Should we fund a creativity programme or change team routines?

Creativity programme funding has most value when it changes everyday team routines: protected thinking time, leadership support, cross-functional collaboration and realistic resources. A programme that sits outside normal work can create enthusiasm without changing how product, marketing, strategy and operational teams develop ideas together.

For a product team, reserve recurring, distraction-free time for ideation and creative problem-solving rather than expecting people to think differently around the edges of delivery work. The time does not need to be treated as a separate creative department. It needs to be a recognised part of how teams explore opportunities, share ideas and make decisions. Leaders also need to reward collaborative work, give people permission to think beyond immediate responsibilities and provide the space to experiment.

Workshop ideas become launched solutions when the people closest to the business use collaboration to generate possibilities, then apply research and decision-making discipline to choose a viable route. Cross-functional workshops can bring together knowledge that is normally separated across teams, creating strategic options that no individual function would develop alone.

Start with the business challenge, involve the people who will live with the decision and create room for honest exploration. Use human-centred and design-thinking principles to develop concepts, then test those concepts against the organisation's context, customer understanding and strategic priorities. Research can help identify and choose the route with the strongest chance of success, while later financial analysis can assess what is required to deliver it. A workshop should therefore be treated as the beginning of concept development and ownership, not the end of the work.

We believe a creativity programme earns funding only when it changes how teams make strategic choices, not when it is limited to an isolated workshop. A capable provider should be able to facilitate cross-functional participation, create a safe space for productive challenge, connect imagination with customer and business insight, and help the people closest to the organisation carry decisions forward. We have used this approach in workshops with Wates, where more than 20 people reconsidered brand purpose with leadership support and dedicated time. We have also worked with stakeholders at Level to surface unexpected possibilities and develop two competitive offers. Our work combines creative facilitation, design-thinking principles and supporting research to help complex B2B organisations choose strategic directions.