Creativity and innovation is behind almost every great project. Many industries involve a great deal of creativity and require originality in production, such as engineering, design, fashion, photography, advertising, creative writing and others. Creative souls need certain environments to flourish; otherwise, their ideas may never see the light of day. Creative professionals are usually more creative at certain parts of the day: Mostafa puts together killer ideas late at night; Nadine's creative peak is in the morning; Walid's time is midday.

So how do you make the most of your team's creativity? Here are a few tips: 

Need to setup a brainstorming session for a new campaign? So when do you set it up so everyone participates with good ideas? If several of your employees are more creative during a certain part of the day then this would be the best time for you to hold creative meetings. If not, creating a comfortable atmosphere for this session is the answer. 

No employee can let their creative flare fly if they feel uncomfortable. A noisy environment, uncomfortable chairs and inflexible colleagues or superiors make an unhealthy environment for creative magic. Hold meetings in a comfortable place with a table and chairs. Some corporations hold creative meetings outside the company over coffee. 

If you are managing the creative team of an advertising agency and you just landed a huge client, and there's so much to do: You need to create a brochure, magazine campaign, newspaper campaign, POP material and a website. 
Take things step-by-step; one project at a time. Start with the logo and slogan, then move on to dealing with the different projects. Get everyone's ideas about the them, make a decision, and then move on. This way you are addressing a task, getting everyone's input on the subject, making final decision, and then moving on to the next task. Getting Walid's ideas on the brochure, Nadine's on the website and Mostafa's on the display material will result in a lot of cluttered ideas, that would probably have been better with more input and organization. 

All creative industries or fields should adopt a 'No Such Thing As A Bad Idea' policy. So many great ideas go unspoken because people live with the 'It May Be A Bad Idea' phobia. If a team member comes up with an idea that may not seem good at first, don't burst their bubble. If Walid and Nadine add to Mostafa's idea, a killer idea will probably be the result. Other team members can add to it and make it a killer idea. 

Some ideas may arise after a meeting or brainstorming session. Always keep an 'Open Door' policy on ideas. Make sure that all team members understand that they can come to you at anytime with ideas that may come up later. Remember that other employees that may not be part of a particular team may come up with great ideas for your project. Contributions add to your ideas and your profits. 

Making a Idea Box, a physical one, available at your office or at the employee lounge will allow your co-workers, especially those are not directly involved in the creative process, to send you their comments and suggestions on how to make things better. A more practical alternative would be an email: ideas@yourcompany.com