Creativity and innovation are two popular buzzwords that help breed great ideas in the workplace. Many bosses tend to believe that you can be creative and innovative whenever you are asked to during a brainstorming session, or whenever you want to. They often overlook the fact that creative and innovative ideas are born from open, supportive, inspiring and trusting environments.

Creativity is not something that just happens. It is the result of some long thinking processes, or what the experts term as preparation, incubation, illumination and verification. In the beginning stage of preparation, you must have at least a foundation or basic knowledge of the subject matter. The knowledge you possess will give you some general idea about the subject. Then you "incubate" your initial idea from time to time, with or without you realizing it.

When your opinion about a certain subject is requested, or when you suddenly become enthusiastic about the subject, you come across this brilliant, insightful idea of yours. The so-called "inspiration" does not come from disguise; it comes from your mind. This idea has been incubated for some time and waiting to come out of your mind. So it is time to release such idea from your mind, then you actualize it with deeper understanding.

However, you still need to gain more insights or look for specifications in the idea to make it as useful and conductive as it can be to your company. This is the perfect time to verify your idea. You can now concentrate on one subject and pay full attention to it. You can also make discretion to eliminate the not-so-useful ideas to suit the company's needs. You can do this either alone or with other fellow colleagues, depending on urgency or the importance of your idea. The finalized idea may turn out quite different from the initial one, as you have put it a lot of effort and thought to make it more applicable and relevant to the current demand of the company.

When you feel passionate about what you do on a daily basis, even routine work can become interesting and meaningful. This kind of feeling is positive towards nurturing creative thinking in the workplace. On the contrary, if you think your job is boring and tedious, you will not be able to come out with good suggestions on how to improve your current job function.

For instance, a telephone receptionist who loves his or her job will speak with gentle tone and cheerful voice. He or she will think of ways to add interesting features to make telephone reception more fun than before. He or she could suggest to the management that melodies of telephone ringing or waiting calls be changed from time to time. If this neither burdens the management nor causes inefficiency, the initiative he or she is making will sure impress others, including the bosses, co-workers, and customers who notice the differences.

The conditions that encourage creativity in organizations are based on a person's internal sources of inspiration, as well as the external surroundings. Employees who are inspired internally will make the necessary changes to turn a common workplace into enjoyable and inspiring environment. As a creative employee, you too, can bring changes to the current work environment. For example, you pitch in to do what is needed to make the outcome more successful, without being told. Your passion for work pushes you to perform your best without stringent rules or close supervision.

When you maximize your capabilities at work, the energy you possess can be contagious to other co-workers who look on. This increases the morale in your workplace and you feel proud because you are a part of it. In short, if you are willing to nurture your creativity in a positive way, you will be rewarded on a daily basis - not by your bosses, but by the healthy and joyful work environment that you have just created.