How can you encourage diverse perspectives in the creative process?

Diversity is more than a buzzword in the creative process. It is a source of inspiration, innovation, and problem-solving. When you involve people with different backgrounds, experiences, perspectives, and skills in your team, you can generate more ideas, challenge assumptions, and find better solutions. But how can you encourage diverse perspectives in the creative process without creating conflict, confusion, or chaos? Here are some tips to help you foster a culture of inclusion and creativity in your team.

1 Set clear goals and expectations

Before you start any creative project, make sure you have a clear vision of what you want to achieve, why it matters, and how you will measure success. Communicate these goals and expectations to your team and invite their feedback and input. This will help you align your team around a common purpose, create a sense of ownership and accountability, and avoid misunderstandings or misalignment later on.

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Dr Tahir Shafi

DD-Head of Health and Well-being - IHU-Quality Auditor-wellness Counsellor-Expert program and Project
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It's necessary to have basic idea about the diversity as in my opinion its very vast and vary company to company, organisation to organisation and so on so forth. Open communication with open door policy will encourage people to share their ideas and issues both with confidence and will enable everyone to participate in process development and improvement.

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2 Create a safe and supportive environment

One of the biggest barriers to diversity in the creative process is fear. Fear of being judged, rejected, criticized, or ignored. To overcome this fear, you need to create a safe and supportive environment where everyone feels comfortable to share their ideas, opinions, and experiences. This means respecting each other's differences, listening actively and empathetically, giving constructive and honest feedback, and celebrating successes and failures. You also need to address any issues or conflicts that arise in a timely and respectful manner, and ensure that everyone has equal access to resources, opportunities, and recognition.

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Ari Vaniderstine

Associate Product Director, Game Engine at King (Microsoft Gaming)
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High-quality facilitation is critical to providing a safe and supportive environment. As a facilitator, you should be able to open space for team members, ensure fair participation, encourage building on good ideas, and quickly shut down any behaviours that marginalise team members (such as persistent interrupting, intentionally ignoring, or making arguments personal).

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3 Encourage curiosity and learning

Another way to encourage diverse perspectives in the creative process is to foster a culture of curiosity and learning. This means being open to new ideas, perspectives, and information, and seeking them out actively. You can do this by asking questions, doing research, exploring different scenarios, and experimenting with different approaches. You can also encourage your team to learn from each other, from other teams, from customers, and from experts. By doing so, you will expand your team's knowledge, skills, and creativity, and discover new possibilities and solutions.

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4 Involve stakeholders and customers

Sometimes, the best way to get diverse perspectives in the creative process is to involve the people who will be affected by or benefit from your project. These could be your internal or external stakeholders, your customers, or your end-users. By involving them in your creative process, you can gain valuable insights, feedback, and ideas that you might not have otherwise. You can also build trust, rapport, and loyalty with them, and ensure that your project meets their needs and expectations. You can involve them by conducting surveys, interviews, focus groups, workshops, or co-creation sessions.

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5 Leverage tools and techniques

Finally, you can use various tools and techniques to stimulate and support diverse perspectives in the creative process. These could be brainstorming methods, ideation tools, creativity exercises, or collaboration platforms. These tools and techniques can help you generate more ideas, organize and prioritize them, evaluate and refine them, and present and implement them. They can also help you facilitate communication, collaboration, and feedback among your team and stakeholders. Some examples of these tools and techniques are mind maps, SWOT analysis, SCAMPER, prototyping, and Kanban boards.

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6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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How can you encourage diverse perspectives in the creative process?

1

2

3

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5

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1 Set clear goals and expectations

2 Create a safe and supportive environment

3 Encourage curiosity and learning

4 Involve stakeholders and customers

5 Leverage tools and techniques

6 Here’s what else to consider

Management

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How can you encourage diverse perspectives in the creative process?

1

2

3

4

5

6

1 Set clear goals and expectations

2 Create a safe and supportive environment

3 Encourage curiosity and learning

4 Involve stakeholders and customers

5 Leverage tools and techniques

6 Here’s what else to consider

Management

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