In an age where complexity, economic turbulence, globalization and 24/7 connectivity are the new norms, businesses are forced to get creative in order to compete. Ingenuity and creativity are no longer optional; they are essential elements to success in today’s economy. According to the 2010 IBM Global CEO Study, which included input from more than 1,500 business leaders around the world, creativity is the most important leadership quality for the next five years. The study concluded that embracing creative leadership is a key way to mitigate complexity in today’s business environment and convert it into opportunity.

So, what does it look like to cultivate creativity in your workplace? How do you tap into the creative potential of your employees? A new offering from Bridge Consulting called “Unleashing Creativity” presents companies a clear, realistic roadmap for how people understand, measure and apply their creative capabilities. Through Real-Work Creativity Challenges, participants develop a better understanding of the biology of creativity and apply creative problem solving and visioning methods to tackle real problems.

Visual mapping is a core component of Bridge’s “Unleashing Creativity” tool-kit. By translating ideas into pictures, visual mapping is a unique technique to help organizations kick-start the creative process, facilitate rapid prototyping, distill complexity, and accelerate decisions. Graphic facilitator and Bridge strategic partner, Julie Stuart, offered insight on the value of making ideas visible in the workplace through visual mapping. “It never fails to wow participants because it’s powerful to see someone capture your ideas as they are occurring in real time. To feel like you’ve been heard. Visual maps live on long after the meeting, guiding and directing the course of action, and can be shared with people who weren’t there, which is incredibly useful,” explained Stuart.

Showing an example is better than simply explaining an idea. Visual maps and murals illustrate conversations and help to humanize our experience of information, according to Stuart. “There is something so reassuring about seeing complexity depicted in simple, colorful shapes. To see words hand-written. It’s like poetry in action. In this world of technology, that’s deeply comforting and sustaining.”

Stuart believes there is artistry in everyone. “It is my hope that we will be enablers of everyone else’s creativity.”

To learn more about Bridge’s “Unleashing Creativity” offer and how visual mapping can be a tool to help unlock hidden potential and develop a creative culture in your organization, contact Jenny Whitener.