Unleashing Creativity to guide your Project's success.

Creativity is at the core of every successful project, whether it's in the realm of the arts, business, or any other industry. The ability to think outside the box, innovate, and bring fresh ideas to the table can make a world of difference in project management success.

I value unleashing creativity in project management to drive growth and achieve goals, blending creativity with strategic practices.

It all starts with communication. Having experience in a multitude of environments, I've figured out how to meet people where they are and connect so we can communicate well.

A key aspect of my approach is fostering a collaborative environment where ideas can flow freely.

I believe creativity thrives when folks feel empowered to share their thoughts and take risks.

By encouraging folks to bring their random ideas to the table with no-risk communication where no idea is silly, we can tap into the collective creativity and come up with innovative solutions to complex challenges.

In addition to promoting a creative mindset, I place a strong emphasis on effective project management strategies. From setting clear objectives and timelines to delegating tasks and monitoring progress and work diligently to ensure that each project stays on track and meets its deliverables.

Furthermore, I encourage the embracing of flexibility and adaptability in project management.

The ability to adapt and adjust course is crucial as projects evolve and unexpected hurdles arise.

By embracing change and staying agile, we can navigate any obstacles that pop up and keep the project moving forward.

All this to say, unleashing creativity in project management is not just a nice-to-have, it's a must-have for driving success and achieving growth. By blending innovation with strategic project management practices, exceptional results are delivered and push the boundaries of what is possible to embody your needs and vision.

And while it’s well and good for me to wax lyrical about why I believe in embedding creativity in your projects, a practical example or application is really what is useful.

And to some degree, being creative requires you to being willing to stand by your response when in a pinch.

Here’s one way I used creativity and dash of ‘why the hell not!’ -

📑  The brief: In the upcoming hiring round, the goal was to remove as much bias from interviews without requiring a new piece of software and not increasing unnecessary work for the team.

💭  My Thinking: There typical options for blind recruitment go against the brief.

One option is a software, where personal details are removed from CVs, automated assessment and grading = another cost, for use as well as adoption, not great for minimal or small recruitment.

The other has an HR team member remove the names from CVs = what if you’re too small to have more than one person in HR or to have an HR team at all, also leaves room for human error, and unnecessarily increases someone’s work.

And IMO, having done blind recruitment before, it doesn’t really work unless it’s all the way blind.

✅ The solution (with a sprinkle of creativity – and being confident to stand in my suggestion)

📌 No CVs

📌 Use a form – that collects email addresses only (this is a possible point of failure but it’s one field to redact before sharing with hiring managers)

📌 The form will focus on achievements and as an opportunity to ask some experience questions, to assist with greater context and applicability

📌 Provide a grading system that required the reviewer to answer yes, no or somewhat to questions about the responses to provide the grading

And then the fun part – the interview

📌 The prospective team member was asked to join the interviews with their camera off and only their initials for their name.

📌 The hiring team will have their camera on but also only use their initials. This gave the prospective team member more of an opportunity to feel confident to also interview the hiring person/panel.

📌 Only when an offer is going to be made, the prospective team member is given the option to have a face to face or via video call. Giving the prospective team member an opportunity to see who they will be working with and a week to decide if it is right for them.

Although the team had some doubts about the process, they were open to giving it a try. As a small team at first, they soon recognized that they had been hiring with a strong confirmation bias, leading to the emergence of a monoculture.

They knew something drastic had to be done.

The result:

✓  The next hiring round (10 folks in total) went smoothly,

✓  The team was pleasantly surprised that they enjoyed the anonymity and the excitement of meeting their new colleague face to face.

✓  The new hires appreciated that they felt more in control and that they had an equal footing in determining if this was the right place for them.

✓  It made everyone listen more intently and deeply consider what the role and the team needed for success rather than if they felt comfortable with them.

✓  And of course, the organisations trajectory toward a monoculture was curbed.

🗣️Give me a shout, if you need someone to throw a creative wand at a project or a problem.

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