Stimulating creative thinking in a small business is not the most common thing to do. Most entrepreneurs generally have most of the ideas…or do they??? Once a business has grown to a certain size, not all the answers or great innovation will come from the founder. Quite often us small business owners think we are the fountain of all knowledge.

Challenging the people that work in our business is one of our fundamental roles but how many times a day, week, year do we go out of our way to do it. Creating an environment where our people feel they can spark their imagination and then develop their ideas is crucial to future success. Here’s a few ideas off the top of my head….

1. Recruit people who make you feel uncomfortable, people who will challenge you and your customers

2. Always, always recruit happy people and those that have the right attitude. Technical skill can be learned

3. Set some of your people a task of finding new uses for old ideas

4. Give your newest recruit the oldest problem your business has, then give them the time and resources to solve it. Believe me they will

5. Create a culture that rewards success and failure but doesn’t accept inaction

Don’t forget, great ideas come from the creation of dumb, stupid and impractical ones too!