If you’ve ever wondered why some teams manage to turn the most routine work into engines of innovation while others seem to grind through the same motions year after year, it might be time to rethink the everyday patterns we default to in our workplaces. Those of us leading others or influencing workplace culture have a unique opportunity—and responsibility—to shape how our teams approach the ordinary. Rather than treating routine as the enemy of creativity, what if we saw it as fertile soil for new ideas? After all, as Einstein once said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” But what if, instead, we looked at those repetitions as a laboratory for fresh approaches and creative sparks?
The first practice I recommend is building “curiosity sessions” into your team’s rhythm. Imagine, once a week, gathering not with an agenda of pressing deadlines or issues to fix, but with the simple intent to explore. What’s happening in your industry? What are competitors—or organizations in a completely different field—trying that’s catching attention? No one needs to walk away from these sessions with an action item. Instead, treat it as a playground for ideas, a mental cross-training. In my experience, these sessions often start off awkwardly. People are used to meetings with a purpose, not meetings for curiosity. Yet after a few rounds, the group begins to loosen up. Someone pulls up an obscure new technology. Someone else shares a competitor’s bold experiment. The habit of looking outward, of staying attuned to new signals, gradually seeps into the team’s regular thinking.
It’s easy to underestimate how this simple act can shift a whole team’s mindset. When I first introduced curiosity sessions, I noticed the ripple effect almost immediately—team members brought a more investigative attitude back to their daily work. Suddenly, the routine was filled with questions like, “What if we tried this?” or “Has anyone seen something similar elsewhere?” That kind of thinking doesn’t just make the workday more interesting. It is often the seed for meaningful change.
Asking yourself: When was the last time you made space for pure exploration at work?
Another approach that has proven powerful involves rotating problem-solving roles. Too often, teams assign challenges based on expertise; the marketing folks tackle branding issues, the operations people deal with logistics. But what happens if you flip this habit? Assign your marketing team to a supply chain bottleneck, or your finance team to a customer experience issue. The goal isn’t to turn everyone into generalists overnight but to deliberately inject new perspectives into old problems.
You might be surprised by the results. Individuals from outside a functional area aren’t weighed down by “the way it’s always been done.” They see opportunities—and pitfalls—that insiders have learned to overlook. Sure, not every suggestion will be practical or implementable, but the exercise disrupts entrenched thinking. It opens doors to hybrid solutions, the sort that might never arise from a traditional brainstorming group. This technique can feel risky. It’s uncomfortable to assign people to problems outside their comfort zone. But comfort is rarely the birthplace of innovation. If we want creative solutions, we have to be willing to move people—ourselves included—into new territories.
“What is now proved was once only imagined.” William Blake’s words remind me that breakthroughs often start with naïve questions from outsiders. When was the last time you let a fresh pair of eyes examine a worn-out challenge?
A third practice involves setting constraint-based challenges. There’s a tendency to believe that creativity flourishes with endless resources, but often, it’s precisely the opposite. Giving your team a problem with tight, even artificial limitations—solve this with no new spending or with only existing software—forces creative adaptation. I’ve seen frontline manufacturing teams rework scheduling and reduce downtime when told they have to do it without buying new equipment. In administrative settings, constraints like time (fix this in one week) or headcount (do this with the people you have) push teams to reconsider assumptions.
These exercises highlight underused assets, process shortcuts, and creative workarounds. Sure, some attempts will fail, but that’s the point. The real value is in the habit of reimagining what’s possible within boundaries. Sometimes, the solutions that emerge under constraint are so effective that they become standard practice. Other times, the lessons learned make it easier to tackle bigger challenges down the line.
Are you creating enough structured challenges—or do you inadvertently give your teams an excuse to always seek more resources rather than more ideas?
The fourth practice is all about feedback and iteration. In many organizations, improvement projects are long, slow, and get bogged down in endless planning. I suggest breaking this pattern by encouraging rapid, low-risk trials. Pick a small change—an adjustment to a workflow, a tweak to customer communication—and try it out for just one week. Set clear criteria for what “better” would look like, and evaluate results together. Think of it as a prototype, not a permanent shift. The emphasis is on learning through doing, not theorizing forever.
This approach borrows from the world of product development, but I’ve seen it work wonders on the shop floor, in call centers, and across administrative teams. When people know that a trial is short-lived and low-stakes, they’re more willing to take risks. The act of evaluating, discussing, and refining these micro-experiments becomes a habit. Over time, these small cycles build up institutional confidence in change itself.
As Peter Drucker noted, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” If you want a future shaped by ongoing improvement, you need to build in the habits of rapid prototyping and reflection.
You might ask yourself: How could you lower the risk of trying new ideas so experiments become routine rather than rare events?
Finally, consider the untapped power of cross-pollinating teams—setting up partnerships between colleagues from completely different departments. Once a month, pair someone from finance with someone from product, or HR with IT. Ask them to exchange frustrations, successes, and outlandish ideas. Don’t expect immediate solutions, but do expect a collision of assumptions and fresh thinking.
Where I’ve seen this in action, the most interesting results often don’t come from formal discussions, but from the unexpected connections made over coffee or a hallway chat. A service team might learn about a data visualization trick developed in another part of the business. An operations manager picks up on a marketing insight that sparks a new way to approach scheduling. The habit of building relationships across silos pays dividends, often in indirect ways.
As Margaret Heffernan observed, “For good ideas and true innovation, you need human interaction, conflict, argument, debate.” By fostering those connections, however informal, you create an environment where creative thinking becomes part of the daily routine—even in the most predictable jobs.
How often are you arranging for your team to interact outside their usual lanes?
When I step back and look at these practices—curiosity sessions, rotated problem-solving roles, constraint-based challenges, prototype feedback loops, and cross-pollination partnerships—I notice a common thread. Each is designed not to upend the entire system overnight, but to gently disturb the patterns that keep teams stuck. They are, in essence, habits for making permission to think differently a part of the daily fabric. And when resistance surfaces (“We’ve always done it this way”), these practices offer a practical, non-threatening way to invite reconsideration.
Consider a manufacturing plant that cut overtime costs by inviting customer service reps to map supply chain workflows—spotting inefficiencies no one on the shop floor noticed. Or an administrative office where two-week process experiments with digital forms quietly rewrote how paperwork was handled throughout the company. These weren’t massive, headline-grabbing transformations. They were ripple effects, starting with small shifts in how routine work was approached.
The impact is measurable, too. Teams that adopt these methods often report higher engagement, better retention, and a greater sense of shared purpose. Metrics that matter—error rates, processing times, even customer satisfaction—tend to improve not because someone mandated creativity but because leaders created persistent structures where inventive thinking was not just allowed but expected.
So, if you’re looking to spark creative thinking in the middle of the routine, the key is not to wait for inspiration to strike or for a burning platform to force change. Instead, shape the habits, meetings, and relationships so that creativity is embedded in how even the most routine work gets done.
Ask yourself: What small shift can you make this week to invite your team into a more creative mindset? The work we do every day might be routine, but our approach to it doesn’t have to be. As Maya Angelou famously put it, “You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.”
