Many funeral directors today feel their back is pressed against one wall or another. Maybe it’s falling revenues, longer delays in getting paid, decreased volume in death calls, the rise in price shoppers, or simply the pressures brought on by trying to satisfy the personalization expectations of the Baby Boomers. Without a doubt, one could argue it’s hard times in the death business.

Now more than ever, the creative juices should be flowing through your funeral firm. From my experience I’ve found that you’re more likely to motivate your employees if you encourage creative expression, and maximize the talents of everyone involved.

Let’s Get Creative!

Creative thinking means maximizing brain potential. But how can you train yourself and your staff to start thinking creatively?

Here are some ways the funeralOne team gets their creative juices flowing (this can be applied to your funeral firm):

• Create Teams: I’ve found that putting together teams of innovative people can lead to unexpected solutions. That’s because minds working together often create synergistic ideas that would not have appeared in any single mind.

• Brainstorm Together: If I need to come up with a new idea, solve a problem, or develop a course of action, I seek input from my team. By supporting an open, collaborative environment—both in the layout of the office and in the culture—you will inspire the sharing of ideas. I believe employees who feel their ideas are taken seriously will be more motivated and more loyal, as well as more creative and happier.

• Provide Tangible Incentives: Everyone who has ever earned an hourly wage can tell you, it’s not always the best way to maximize innovative or creative efforts. If you provide incentives that depend on the success of the organization as a whole, rather than solely on the number of hours a worker puts in, you can tie the success of your funeral home to personal success. These incentives can be purely financial, or they can be more creative in the form of gifts, vacations or recognition.

• Identify Your Employees’ Thinking Styles: One way to increase revenue is to increase your team’s productivity by identifying your employees’ thinking styles. Through a better understanding of how our brain works, you can align your team to enhance their collaboration and therefore increase their effectiveness and productivity.

It has been scientifically proven that in taking specific and deliberate steps to tap into the diversity of thinking styles that naturally exist in your staff, a team’s productivity can increase from 20% to 80%.

• Have Some Fun: I’ve found that some of the best ideas come when you take a break from thinking. Every member of our team, myself included, is encouraged to partake in a game of foosball, pinball or Ping Pong throughout the course of the day. I find that it refreshes your mind—not to mention I’m determined to brush up my Ping Pong skills so one of these days I might actually beat Martim.

How Creativity Benefits Your Funeral Firm

Currently your focus may be on cost-cutting and survival. But if you shift that focus to “creativity” – you’ll see something magical happen. That’s because creativity:

• encourages communication

• builds trust

• enables us to look at things from different angles

• produces out-of-the-box thinking, which helps with problem solving

• throws preconceived notions out the window

• creates an ability to change thought patterns and concepts

Embracing creativity increases your chances of discovering game-changing solutions that will lead to the success of your funeral firm. Taking the time to promote creative thinking allows your funeral home to increase your team’s productivity, often reduce costs, and has the potential to significantly increase revenue.

Are you planning on investing in developing your funeral home’s creativity this year? Tell us how!

Joe Joachim

funeralOne

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