In this episode, hosts Merv Jersak and Tim Jerome discuss the importance of embedding creativity in project objectives, maintaining a creative mindset throughout long projects, and using team charters and visual reminders. They introduce methods like design thinking, user-centered design, and conducting brainstorming sessions. The episode also highlights the balance between taking calculated risks and managing them effectively through feedback loops, addressing pushback constructively, and promoting continuous improvement. The conversation concludes with approaches to make creativity a regular habit and the potential of agile methodologies in managing project risks and fostering innovative thinking.

Main Take-Aways

The project leader can employ creativity and innovation to instill better performance within each project:

• setting creativity as a project objective
• focusing on human-centered design
• brainstorming
• employing calculated risk taking and balancing creativity and risk
• handling pushback to creativity
• using incremental, small wins
• methods to encourage creativity and innovation

Show Notes

Today’s Project Managers Coffee Chat: Infusing Creativity and Innovation into Your Projects

00:28 Introducing the concept of fostering creativity and innovation within your projects.

01:13 Setting creativity as an objective of your projects beginning with the team charter. Keeping the creativity mindset alive throughout the project.

02:59 Focusing on the human-centered design to help foster greater innovation of your technological solutions.  

03:54 Using brainstorming as an initiator of creative ideas.

05:19 Introducing calculated risk-taking into your projects to help build innovation into your solutions.

06:13 Handling pushback to your creative approaches by accepting the challenges and learning from them to improve your creativity and innovation.

09:52 Demonstrating success of your creative approaches using an incremental approach.

10:37 Methods for encouraging creativity and innovation on your projects to include celebrating wins, rewards and recognition, implementing a feedback loop, showing appreciation.

13:26 Balancing creativity with risk-taking to enhance your project teams’ confidence and willingness to innovate.