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Tips for Creating a Culture of Innovation in the Workplace

Innovation is not only essential for an organization's success but also critical for maintaining it. To stay ahead of the competition, companies must continuously innovate, or else they run the risk of being left behind. This is particularly true in the 21st century, where technology is driving the pace of change at an unprecedented rate.

Key Innovation Statistics

  • In one survey conducted by PwC found that 75 percent of employees believe that innovation keeps them satisfied with their jobs.
  • Deloitte found that having a strong culture of innovation helps an organization boost its engagement levels and lower its rate of turnover.
  • Technology is the main driver of innovation in the workplace
  • 84 percent of executives recognize that innovation is a crucial part of their future success
  • 95 percent of product innovations fail
  • At least 62 percent of rapidly growing businesses intend to invest in initiatives that help boost innovation
  • 84 percent of customers cite a company’s innovation as an important factor when buying a product
  • According to research from ARK, disruptive innovation platforms can be worth $200 trillion by 2030

The challenge for companies is to nurture this appetite for innovation within the organization. And this entails cultivating an innovation culture in the workplace.

Image credit: Felix on Rawpixel

What does having an innovation culture mean?

The behaviors and attitudes within an organization are dictated by its existing practices, structures, and processes. If these foundational elements support and encourage the collaboration and implementation of creative ideas, team members will have a safe space to test them out, and an innovation culture can flourish.

Creating an innovation culture within an organization involves equipping your team with the necessary creative and problem-solving skills, as well as exposing them to tasks and challenges that will put these skills to the test. As a leader, it's your responsibility to guide them through the necessary changes and ensure that they understand both the risks and responsibilities that come with the process.

Related: Different Work Cultures Around the World

How to create a culture of innovation in the workplace

Empower employees

Team members need to feel that their contributions are welcome and valued. If employees can openly communicate their ideas with each other and with their managers, a safe space is created where exploration and experimentation can flourish. Empowered employees become risk-takers. The challenge for the leader is to find a sweet balance between tolerating productive failure and discouraging incompetence. Thus, a good manager must be trained on how to properly give and receive feedback.

Here are a few tips for promoting a workplace environment that is a psychologically safe space for employees.

  • Create opportunities where the team can freely collaborate and explore ideas together
  • Demonstrate curiosity for innovation
  • Acknowledge your faults
  • Actively encourage individual team members to go out of their comfort zone, try new tasks, or explore new ways of doing their tasks
  • Genuinely praise effort and always celebrate successful attempts

Image credit: Marvin Meyer on Unsplash

Encourage upskilling

In order to innovate, one must have a wide arsenal of not just skills but also mental tools at their disposal. This is why continuous learning must be encouraged in the workplace. One way to do this is to make the necessary resources easily available and accessible to employees. When employees upskill, they remain competitive as they learn relevant attitudes and techniques that they can apply to their work. When the whole team invests in growth, their collective contributions can help move the whole organization toward continuous improvement.

Model innovative behavior

Innovation doesn’t just magically happen in a fortnight. For innovation to be practiced within an organization, the team needs to be taught and inspired. 

According to Harvard Business Review, these are the four things that you must focus on building in your team as a leader.

  • The freedom to do tasks differently. This can mean challenging the existing way of doing things in the name of efficiency.
  • Develop an eye for trends. The biggest breakthroughs happen because they capitalize on existing trends that no one else has noticed yet. Challenge your team to keep an eye out for such patterns.
  • See the potential in your team. Your team must understand the growth potential embedded in the organization’s existing talents and assets and how these can be used to leverage your products and services.
  • Have a thorough understanding of the target market. Having a meticulous sense of the customer persona and their pain points helps the team be more sensitive to their needs and their pain points.

Strengthen team bond

For a team to work effectively together, individual members must feel comfortable with one another. This is especially crucial when it comes to fostering an innovative environment. To achieve this, it's essential for teams and departments to come together regularly and get to know each other beyond their virtual avatars on Slack. Along with regular team bonding activities, set up exercises that allow everyone to work together and exercise their creativity. These sessions help team members gauge each other's skills and identify situations where these skills might come in handy.

Image credit: McKinsey on Rawpixel

Set up competitive inter-team challenges

Healthy competition is necessary for teams to grow and thrive. If you want to harness your team’s competitive spirit, holding regular internal challenges that they can participate in helps draw on those skills that might otherwise lie dormant in the monotonous grind of everyday work.

Many teams with top talents love a challenge. Allowing your team to play also helps boost employee engagement. Just be sure your team knows not to sacrifice the actual work in the name of winning.

Integrate innovation into your process

By incorporating innovation into your processes, you’re essentially telling your team that innovation within your organization is no longer just a buzzword. One way to do this is by integrating innovation metrics into your reward system: the strategies that are used to achieve an end goal (input), and whether or not those activities impacted the end goal in a positive way (output).

Working these metrics into your existing reward system gives your team the authoritative nod to lean toward the edge and find out-of-the-box solutions that complement your vision.

Related: Different Work Cultures Around the World

Prioritize people over process

Bureaucracy stifles creative momentum. Make it easy for your team to create and make things happen. Small impediments here and there can gradually wear down any initial enthusiasm to innovate. Work with your team to identify these roadblocks so that innovation efforts can flow effortlessly and productively.

Conclusion

Nurturing a culture of innovation in the workplace requires a comprehensive and collaborative approach. Leaders need to set the tone by encouraging experimentation and risk-taking, providing the necessary resources and infrastructure, and rewarding and celebrating successes. Employees must also be empowered to contribute their unique ideas and perspectives and be given the opportunity to participate in innovation-related activities. By fostering a culture of innovation, organizations can adapt to changing market conditions, find new opportunities for growth, and ultimately achieve their goals in a dynamic and competitive business landscape.

Here at Life Intelligence Group, we strive to empower individuals and teams find the resources they need to innovate. Our flagship product, TaskSpur, is a life-management tool that helps you find relevant resources for bringing your skills and creativity to the next level.

This goal management tool integrates an eLearning module that allows you to find courses and learning programs related to your interests whether that be getting an MBA or taking care of your mental health.

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