在新創企業掌舵過的人得知道，要想讓公司免于沉沒，就得保持創造力。在頭幾年，你要解決一個又一個難題。而難題的解決根本取決于你能有多強的創造力。公司又小又松散時，擁有獨一無二的創意對所有人都特別重要。但公司的領導班子必須培養出突破束縛、獨特而靈活的思考方式。否則，你將無法生存。

一旦有了支持你的堅強團隊，請記住，每個人發揮創造力的方式是不同的，這很重要。事實上，了解別人如何“動腦子”主要在于知道每個人都有找到靈感的獨有方式。例如，有些人在去了一趟現代藝術博物館后受到了啟發，其他人會在參加一次編程人員討論會后靈機一動。

可是，創造性的人才需要時間沉心思考。作為管理者，你的工作是給他們提供這段時間。所以，如果你的設計師需要時間專攻某個項目，就給他們自由。如果希望靠創造力出成果你當然需要很大的耐心。

盡管對個人來說，自由對創造力最為重要，但你的組織也需要有對應的架構。支持創造力的架構聽上去不太可能，但事實并非如此。我們的辦公室就是以鼓勵協作為目的設計的。我們的“休息室”配備了長沙發和到屋頂那么高的落地式白板，用于自發的頭腦風暴會議。創造力能引發創造力，我們的辦公空間就有利于此。在鼓勵群策群力上，你在架構上所能最好的事情就是放開渠道。

但最重要的是，你對創造性思維的支持一定要是真心實意的。你可以把想有的激勵海報都貼出來（相信我，我就是這么干），但如果不以身作則，你就不能說你鼓勵協作和歡迎分享創意。你必須自下而下地實施這項工作。你要做出表率，為了最佳創意而表達感激之情，并給予積極的反饋。我們相信協作的愿景，因為實際上，PureWow的所有人都為創造產品發揮了一定作用。假如員工想好了該如何做，就放手讓他們嘗試。如果所有人的創意受到重視，那么他們都能輕松地說出來。在PureWow，每當溝通處于真正開誠布公的狀態，我們團隊的工作質量就最高。（財富中文網）

本文作者Ryan Harwood是PureWow公司首席執行官。

譯者：天文

If you’ve ever been at the helm of a startup, you know that creativity is what keeps you afloat. Those first few years are about solving problem after problem. And problem solving at its core comes down to how creative you can get. When you’re small and scrappy, it’s especially important foreveryone to have unique ideas. But your leadership has to foster thinking that is outside-of-the-box, original, and resourceful. Otherwise, you won’t survive.

Once you have a solid team behind you, it’s important to remember that everyone’s creative process is different. In fact, much of knowing how people ‘tick’ is recognizing that each person finds inspiration in their own unique way. For example, some people may be inspired by a trip to theMuseum of Modern Art, others will get a spark from a hackathon.

However, creative brains need time to breath and mull things over. As a manager, it’s your job to provide them this time. So if one of your designers needs time to only work on a particular project, give them that freedom. Needless to say, if you want results from creativity, you’re going to need a great deal of patience.

While freedom is paramount to creativity on an individual level, there also should be some element of structure to your organization. Structure to encourage creativity may sound paradoxical, but it isn’t. Our offices were designed to encourage collaboration. Our ‘breakout’ rooms are outfitted with floor-to-ceiling whiteboards and couches forspontaneous brainstorms. Creativity begets creativity and our space supports that. When it comes to inspiring collaborative ideation, the best you can do structure-wise is open the channels.

But, most importantly, your support of creative thinking must be authentic. You can put up all of the inspirational posters you want (and trust me, I do), but you can’t say you encourage collaboration and open sharing of ideas if you don’t show it. That is something you have to implement from top-down. Lead by example by expressing gratitude for the best ideas and giving positive feedback. We believe in a collaborative vision, because it is true that everyone at PureWow plays a part in creating our product. If an employee has an idea about how to do something, they arefree to try it out. Because when everyone’s ideas matter, then everyone is comfortable speaking up. At PureWow,our teams produce the best work when there is a truly open level of communication.

Ryan Harwood is CEO of PureWow.