Systems of innovation and cultures that reward innovative design are key to creating strong workplaces and companies that grow. Innovation is not only about coming up with something new but also something better. The best idea wins. When you can innovate and produce a solution that’s in line with what your target audience wants, that’s how organizations are built.
Here’s how to promote a culture of innovation at work:
1. Encourage ideation
Anyone can have an idea, but it doesn’t always get recognized. Too many companies dismiss this or don’t have systems in place that listen to the suggestions of their workers.
To innovate, it takes time and brainpower, and an optimum approach is to make it known that any worker at any level is free to submit input. By continually optimizing even basic day-to-day processes, you form a more efficient company and begin paving the way towards a more innovative one.
2. Empower employees to be innovative
Employees aren’t going to want to help you if they don’t feel motivated to. When companies treat workers like they’re replaceable, you get organizations stuck in muck when it comes to innovation. Empower employees.
Reward contributions. Create a dialogue. A team member shouldn’t be afraid to speak up about anything in the workplace. If you want true innovative thinking, you’ve got to open up communication in this way.
3. Incentivize innovation
Think of ways to incentivize innovation. This would be a financial reward, a promotion or a professional advantage of some kind, public acknowledgment, or something else. When we incentivize human beings, they can produce some truly miraculous things when it comes to innovation.
This is what the whole of capitalism is built on – a financial incentive to create and build. Though yours doesn’t have to be so cut and dry or tied to a financial reward, have a think about how incentives could be blended into your innovation plan.
4. Expand skillsets
A team that isn’t building their skillsets, updating their education, and learning something new tend to fall into this pattern of repetition and thinking that’s very in-the-box. It’s a shame that organizations cannot constantly spend time training team members in new skills.
However, use workshops and related courses to increase the value of each worker. The courses can potentially lead to new ideas and innovation in the most unexpected of places.
5. Design thinking workshops
Most systems one wants to avoid when it comes to innovation because any repetition traps thinkers in the same patterns again and again. Design thinking is different. It’s more like a funnel through which an idea is tested rather than instructions on how to think.
Participating in a design thinking workshop teaches your team how to innovate, how to test an innovative idea, and prioritizes the end-user, audience, or consumer over attachment to a specific idea or the assumptions of the organization.
6. Build teams
Innovation doesn’t come from a single source. Apple. Google. Amazon. Microsoft. Tesla. Companies like this have lots and lots of teams. Innovation is a collaboration. Individuals have to surrender their own selfishness in favor of pursuing the ‘best idea’. This is how these organizations succeed.
Evidently, this all begins with team-building and communication. Any workplace can become better by crafting teams that work together. This further incentivizes and empowers employees as well.
7. Crush and eliminate the fear of failure
A fear of failure is what prevents a lot of people from doing a lot of things. Failure is a normal aspect of innovation though. Not every idea will succeed nor should it. If anything, failure’s something to be celebrated.
Any sort of innovation is an opportunity to learn. This is how it should be presented to team members. Even an idea that one might think is dumb, illogical, or incomplete might somewhere extraordinary. Design thinking is one way to test out ideas to determine their feasibility, in this context.
8. Promote those who have earned it
Some people will be more innovative than others. A clear reward of that is by inputting creative types into creative roles where they can flourish under your company’s guidance. When an employee is left to flounder without acknowledgment and they’re ambitious and talented, eventually, they leave.
Creative people need to be allowed to be creative, ideate, and innovate. When you notice someone is particularly good at doing these things, find a way to reward, support, and nurture them.
9. Check in with employees
Make it a point on a quarterly basis to check in with employees and get a sense of how they’re feeling. When someone’s happy, they’re productive and they’re more likely to innovate. If someone’s struggling at your company or going through a rough time, you also want to know that. Ask them if they’d like some time off to recharge and prevent burnout, if that’s the case.
There are lots of ways to make an employee feel happy and cared for, and the truth is most companies don’t care enough to do it. This makes you stand out and helps to build loyalty and the feeling that this isn’t just another job.
