How to Foster an Organizational Culture of Innovation

A culture of innovation helps companies stay ahead of competitors. While one brand strives to keep up with others in the industry, true innovators devise dozens of new ideas, figure out which ones are viable and make the changes necessary to get ahead of the pack. However, creating a company culture where everyone works to find new solutions to problems is challenging.

The staff has to feel comfortable enough to share new ideas, even if only some work. Brand leaders must recognize talent and creativity and give credit where it’s due to keep fresh thoughts flowing. What can leaders do to develop a strong culture of innovation?

What Does a Culture of Innovation Look Like in Action?

The experience employees have in a company embracing a culture of innovation varies from brand to brand. For most, they feel a sense of freedom, where their ideas aren’t ridiculed or overlooked but used as a springboard for a community strategy that builds the brand. Each person on the team is seen as valuable, with unique skills and life experiences that others may not possess.

Workers can take their brainstorming anywhere — to a local coffee shop, on a walk around the block chatting ideas with a coworker or even in a breakout room in the office. They share new tools they find useful in case they might help others on the team, particularly anything that enhances productivity and organizational skills.

The organizational culture focuses on continuous learning and building new skills. Leaders let their employees take the lead, run meetings and bring new ideas, giving them the freedom to put their thoughts into action without fear of repercussion.

Benefits of Building a Culture of Innovation

Building a unique culture of innovation for a brand takes time and concentrated effort. However, the effort is worth it in the plethora of benefits companies gain.

1. Keep Highly Skilled Employees

The Great Resignation left many openings for companies in various industries, and filling positions with skilled workers takes time and money. The last thing businesses want is to lose employees they’ve spent months recruiting and training because they’re bored or would rather work from home. One report showed over 70% of workers want more flexible remote work options.

An organization that embraces innovation and allows people to work from home when needed is much more likely to retain its employees. It can offer remote or remote-hybrid options so people who function best in a quiet, home setting can choose that option.

2. Gain an Advantage Over Competitors

Brands that embrace change and cutting-edge technology tend to pull ahead of their competitors. Instead of turning their back on ideas such as implementing artificial intelligence (AI) into marketing methods, they brainstorm with their employees about the best ways to utilize new tools and still remain unique.

Fifty-six percent of businesses are already using AI in customer service. Those that learn new ways to embrace tools are more likely to pull ahead of others.

3. Enhance Problem Solving

When workers are trained to think about things differently, they’re better able to pivot when big problems arise. They can come up with a unique solution and find ways to implement it quickly.

Imagine a shoe manufacturer discovers the rubber they used in the soles disintegrates in hot water. If the designers and engineers are used to throwing ideas out, brainstorming and finding solutions, they’ll jump right in and toss thoughts around until they find a new, more durable material.

4. Improve Employee Initiative

Creating a culture of innovation is about more than just solving a single problem. Ideally, people learn to bring their ideas forward as something that might be of value each day. While not all ideas are implementable, there is still value in the process of sharing and letting one thought stream into another.

When workers are accustomed to meeting regularly and sharing thoughts, it’s more likely they’ll do so in the future. Reward them for working to build the company and seeking ways to embrace new technologies for its betterment.

How Can Company Leaders Turn the Tide Toward Innovative Thinking?

Managers have a significant role to play in encouraging an organizational culture of innovation. 

1. Encourage Collaboration

Brands such as Pixar are known for promoting team efforts to come up with amazing results. When fans think of the storylines and animation in films such as Toy Story, they have collaboration to thank for the result.

2. Set an Example

Enterprise leaders must set an example of innovation by studying market trends, paying attention to what competitors do and bringing fresh ideas to the table for discussion. Innovators such as Amazon’s Jeff Bezos are known for their willingness to take big risks and try new things.

3. Create Rules About Feedback

Employees should feel free to express themselves without fear of ridicule. Feedback is OK, but only if given constructively and surrounded by a firm value for the other person’s contribution to the project.

When staff feel no idea is a dumb idea, they’re much more likely to share and blurt out unusual thinking in brainstorming sessions. The rough idea might not amount to much, but it can be a springboard to something amazing. 

4. Recognize Contributions

Leaders must realize all the members of a team have some input in the final result, so they should celebrate any wins and successes. Even a Friday pizza party at lunch can show workers management appreciates their innovative ideas and efforts to bring something new to the table.

Host daily scrum meetings and pass out proverbial gold stars to people who went above and beyond. Reward team leaders who give credit where it’s due instead of trying to take advantage of those under them. When management notices a team working particularly well together, they should be applauded as an example of how to come together and get things done.

Also read: How Can We Overcome Lack of Recognition at Work?

5. Encourage Ongoing Learning

Innovative company cultures tend to embrace ongoing learning opportunities. Teams take workshops together, share interesting articles and learn from one another. Mistakes are seen as an opportunity to add to skills and improve rather than as setbacks.

Bring in interesting speakers, start a mentoring program, and offer stipends for attending classes and conferences in topics related to the industry. The more staff knows, the more unique ideas they’ll come up with. To truly innovate in a field, one must understand all the finer points of the topic.

6. Cultivate Diversity

A diverse workforce has people who come from different backgrounds, generations and ethnicities. They each have a way of looking at the world that may vary from others on the team. Foster a sense of value for everyone and their ability to springboard off one another.

Diversity isn’t always about race or gender. Brands should also seek people from different walks of life, various degree holders and those with life experience over book experience. For example, hire the mom who stayed home with her children for 10 years but wants to get back into the workforce. Seek candidates from different socioeconomic backgrounds. Look for ways to diversify the workforce continuously and innovation becomes almost second nature as people learn to value the input of those with other experiences. 

7. Use the Right Tools

Businesses embracing innovation typically allow employees to self-manage. In this type of organization, leaders set a goal and trust their staff to complete the smaller tasks toward the objective rather than micro-managing every detail. Workers create their own schedules and to-do lists and self-regulate their behaviors. 

They might use tools such as:

• Holaspirit: Our self-management platform helps organizations define roles and responsibilities. This way, employees have the data necessary to make key decisions autonomously.
• Toggl: A time-tracking tool that lets employees log their time at each task and invoices clients as needed.
• Talkspirit: Our collaboration tool-facilitates communication and collaboration between teams while keeping all employees on the same page about which tasks need completing.

Keeping tabs on every move staff makes is the opposite of what most companies fully embracing cutting-edge ideas look like. Enterprises wanting true innovation must loosen the reins and allow workers to spread their wings.

Also read: The best self-management tools for your organization

Why Do You Want to Innovate?

Pay attention to businesses such as Apple, Google and OpenAI. What are they doing that keeps their names in the headlines and brings new ideas to the public never seen before?

Before building a culture of innovation, decide why the brand wants to be more cutting-edge. When the mission is clear, it’s much easier to implement programs and encourage open communication that employees thrive in. When a brand has a firm idea of what it wants to grow and create, nothing can hold it back. Its staff will thrive and its ideas will change the world.

To Conclude

Management has a crucial role to play in setting up a culture of innovation within an organization. They can set a vision focusing on the team’s aims and share how everyone’s work leads to success. These leaders can also create an atmosphere where everyone feels secure sharing ideas and taking risks.

Becoming non-critical is a key part of encouraging others to experiment with new ideas, so remember to celebrate all wins and efforts. Company leaders are the ones who bring a culture of innovation to life through example and attitude, allowing the entire organization to thrive.

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