Business Is More Than a Numbers Game
Businesses are run by numbers. The number of employees, the number of locations, the number of conversions, the number of competitors, and the list goes on. There are profits, losses and projections to analyze, and it’s easy to get lost in a pile of spreadsheets and fall into a creative rut, known more commonly as a routine.
Routines aren't necessarily a bad thing, but they stifle creativity and innovation. If you and everyone in your business do the same thing day in and day out with no change, you will not be able to adapt to the fast-paced world outside. The most successful businesses today are innovative and proactive, not reactive. They embrace creativity and look for employees that spark new ideas and change.
So, what are some ways to bring creativity back into the mix? Well, the first thing you need to do is break up the routine. Get staff to exercise new parts of their brains, shake off the cobwebs, and try new things. You want your workers to feel like their ideas are valued and to create an environment where they feel confident to share ideas. More than anything, you want to make sure that you look at your business as more than just a numbers game. And a great way to get the ball rolling is by embracing a little artful creativity in how your company uses challenge coins.
Getting Creative With Corporate Coins
One of the hottest topics in business is employee engagement. Leaders and business owners are always looking for ways to make sure their staff is engaged, attentive and invested in the company because research shows engaged employees are more productive employees. Corporate challenge coins are a popular tool for fostering engagement in staff because they are perfect for showing appreciation and acceptance within a team, but why not use them for something else as well?
If you want to break up your challenge coin routine, you should let staff members create the custom design. Give them the power to be creative and different, and see what they can come up with. Normally, custom corporate coins have branded artwork like logos and emblems taking up most of the design, but there is so much opportunity to show off a little personality and individual spirit when creating custom artwork.
This is a pressure-free way to get staff involved in a new creative exercise that will build their creative confidence and willingness to share new ideas. In day to day business, you want employees to feel like their ideas are valued and you want to make sure they feel comfortable enough to share their ideas. Creating a friendly competition to see who can come up with the best company challenge coin design is a great way to work towards that creative culture and comfortable environment for sharing new ideas.
Many of the corporate challenge coins we manufacture are designed by a committee, so another option is to break up your staff into teams that work on their own custom coin designs. This will help develop teamwork skills in a laid-back, creative environment. Not only will they be exercising their creativity, but they will also be getting more comfortable sharing ideas out loud in a setting similar to a meeting or conference.
On top of helping employees feel more confident in their creative ability and their willingness to share new ideas, you will also have the opportunity to learn more about how your staff feels about their work environment and about their views on the company’s mission and values.
Give Them the Brush, and See What They Come Up With
Not only should a set of custom company coins be a representation of a team’s heritage and culture, but it should also represent the company’s mission and core values. When corporate coins are made with corporate imagery and handed out to staff members, their designs are meant to show a company’s values and the company’s purpose. When you let your employees get creative and make their own design, this idea gets flipped on its head. Instead of you showing staff what the company’s mission is through challenge coin design, staff is showing you what they think the company’s mission is and what their core values should be.
There’s a big difference. Think of it as something like a perception test like the Rorschach or Thematic Apperception Test. The results will give you insight into how your company is viewed by the people who matter most: your employees. They are the future of your company, and you want to make sure everyone is on the same page. Once you know what they are thinking, you know what needs to change. From there, you can make a plan on how to change the way your employees view their work and the company as a whole so that their ideas are aligned with the goals of the company.
Why Is Creativity so Important?
Bob Deutsch, an author, cognitive neuroscientist and cultural anthropologist, said in his Forbes article on Artful Audacity that “...creativity and imagination cannot be reduced to ones and zeros, despite how comforting the illusion of certainty that data provides.
Numbers are comforting because they are so precise, but your business is made up of people, not just numbers. When you get right down to it, creativity is what breathes life into your business. You need creative people around to think of new ideas, to innovate, and to keep the company moving forward. Creativity helps you problem solve, find better ways of doing business, and work through a crisis should you be struck by severe problems. The future of your business is in the hands of your employees, or more precisely, in their heads.
It’s important to give your employees the confidence and the freedom to be creative at work, and starting with something easy like designing a custom corporate coin is a great place to begin. Not only will you learn a little more about your staff and their creative process, but you will also get the ball rolling on changing up the routine and embracing an open and creative culture in your business.
