Creativity and Innovation Day
After a difficult year of the covid-19 pandemic across the world, it is more important now than ever before to encourage creativity and innovation. Celebrated on April 21, UN World Creativity and Innovation Day is all about promoting entrepreneurship, cultural diversity, artistic expression and problem-solving.
Why do we celebrate UN International Days?
The United Nations is an important organisation that works to promote peace, sustainable development, human rights and humanitarian action. Each year they designate particular days to promote international awareness and action towards important issues. In 2021 the United Nations have designated not only April 21 as World Creativity and Innovation Day, but the whole year as the International Year of the Creative Economy for Sustainable Development. On World Creativity and Innovation Day we take time to raise awareness of the importance of creativity and innovation to all aspects of our life and work.
What is World Creativity and Innovation Day?
World Creativity and Innovation Day was founded by Marci Segal, who says, “Wouldn’t it be great if people knew how to use their natural ability to generate new ideas, make new decisions, take new actions and achieve new outcomes, to make the world a better place and to make their place in the world better too?”
Creativity is an important driver of economic development, innovation, and job growth, and is all about overcoming challenges together. By celebrating and encouraging creativity, we can overcome the collective challenge of the covid-19 pandemic together, and restart our economy. Most importantly, creativity and artistic expression promotes cultural diversity and celebrates the differences that make us unique. Culture and creativity is what makes us human, and has a significant non-monetary value to helping us understand each other and work together for the common good/for a sustainable future.
The creative economy is one of the most dynamic sectors of the world economy, with 29.5 million people around the world employed in creative jobs like design, filmmaking, fashion, and architecture. But what you might not know is that the creative economy also includes job titles like tech, trades, research and development, as well as entrepreneurs and start-ups. The creative economy and creative industries make up a large part of the world economy and present endless opportunities for growth and innovation.
How can you celebrate?
April 21st is a reminder for your business to celebrate innovation and new ideas every day. Why not do things a little differently to encourage a creative workplace culture? Inspire your employees to get their creative juices flowing! Here are some tips on how to promote creativity and innovation in your workplace.
1. Collaboration
Strengthen teamwork and collaboration by planning team building activities. This could be fun games like a sport, or problem solving games as a group. Encourage your team to work together to overcome challenges, trust each other, and communicate efficiently, by holding brainstorming sessions and using an online collaboration portal.
2. Empathy
Empathy is an important driver of creative innovation because it helps to build trust at work, so that your employees feel that fresh ideas are valuable. Your team needs to feel that their ideas are understood, not ridiculed or ignored. Strengthening communication is the most effective way to improve empathy in your workplace and to celebrate creative and cultural diversity.
3. Empowerment
Make sure that everyone in your workplace feels empowered to make a creative contribution. Let your employees know that their work is valued, and positively empower them to work towards their goals. Give them regular feedback, and clear expectations.
4. Mentorship
Working with a mentor is a great way to help your employees to feel empowered to let their creativity flow. This is the best way to invest in their professional growth and improve their skills. Mentors play a key role in encouraging fresh ideas and keeping motivation high.
Encouraging creativity and innovation will add significant value to your workplace culture and drive innovation and problem-solving. Celebrate World Creativity and Innovation Day every day, by making collaboration, empathy, empowerment and mentorship a key part of your business. Happy World Creativity and Innovation Day!
