One of the main things holding back IT worker creativity is that they are so immersed in the systems they are currently supporting.
They are very knowledgeable about the system's quirks and limitations, and this fixates in their minds, causing them to reject new ideas because they can't automatically figure out how they would work in their system.
The way to foster creativity, then, is to encourage them to use the blank slate technique. IT workers need to pretend that their systems have been sold off, and they have an unlimited budget to create a new system from scratch. Based on this, what would they create to improve the company?
The key is that, as they think of ideas, they can't start letting thoughts of the current system creep in. They need to completely map out their ideas as if they can build any system they want.
Later, when this ideation phase is over, they can think about how to implement their ideas within the current environment.
© 2020 Praveen Puri
