knows a consultant or other external entity who would know a creative solution.
These are some of the ways in which an enterprise collaboration platform can be used to enhance creativity, while also supporting business outcomes. Can you think of other ways in which a private social platform could do this in your organization?
If you found this article on creativity interesting, you might also enjoy reading Unique Features Your Enterprise Social Network Should Have.
